Waiting for the bomb to drop

So we ran our Signing Day coverage for today's paper.

Picked a one-win high school football team that put up big #s and had three players sign with various levels of schools as our anchor piece for the package with a sidebar going down the side listing other local athletes who signed in various sports with a brief recap of their high school highlights.

Anyway, I've had a volleyball mom on my case for several weeks about her daughter going to an NAIA college, so she's one of those included in the sidebar.

Already this morning I've had three e-mails asking me to send her a copy of the story (our web shows only abbreviated versions), and three times I've replied that the full package is available in our print edition.

Just waiting for the storm when she plops down her 50 cents and sees two quick paragraphs on her kid, instead of the full-page glossy pull-out that she seems to be envisioning

 

Technically, you can't sign a letter of intent to an NAIA school .. so you're off the hook

 

I had one parent try to get me excited about his kid going to college to play lacrosse. That doesn't do anything for me, especially in Southern California. I just got e-mailed a list of juco players headed to four-year schools. Nothing exciting about an offensive lineman going to Eastern Michigan.
Stick with the top recruits going to the big schools. The rest only deserve two sentences.

 

No signings in my area schools today. Partly because school is out and there's no one able to get to the school for the signing. Partly because, well, if there were going to be any, no one has seen fit to inform me. So even if today had been the sunniest day in the world, I'd have nothing.

 

I will hunt you down.

But sadly you're right.

 

I appreciated this note from a track mom. It began with, "I understand that no one cares about anything but football, but ..."

 

Not true. His signing will be the lone highlight of his next two years... it's all downhill from here

 

My old paper ran a track LOI signing story and photo.

 

It's all about knowing the kid and knowing the school/sport he/she is attending. Know the circumstances.

If you're not in a football area and you have a kid sign to go to USC - or even a kid become the area's first D-I recruit in more than 10 years - then you do something big. If you're pumping out footballers left and right, then have a list and do a story on just the interesting stories (the ones who wait to the last minute, the feel-good story, whatever).

If it's volleyball or something, and you have an athlete going to Penn State or one of the power schools, that's news. If they're going to some volleyball also-ran, then it gets slapped on the sidebar.

 

We've gone big on track the last two years, but largely because we have a pair of world-class throwers and their college choices were big news...one to Oregon, the other to Texas.

 

You should have sent a note back saying "Oh, thank god. I'm glad at least one of you gets it.!"

 

When I saw this thread title I thought it was another distraught Gannett employee about to find out he/she didn't have a job past Friday.
Instead, it's just another little twit whining about some soccer mom calling and bitching that you didn't give her little darling enough of a story.
Maybe one day you poor little children will understand what a bomb dropping really is.
Until you grow up, keep cowering at the mere thought of an irrational parent ... and be glad you're there to answer her phone call tomorrow while a bunch of good people are filing for unemployment.