Swim parents *rolls eyes* aye, aye, aye

The thing is, the story had nothing to do with the other swim club, it was about the brothers that were swimming in the state meet. They just happened to be swimming for another club. I didn't write it to intend that the other swim club was better.

I can post the story if you want.

 

They crucified Christ. Everyone else is fair game.

 

did the brothers used to swim for the local club?

we have one mom -- and central ky kid can attest to this -- who is batshit insane about her daughter. she emails crap each week, and gets pissed if it isn't in the paper in the next few days.

 

This is what I wish I could say:

Lady, it's swimming and few people really care about your team other than the kids and their families.

I had a swimming mother go batty on me for not covering the home swim meet when we had two first place battles in the two basketball leagues we cover with packed houses.

It's like getting calls about crappy soccer coverage when I can go and count the people in the stands. They rarely get above 50 people at a game.

 

I always had many more problems with soccer parents. I once wrote a feature about two girls who were the 1-2 scoring punch for the local power. Nothing earth-shattering, just a paint by numbers prep profile. No sooner was it published than me and my SE were slammed with emails from the dad of a starting defender on the same team, demanding that we write an article about the defenders who set up the girls to score those goals.

Those are the days I would hate to be a high school coach. Local paper shows up, writes puff piece on 2 of your players and you have parents causing a shitstorm on why their kid didn't get the pub since they are the reason the other girls look good. Good Lord.

 

You cannot win with these people. Don't kill yourself trying.

Spike, you did a good job and if they don't like it, tell them to STFU.

 

What reason did the kids give for not swimming for the local team?

 

They didn't like the newspaper coverage.

(sorry. 8))

You can't win. Don't get into a debate about it, and don't be rude. 'Thanks for your note and your interest in our paper, we try to cover all aspects of the local teams and appreciate your feedback. Enjoy the summer.'

 

Stop covering swimming.

Problem solved.

 

A newspaper in my area did a story about a pair of sisters playing on the same basketball team that went to the regionals. They got crucified by the rest of the parents on the team because they "were trying to single out players when everyone contributes equally." We also covered the same team, and I felt really bad for the writer.

 

I hope he responded, "So that means everyone scores six points, has three rebounds, two steals and a block in 21 minutes per game?"

 

I used to get the whole 'equal' thing when the JV parents would complain why I didn't cover their games. They would say that the JV was equal to the varsity.

I would always respond, "Well, if they're equal, then why don't they have state playoffs for JV? And why do the best JV kids get called up to varsity?"

They usually would splutter, and hang up.