Swim parents *rolls eyes* aye, aye, aye

I tell them the band works hard, too. And there are more kids involved. They get no coverage.

 

I ran a quote from the oldest of the brothers on why they switched (he's 13) and he said: “I find (team) has a real high level of instruction and I find that I have a lot more opportunities swimming there,” said 13-year old. “We really didn’t want to pass up the opportunity of being able to be trained by a coach that is an Olympian.”

That was about the extent of the "bashing" I did to the local team. I ran a quote from a kid that likes his coach, who was an Olympian. But, somehow, I am promoting a non-local swim club.

Ahhh, it's fun.

Honestly, I am not frustrated by this. I find it humorous. I posted this to share and have fun. I'm not losing sleep over this woman. Also had another mom of this team come in a cry (litterally, she had tears) to our ME for 30 minutes. He is a former sports guys, so he just did the nice thing and let her vent.

I did write the woman back and said basically what you all have written (the nice stuff, not the "bite me" things).

Still no word from her. Surprise.

 

You did the right thing in responding, spike, especially if you were professional about it. Not replying just feeds those demons already lurking inside them.

Kudos to the 13-year-old -- sounds like he has a good head on his shoulders. Too bad the parents don't share in his level-headedness and self-confidence.

 

Sure, football and basketball may get big crowds, but isn't this true of every prep sport?

 

Depends on the area. In my area, a very large portion of town cares deeply about prep football, basketball, volleyball and baseball. Hockey straddles the fence, and every other sport is in the "parents and friends" category.

It takes some getting used to. My first week, I go down to the weeknight volleyball match and the gym is already pretty well packed with 20 minutes to start.

 

Oh man, don't even joke about that. In our area, the band parents think the football game is the pre-game and post-game show.

 

Not where I'm from, especially if there's no major pro team within 180 miles. The high school sports - especially football, baseball and basketball - get tons of attention, even though my area is very subpar athletically. The locals care a lot more for them than the minor league clubs we have in town.

 

That is not a good way to go looking for "the real story" because in a lot of cases, the real story isn't who won.

 

Volleyball is popular in our area, especially when the rivalries happen. A good regular-season match will get 500-600 fans. We had a district title baseball game between two teams from our county and it drew 600 people. May not sound like a lot compared to football or basketball, but when you are looking to prioritize the so-called minor prep sports, I'd rather go cover something like volleyball or baseball or softball that gets decent crowds rather than go to soccer and count the number of people in the stands. You can judge interest in attendance.

 

1). Copy 21's response.

2). Paste it into reply email.

3). Get on with day.

The only time I'll give a tougher response is if they get personal, and even then not too tough. Still make sure you reply to the substance of the complaint, not the tone. Many times, they'll back off and you'll have a decent exchange and move on.

 

I was sports editor for a paper where the bulk of our coverage was preps and no matter how much we did it was never enough, even when half of an 8-page section was prep stuff. It was either "why didn't you do a story on so and so..." or "we have a player that's better and you don't write about them ..." and so on and so on.
But my favorite were the phone calls "you only cover us when we lose."
Like I'm sitting in the office with a crystal ball or just hoped in my Delorean to find the outcome of a freaking prep soccer game, and then decided we're going to cover it because you're high school lost.
Good times.

 

Ahhh the JV Moms. I always wanted to respond to a mom that says "Those boys (or girls) work so hard." with "Well, ma'am if they tried a little harder they'd be on varsity."
Hang up the phone and announce to the newsroom that my sports journalism career is now over.

As to the swimming all-area, I got a complaint from a Grandmother of one of the kids who swam for Tampa Catholic. The swimmer was on the Tribune's second team and the Times put the swimmer on first team. I responded to the grandmother that, even though I was the high school sports team leader of the Tribune, "I had NO control over that selection."

Ummm as a side note, I really DID have to plead the fifth on that selection, the grandmother was MY mother and her grandson swimmer was my nephew. My nephew's dad, my brother, was Ok with the selection and understood.