Swim parents *rolls eyes* aye, aye, aye

I'm going to use that one.

 

I've gotten that "You only cover us when we lose" line too. I've found that this response works the best:
"If I knew who was going to win before the games were played, I wouldn't be wasting my time here. I'd be at a sports book in Vegas."

And this whole thread is a reminder of Walter's first rule on high school sports: The insanity of the parents is in inverse proportion to the popularity of the sport.

 

I am with write/drink here. You should realize that if you open that can of worms, you are going to catch heat. Not saying you shouldn't do that, but you should go in with your eyes open and fully report it if you are going to mention it at all.

 

Inkstained Wretch in his loud Hawaiian shirt, shorts, T, sandals and straw hat leaning over the spit rail w/ stopwatch in hand, timing the girls 400 IM.

Asshat Reader/Clueless Swim Dad walks up and says in snarkest voice: "So I see your daughter won her race. Suppose that will be in the Daily Fishwrap?"

ISW responds after hauling exhausted swimmer from pool: Nope. T'ain't important to anybody but me and the missus.

Swim coach about chokes on his whistle.

Some days you do win one.

 

I normally do a pretty good job just letting the stupid parents vent and then moving on. But a few months ago when I got tired of hearing about how hard some of the kids we weren't covering were working I told them if hardwork was what it took to get you on the sports page, I would go interview some farmers or construction workers and that my wife just finished a 30-hour shift at the hospital, maybe I should write a story about her.

The lady paused, then went on, "well the JV field hockey team practices for two hours a day after school, sometimes on Saturdays."

 

This is why if you give me a choice between a swim meet in the local pool or a minor-league baseball game or mid-major college basketball tournament 12 hours away, I'm filling the tank, hitting the road and checking to see whether I'll be stockpiling Marriott or Holiday Inn points. As much as I hear complaints from others about college and pro athletes, at least you don't (usually) deal with the parents.

 

I don't think there is much to be gained by bashing readers but I think it's funny that their reasons for why a story should be in the paper are always the same:

1. They work just as hard.

2. You never have any good news. You think your paper would want to write a good story for a change instead of all that crime and stuff.

Is there a template for this or something?

 

Don't give people any ideas, dammit. I've already had to answer to those parents more than once.

 

The thing that gets me is that most of the time the parents that bring up hard work have no idea what working hard means in terms of athletics. They think because there kid goes to the mandatory, organized practices they are putting out some kind of extraordinary effort.

It's rarely the parents of the kid that gets up a 5 a.m. to shoot 500 jumpers and 500 free throws before school, then goes to practice in the afternoon, then hits the weight room, then plays in open-gym pickup games at night that want to tell me how hard the kid works.

 

That's because the parents have instituted a press blackout on that kid.

 

I once dealt with complaints that band/cheerleaders/drill team/homecoming queen never got mentioned in the gamers. My response was that if any of them directly affected the outcome of a game, it would definitely be reported.

The good part is that the school in question had a basketball game where the coach was ejected with two technical fouls even though he behaved himself. The first T came after someone else on the bench tossed a towel in the air following a call against the team. The second came when a cheerleader went flip-flopping onto the floor on a deadball that wasn't a timeout.

Sorry, coach, but you're outta here.

 

We should show people the stats for page views for good news vs. bad news.