The best phone call/compliment you ever received

It may not be the best ever, but it's the most recent. I wrote a feature about a HS soccer player that ran last week. I got an email from her mom saying that the article was a bright spot in a rough week for the family. Apparently the grandfather passed away, but the family got a nice little kick out of seeing my article in the paper after that and are putting it in their scrapbook.

I'm saving that email for moments when I do lose my faith and think about leaving. Things like that really put everything into perspective. A feature you spent a fraction of your time working on can brighten someone's day.

 

In my second job, at my first daily, I had a couple of basketball coaches come by the office a few weeks after the season ended looking for ways that they could get better coverage (our 9:30 deadline didn't help). In the middle of the meeting, one of them shifts gears and says "But that column you wrote after (football) Coach X left, that was perfect. You had it exactly right." Always thought it said something to get such a sincere complement from somebody that wasn't all the way satisfied with me.

In my last stop, I had started as a news copy editor and then switched to sports desk. The sports reporters knew that I had been a writer at previous stops, but had never really seen any of my work. I got to pitch in and cover Friday night football, and one night came up with a lede so good that two different writers proofing pages on deadline stopped to compliment me. That was a nice feeling.

 

A few years ago, covered a brawl and its fallout after our most heated boys soccer rivalry (shaddup!) ended in one of those melees where adults were running out of the stands, some to break it up, some to throw down with teens. Lot of stories, a lot more letters (many of which I hung on the bulletin board for amusement) and phone calls coming my way during that time.

Parents and fans of both teams said I was against them and favoring the other side.

Thought that was a pretty good compliment.

 

that's the funniest thing i've read here in days.

you are brilliant, sir.

 

"I couldn't even tell that a woman wrote those stories."

Heard this several times. I appreciate where it's coming from, no offense meant or taken.

 

A couple days before I left a job, this lady e-mailed me and said, "We're all going to miss your writing in this town." I'll never forget it.

A baseball coach called me one day to talk to me about a wrestling story I wrote the previous week. He said, "I've just got to tell you thanks for your work, especially the article you wrote about "Jimmy's" championship. It was excellent."

In the same area, I wrote a farewell piece and I got an e-mail from a soccer coach -- a nice guy, but a generally me-first kind of dude -- the next day, which said, "The reason people felt so comfortable talking to you is because you made them feel that way. We're going to miss your work."

It didn't make it any less difficult to jump ship, but it was definitely a great goodbye.

 

When I was 24 I met the father of one of the best all-around athletes in the area. The kid was a decent football player, all-right basketball player and ended up playing juco baseball. I introduced myself and he said, "Wow, that's you covering the small schools? I'd pictured someone older. You write well for a young guy."

Few years later, different stop. One of the girls' soccer coaches complimented me on my coverage of State U. men's hoops. "It must suck to cover a team that bad," he said, "but it's obvious from your writing that you love what you do. No one should have that much fun on the job."

While appreciated beyond the telling, those two comments do not contribute to a retirement fund, nor will they get the car paid off any sooner.

 

I've gotten a few of those handwritten notes from parents or athletes. They are always a nice little pick-me-up.

Not long after I had started my first job, I ran a preview on one of the local boys basketball teams. Basically, just a few quotes from the coach and a roster. Unfortunately, he spelled a few names wrong, including this sophomore who would go on to be a Division I player. So, of course, his mother calls and she is one unrelenting pain in the ass if things don't go her way. That was not fun.

Later in the season, the kid is really emerging as a star player and I do a feature on him. He's a good quote and so is the coach, so it turns out pretty well. A few days later I get a very nice letter from the mother thanking me. About two weeks after that, I run into the mother and the kid in the mall (we had met at a game, so she recognized me) and she came up again to say thank you.

Of course, she was still a pain in the ass a few times as well, but that goes with the territory.

 

I'll always remember a call I got from a parent about a story I wrote about a Sub-State championship basketball game (The Sub-State final being the final step before the eight-team state tournament in Kansas). The game was decided when a last-second shot bounced off the rim and off to the side. She complimented me on how I didn't mock the losing team as I could have since the teams were big-time rivals. She found the story extremely complimentary to the effort of both teams and seemed surprised that I didn't say anything about "choking" or "letting it slip away."

It tuned out it was a parent of a player on the losing team, which was the rival of the team I cover. I figured if you're getting compliments from both sides, you have to be doing something right.

No. 2 is sort of an "eff-you" moment, although I never had to use those words, which made it a bit sweeter.

The parents of a kid on a rural basketball team, who is a freshman, are complaining to everyone within earshot about how their kid is getting screwed. They call me one day to ask why I'm not writing more about this kid. I'd only been to one of their games and he wasn't on the varsity then. I ask if he starts and the parent said "No, and I'm going to get to the bottom of that."

Um, yeah....

A couple of days later, I get a call from this kid's older sister and she goes on about how "sensitive" he's become about this. I was willing to wager that he was sensitive about the way his parents and sister were howling about how unfair life was and humiliating the hell out of him. I mean, they'd even gone to the district's super and the school board.

At the end of the season, the frosh's team is the No. 8 seed in Sub-State and has to play No. 1 on their home court in a first-round game. With about 10 seconds to go, the frosh makes the two free-throws that give his team a two-point lead. Then on the inbound pass, he tipped the ball away from the person who was supposed to catch the pass, resulting in a scramble for the ball. The No. 1 team recovered but had to launch a half-court prayer and No. 8 wins.

Afterwards, the coach of No. 1 was complimentary of the way No. 8 played and gave props to the frosh for making the play without prompting.

The next morning, as I'm working on the story, frosh's old man calls.

"Yeah, I was just wondering if you happened to hear about what we did up at (No. 1) last night."

"Well, actually, I was at the game. I saw the whole thing. Here, let me read you the first paragraph of the game story:

'In the dying moments of a Sub-State contest at (No. 1) Tuesday night (No. eight*)'s (freshman) made not one, but two big plays. First, (freshman) hit the go-ahead free throws. Then, he kept (No. 1) from getting a good last second shot when he tipped the inbound pass. (No. 1)'s desperation half-court shot went astray and (No. eight) emerged with a 58-57 upset'.

"Would you like to read you some more?"

Silence....and then, "No, no, that's okay."

I never heard from them again. ;D

* - spelled out because 8 followed by ) comes out as 8)

 

A few months ago I wrote a story about a road trip with my dad, with whom I have a complicated relationship. In 21 years this is the best compliment I've ever gotten:

" As honest and intimate as your article was, I feel compelled to pass along to you its impact. An amazing and beautiful thing happened yesterday that I am sure would never have happened if not for your bravery expressed through your words yesterday. My father, bless him, has long tried to understand me and my issues, which often have left me in a miserable state of depression. He never has understood the debilitating hopelessness of depression; rather, his approach has always been simply that if one wants something bad enough all one has to do is make the effort. This narrow view has had a terribly negative impact on our relationship. He loves his family dearly and always will, but he never really "got it" as to how real depression is or that his words and/or actions may have had a lasting, scarring impact. But because of you, something amazing has occurred of incredible magnitude. Obviously, I was touched by your article. But here's the big thing,the really important element - my dad called me yesterday to tell me that he had just read something that for the first time in his life helped him to comprehend what I've gone through - my internal turmoil and struggle as to my identity - and his part in it. WOW! How wonderful is that? Your words gave him an insight that he could never reach by himself or through our communication. Of course we shared some tears, as I did while reading your article, and things seem different, almost weird in a good way today. I guess I'm rambling, but this would not have been possible without a stranger's words - yours - and just wanted you to know."

 

This is slightly off topic, since I never actually heard a word from anybody about this story, but it always kind of stuck with me.

My first job out of college, one night we have a breaking story and the entire writing staff (all four of us, counting the SE) are trying to get something confirmed. We finally track a guy down who saves the day for us. He jokingly says that we owe him a feature on his kid, who will be competing for the starting point guard job on his high school team that winter as a freshman.

The kid not only wins the job, but it turns out he's an impact player, probably the best point guard in our area from the moment he plays his first varsity game. I do a feature on him in early December, not so much because we owe the old man, but because the kid is that good. Turns out to be a decent story, nothing special.

I come into the office Jan. 2 and find out the guy was killed in a car accident on New Year's Day. I know it's a very small thing in the scheme of things, but I couldn't help thinking I was glad I was we didn't wait another month or two to write the story.

 

management at every paper in the county forever thanks you for sharing that story.