Swim parents *rolls eyes* aye, aye, aye

Try to do something nice...they kick you in the balls....

The state swim championships are this weekned. We wrote a preview and added a feature. Of course, my featured centered on kids that swam for another swim club OTHER than the local team. Some kids swim for the non-local team 30 minutes out of town instead of the local team. Big Whoop, right? I figured I would give them press for once. Of course, I asked the question of why they didn't swim for the local team. They gave me an answer, I ran that in my story.

Enter, shitstorm.

Here is the e-mail I got tonight:

"I was very disappointed and wanted to voice my opinion on the sports article written on Thursday, July 23 regarding the area swim team. I and many others I have talked to felt that the article that was written about the kids representing the other swim club was very offensive to our team. You are local writers representing this County and all of the fine organizations and individuals we have in our community. In the article representing the kids that swim for the other team you made us look as if they are a second rated club. I have no problems with you reporting on kids that do not swim in this county but are from this county but I do have a problem when you go second rating a very RESPECTABLE club.
The article about the kids that swim for the other team would have been a very nice article had you NOT mentioned anything about us. Do you really know why those kids are not swimming for us? I thought not, nor do you really care, right? So why put down a LOCAL club that has been in this community for 40 years! Our team is one of the highest respected clubs in this state! They have one of the best coaching staffs around. No they do not have an Olympic swimmer who is on the coaching staff but I can name 3 or 4 coaches that probably know as much or more about coaching than an Olympic swimmer!
This community is very blessed to have our team, the local pool and the outstanding coaching staff @ our team. I ask that in the future when you are writing about different organizations, that you think about what you are writing and NOT degrade another organization in our community just because individuals in our community may not be a part of them! Shouldn't you be supporting the local community?
For a year now I have been going back and forth about whether I should continue to take your paper or switch to the other paper. I believe on July 23rd when I read the sports article on swimming, you made my decision."

Hey lady...FUCK YOU!

Sorry, but this drive me bat shit crazy!

I tried to find a fun angle on local brothers that swim somewhere else...UNDER a huge-assed story that previewed the meet with local swim kids. This was a small story under it and yet, I'm the bad guy!

 

Can't please everyone. Parents of athletes are always going to bitch about inane details. Better off just brushing it off and not worrying about it.

 

These are the occasions when I'd send the "We don't care about the nice positive story, we care about the real story. And the real story is the winners" e-mail.

And yes, I've done that on many an occasion. It rubs salt in the wounds, sure. But it's the truth.

 

you're worried about pleasing swim parents? Try something easy, like juggling chainsaws

 

Next time, Spike, don't make the mistake of writing about swimming. Go with something less controversial, like soccer. :

 

I know the feeling, Spike. Swim parents are incorrigible. Just do your best and that's all you can do. We can't please all the people all the time - and swim parents, you can't please ever.

 

Yeah, just wanted to showcase another example of the "love" we get for covering their precious 6-13 year olds. When does college football start?

 

Keep writing stories like the one you wrote. Eventually there will be no swim club left. They'll all be swimming 30 miles down the road. Problem solved!

 

YOU ONLY COVER THEM TO MAKE US LOOK BAD!

 

if you did a trend story on local swimmers leaving for a club in another town, did you get a comment from the local club?

if you're going to approach this like a serious, newsy, trend story - which is a good story - you have to get some sort of comment from an official at the local club.

because she does ask a valid question: do you really know why those kids are not swimming for us?

you appear to have gotten an answer from the remote club, but it's not a complete story without all precincts heard from.

hey, we've all gotten emails and letters from annoying, disgruntled parents who piss us off. but at least they care what's going in the paper, and there's not enough of those people anymore.

i find this sort of contempt for readers that we see in these threads all the time kind of sad. i'd rather they piss us off than stop giving a crap

 

Why are swim parents this way? I can see soccer or basketball or some sport where parents can delude themselves into thinking their kid's contribution "doesn't show up in the boxscore" or the coach made some stupid subjective decision about playing time.

But swim is pretty easy: The person with the better time is the better swimmer. How can that lead to such insane debates and hurt feelings?

 

Non-big four four (football, basketball, baseball, hockey) parents just seem to have a chip on their shoulders. It's probably true of football linemen's parents, too.