Waiting for the bomb to drop

We do shorter stories on athlete commitments in other sports, but nothing compared to football. Then again in our area a class of maybe five or six represents a pretty good year. No Heisman winners coming from here.

I can understand why the papers in big football/basketball areas do a lot on it when they have real legitimate players.

 

But if a parent doesn't like my work, I cry.

 

We've all been there Flex, but Spnited is right. This is not work for the faint of heart. You should be prepared to defend your work every day.

 

If anyone brags about their kid playing at an NAIA school, tell them there are thousands of better kids playing in Division I and II.

I'm not a fan of the NAIA. Getting a score posted on some school's websites is a challenge for some. There generally isn't a full-time SID, just an assistant of a minor sport who also handles SID duties. The NAIA needs to go away.

 

I'll take your NAIA and raise you a juco, where the people who give you sports announcements are the same people responsible for releasing announcements on the drama department's next play. This leads to wonderful football releases such as:

"The Podunk Community College football team tried their best but were unable to defeat Springfield Community College Saturday and lost 9-43. Billy Bob Fredbob led the Fighting Hamburgers with 21 yards running. Podunk hosts Hillbilly County next Saturday."

The juco across the state line still uses the Postal Service to send out releases. Whoever sends them insists on calling volleyball triangulars "tri-matches".

 

As will I. Hank and I are the SportsJournalists.com Eastern Michigan defenders (OK, we're the only ones, but hey...)

 

Dunno what's wrong with the Jayhawk League, but most of the JCs in Mississippi have real sports information guys who write decent releases and even shoot and send us pictures (and pretty good ones at that). Hell, the two jucos we deal with are better and more timely at getting info to us than the nearby D-1 school.

 

My paper does this, but only if the kid is signing with a D-I school. That policy goes for all sports, and I can't tell you the number of pissed-off parents we've had calling/e-mailing us because we won't do a story about their son/daughter signing with a D-II or lower-division school.

In fact, I'm covering a track/cross country signing tomorrow afternoon. Kid is one of the best runners to come through this area, and the state, and is signing with Louisville.

 

E. Michigan is actually getting a linebacker from my neck of the woods. The two OL are going to Nevada and Arkansas.
Still not that excited about a LB going to Eastern Michigan.

 

I think it's mostly budgetary. It was something they never thought they'd need and now that they realize you DO need it, they don't have the money to create the position. The Jayhawk has two full-time SID's who aren't also stuck with other duties: Tyler Cundith at Johnson County, who's been doing it as long as I can remember, and Steve Carpenter at Hutchinson, who, for those who don't know him, was the former sports editor at the Hutchinson News.

There are a few other people who do or did a good job despite part-time status. Howie Smith at Dodge City was really good even though he was also the head softball coach. They have someone there now who I think is working on making the position full-time SID only. Met him last fall. Also, Butler has a guy who used to be sports editor at the El Dorado paper, but I'm not sure if SID work is his main gig or not.

Some of the other jucos don't even pretend. If you want info, call the AD or that sport's coach because no one else is going to know.