Somebody help me out and tell me where I have screwed up or supposedly screwed up.
For about two weeks now, I’ve emailed the SID of the local D-I school we cover five very short, to the point questions to pass along to one of the coaches for a mini-Q&A we call “Take Five.”
I gave him my deadline, told when we absolutely needed it at the very latest. The coach has a busy, crazy schedule and the team has been on a ragged, far-reaching travel schedule. The SID suggested the emailing of the questions, then he’d pass them along to the coach and we’ve have them back to meet our deadline.
No problem.
Well, I thought.
As of Monday, I still had never heard back and had queried a couple of times.
Covered a prep playoff game at the D-I’s arena last night, the SID is there taking care of stats and I ask him about the Q&A feedback again. He apologized about forgetting. But said the coach would be here tonight and I could get with her while she’s watching the game.
So indeed, she’s there on press row watching the game. I approach her and sit down. I mentioned about the five questions. She said she would prefer watching the game, then dealing with the questions in between games (there were two on this night).
Fine. No problem. With the game a rout and maybe 10 seconds left to play, I say, “do you want to take time now to do this? It won’t take long at all.”
She says, “I really want to finish watching this game.”
Ten seconds?
Okay, so we let it rest. And after the game is over, I get no feedback or, “hey, let’s do it” or “we can do the interview now.”…yada, yada.
Meanwhile, several of her friends come up and they talk and jabber for, oh gosh, 15 to 20 minutes or so. Meanwhile, I’m chatting with some fellow writers. Her friends also linger during the next game and chat with her constantly while the game is going on.
Long short made as short as possible, I never got the five questions done. I allowed her the chance to get back with me after I had asked a couple of times and nothing. Yet, she spends this time chatting with a bunch of friends, both between games and during the game.
I mean, guys, we’re talking about five questions that would have taken a max of maybe 10 minutes. And that’s a stretch. This is one of those very short Q&A’s where you can practically breathe twice and you’re done.
And I had never had any trouble with her before and have always had a great relationship. I can’t figure this out and I’ve now missed my deadline and the bosses are wondering why I couldn’t get this done.
I mean, I went through the SID far ahead of the deadline, and followed up twice with him to see if she had gotten this done.
Was I out of line for approaching her at a game while she was watching it and checking out some players and did this **** her off or what? I was very courteous about the whole thing and after she had said she wanted to finish watching the game, I complied and made no big deal about it.
This wouldn’t bother me so much if there had been problems in the past or whatever, but we’ve always gotten along very well. And it’s not like I’m the New Joe Sportswriter on the block interviewing her for the first time. Can’t figure this one out.
Or has frustration just built up with me after the SID initially didn’t come through a couple of times of getting those questions emailed back to me?
I don’t know. First time this type of thing has happened to me.
I just feel like I’m on the short end of this situation after initially having been patient waiting on the feedback from the SID.
For about two weeks now, I’ve emailed the SID of the local D-I school we cover five very short, to the point questions to pass along to one of the coaches for a mini-Q&A we call “Take Five.”
I gave him my deadline, told when we absolutely needed it at the very latest. The coach has a busy, crazy schedule and the team has been on a ragged, far-reaching travel schedule. The SID suggested the emailing of the questions, then he’d pass them along to the coach and we’ve have them back to meet our deadline.
No problem.
Well, I thought.
As of Monday, I still had never heard back and had queried a couple of times.
Covered a prep playoff game at the D-I’s arena last night, the SID is there taking care of stats and I ask him about the Q&A feedback again. He apologized about forgetting. But said the coach would be here tonight and I could get with her while she’s watching the game.
So indeed, she’s there on press row watching the game. I approach her and sit down. I mentioned about the five questions. She said she would prefer watching the game, then dealing with the questions in between games (there were two on this night).
Fine. No problem. With the game a rout and maybe 10 seconds left to play, I say, “do you want to take time now to do this? It won’t take long at all.”
She says, “I really want to finish watching this game.”
Ten seconds?
Okay, so we let it rest. And after the game is over, I get no feedback or, “hey, let’s do it” or “we can do the interview now.”…yada, yada.
Meanwhile, several of her friends come up and they talk and jabber for, oh gosh, 15 to 20 minutes or so. Meanwhile, I’m chatting with some fellow writers. Her friends also linger during the next game and chat with her constantly while the game is going on.
Long short made as short as possible, I never got the five questions done. I allowed her the chance to get back with me after I had asked a couple of times and nothing. Yet, she spends this time chatting with a bunch of friends, both between games and during the game.
I mean, guys, we’re talking about five questions that would have taken a max of maybe 10 minutes. And that’s a stretch. This is one of those very short Q&A’s where you can practically breathe twice and you’re done.
And I had never had any trouble with her before and have always had a great relationship. I can’t figure this out and I’ve now missed my deadline and the bosses are wondering why I couldn’t get this done.
I mean, I went through the SID far ahead of the deadline, and followed up twice with him to see if she had gotten this done.
Was I out of line for approaching her at a game while she was watching it and checking out some players and did this **** her off or what? I was very courteous about the whole thing and after she had said she wanted to finish watching the game, I complied and made no big deal about it.
This wouldn’t bother me so much if there had been problems in the past or whatever, but we’ve always gotten along very well. And it’s not like I’m the New Joe Sportswriter on the block interviewing her for the first time. Can’t figure this one out.
Or has frustration just built up with me after the SID initially didn’t come through a couple of times of getting those questions emailed back to me?
I don’t know. First time this type of thing has happened to me.
I just feel like I’m on the short end of this situation after initially having been patient waiting on the feedback from the SID.
