Thinning the high school herd

It's Miller Time!

 

Laughing at a lot of these comments, I hark back to my days on the desk at an afternoon daily. One of our NFL teams won the Super Bowl. Being a PM paper, our deadline was 7 a.m. We had to fill a 48-page section and ran out of staff and wire stuff. I think we even ran the same wire story twice. It was light when I drove home, and adding insult to injury, I ran into traffic of thre morning shift going to work at the oil refinery who use the same exit off the freeway near my house.

When the same NFL team went to the playoffs the next year, nobody -- and I mean NOBODY -- rooted harder for a loss (which is exactly what happened.

 

We have one team left (out of 6), all our basketball previews are done and life is good.

 

One team left, and it's in the state finals Friday (Nov. 28). Already working on winter sports tab, with a big chunk of that done. The only bad thing is, the state title game and the winter sports tab deadline both fall during a shortened week because of Thanksgiving.

 

That's the best philosophy. Either make it worth our while with a run to the semis or finals (in whatever sport), or get the hell out of the way.

Nothing worse for a four-man staff than scrambling to cover five teams in opposite ends of the state for a third-round game against higher-ranked opponents. Can't blow anybody out, can't do at least one of those games justice (because you'll have to get it from a freelancer and/or the local paper) and won't make anybody happy.

 

Of the 18 teams we had a volleyball team win state (which I covered) and the last football team lost a state semifinal game this afternoon, so we just have basketball going now.

 

Yeah, we have basketball ramping up, but it's just not the same.

 

Not me. I always hoped for somebody to make it at least as far as the state semifinals. Business travel breaks up the monotony and puts off the drudgery of basketball.

 

I wish every Friday night was a high school football Friday night.

With a full schedule.

Those are the nights I feel like I'm really doing something.

 

I agree, even though I'm not the one making the trip(s).

I want a couple of teams to make the finals, maybe even one to win.

But dealing with 29 or 30 football call-ins on top of 6-7 games we're staffing or stringing quits being that amusing around Week 6.

 

10 teams in our coverage area (20k paper). 3 made playoffs. 1-2 in the first week. 0-1 in the second week. It's been a ton of office work, FB reviews, BB previews and other assorted features. Been kinda nice.

 

somebody is drunk posting again.