Cover UVA football, Charlottesville VA

[imjustagirl]

Sources are ABSOLUTELY the writer's. They don't talk to the Washington Post. They talk to the writer. The writer is the one there every day, doing the work, getting the sources.

Is that an honest question?

 

[Big Circus]

I was in Cville today on business and had to stop into a Wells Fargo to make a deposit, and about two people in front of me in line is Pete Gillen.

How nice is Charlottesville? Pete Gillen, who took UVA basketball to new depths of suck, still lives there. Doesn't care what the alums think, f it, he really likes the place.

Pete Gillen is a wonderful guy. He's absolutely delightful.

Wonder if he'll skip town now that his favorite bar has closed.

http://www.readthehook.com/102742/after-26-year-st-maarten-caf-closes

 

[Jake_Taylor]

I was in Cville today on business and had to stop into a Wells Fargo to make a deposit, and about two people in front of me in line is Pete Gillen.

How nice is Charlottesville? Pete Gillen, who took UVA basketball to new depths of suck, still lives there. Doesn't care what the alums think, f it, he really likes the place.

Pete Gillen is a wonderful guy. He's absolutely delightful.

Wonder if he'll skip town now that his favorite bar has closed.

http://www.readthehook.com/102742/after-26-year-st-maarten-caf-closes

Yeah, Pete is well liked around town and didn't do that bad at UVa. Dave Leitao? That's a different story.

But the point about people who could live anywhere choosing CVille stands. I buy dog food at the same store as Sissy Spacek, have seen Howie and Chris Long at Chipotle, John Grisham built a little league facility south of town, DMB members all still live around here, etc.

 

[imjustagirl]

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm Howie Long.

 

[Big Circus]

I used to date a girl who once got in a fight with Schuyler Fisk (Sissy Spacek's daughter).

My favorite C'ville-area celebrity would definitely be The Rock, who bought a house in Orange County a few years ago.

 

[Versatile]

Yanda's been on the Virginia beat for two seasons yet served as one of the lead reporters for the Randy Edsall hiring. Obviously, the talented young man has some excellent sources in the Maryland administration. Why they would take him off the beat is beyond me.

This is a little off topic, but Cosmo brings up a good point. The WaPo likes to switch its sports writers' beats every couple of years. As I understand it, they do that so no one's afraid to write a critical story that completely ruins their working relationship with the people they cover.

But it seems to come at quite an expense. The longer you're on a beat, the more sources you get, the better sources you get, and the better reporter you become. The idea of having to start over and build a rapport with new people every 3 years sounds difficult to me.

I see your point, but at the same time the paper will be around much longer than the writers will be, so I can see where the paper is protecting itself. And I think fresh faces bring fresh blood to a beat most of the time. Get somebody in there 30 years and yeah they might be connected but they also might be complacent.
This leads to a totally off topic question perhaps better served on the Journalism Topics board. Do the sources belong to you or the place you work for? I wonder if when the Post switches beats around do they require the writers to give up the goods on the folks they've made contacts with, etc.
I had a buddy who replaced a guy who'd been in a spot for 20-plus years. The divorce between the writer and the paper didn't go well, and he took all his contacts with him, forcing my buddy to start from scratch.

Anyway, Charlottesville is nice but can be pricey.

When did Cosmo make that point? Quote fail. I want my damn credit.

The Post doesn't do the whole beat-writer-switcharoo nearly as often in these days. It does it with college beats, which used to be handled largely by interns. The Post had a two-year internship program that was as good as any starter job anyone can get. Recent former interns: Yanda, Nationals beat writer Adam Kilgore, Capitals beat writer Katie Carrera, The Star-Ledger Yankees beat writer Mark Carig, The Star-Ledger Giants beat writer Zach Berman, The New York Times sports writer Mark Viera.

So the Post got the best and brightest out of college and made them full-time interns for two years (paying them fairly well, as I understand it), and as a result, constantly shifted its college sports beat writers. Yanda is full-time now on the Virginia beat. Liz Clarke took Maryland basketball because Tarik El-Bashir took Georgetown basketball from her. I think Mark Giannotto, the Virginia Tech beat writer, is an intern, but he'd be near the end of his internship if he is.

And sources absolutely belong to the reporter, which is why some competing newspapers have, in the past, hired away well-sourced reporters from rivals to cover the same beat.

 

[lesboulez]

I was in Cville today on business and had to stop into a Wells Fargo to make a deposit, and about two people in front of me in line is Pete Gillen.

How nice is Charlottesville? Pete Gillen, who took UVA basketball to new depths of suck, still lives there. Doesn't care what the alums think, f it, he really likes the place.

Pete Gillen is a wonderful guy. He's absolutely delightful.

Wonder if he'll skip town now that his favorite bar has closed.

http://www.readthehook.com/102742/after-26-year-st-maarten-caf-closes

sad face...i spent much of my 21st birthday there...and many other nights...

 

[Big Circus]

I was in Cville today on business and had to stop into a Wells Fargo to make a deposit, and about two people in front of me in line is Pete Gillen.

How nice is Charlottesville? Pete Gillen, who took UVA basketball to new depths of suck, still lives there. Doesn't care what the alums think, f it, he really likes the place.

Pete Gillen is a wonderful guy. He's absolutely delightful.

Wonder if he'll skip town now that his favorite bar has closed.

http://www.readthehook.com/102742/after-26-year-st-maarten-caf-closes

sad face...i spent much of my 21st birthday there...and many other nights...

Thanks to most of my friends being younger than me, I spent my 21st there as well. The cheese fries were fantastic.

 

[Balthier]

Is Waynesboro an option?

Very much so. Though going over Afton during a storm of any kind (winter, summer, don't matter) can be "fun." Waynesboro isn't all that bad and has picked up considerably with a BW3 and whatnot moving in. Also, Augusta County could be a nice cheap option. Or Nelson.

 

[Moderator1]

If adding a BW3 constitutes an upgrade for a town, I'd hate to think what the place was like before.

 

[Balthier]

Waynesboro used to be dead. Dead. Since then, they've added a few things (BAM, Target, coffee house downtown, a few restaurants) and stuff like that. Hey, it's a southern industrial town and the place where spandex was invented fercrissakes!!! There are area's of town not to live (Basic City, The Phillipines), but for the price and ease of commute, I'd live there in a heartbeat if I worked in C'ville because the good areas far outweight "depressed" areas.

 

[Balthier]

And, really, how depressed can a city be when half of Albermarle's law enforcement lives there?
(Sorry, I've moved around a lot in my years and there are no places closer to my heart than, in order, my hometown and Waynesboro, Va. I know, pretty sad. But still ...)

 

[Jake_Taylor]

I drove through Waynesboro, Pa., the other day. Waynesboro, Va., has got that one beat. I'd probably just try to find an affordable rental or a roommate in Charlottesville, but if you want to live in Augusta County you can shop at decent grocery stores and get a decent meal at a restaurant and drive to Charlottesville for you entertainment and culture. Waynesboro does have a nicer movie theater than CVille, though that will change once a big shopping center they just broke ground on is finished.

 

[Balthier]

If you consider drunk girl muffin-toppin' all over the place and douchebag DMB fanboys as culture, yes, by all means.

 

[Jake_Taylor]

Oh, I'm well aware of the douchebag factor, but when I said "culture" was talking more about the architecture, concerts, museums, galleries, theater, opera, etc.

 

[Hoos3725]

I was in Cville today on business and had to stop into a Wells Fargo to make a deposit, and about two people in front of me in line is Pete Gillen.

How nice is Charlottesville? Pete Gillen, who took UVA basketball to new depths of suck, still lives there. Doesn't care what the alums think, f it, he really likes the place.

Pete Gillen is a wonderful guy. He's absolutely delightful.

Wonder if he'll skip town now that his favorite bar has closed.

http://www.readthehook.com/102742/after-26-year-st-maarten-caf-closes

Ah St. Maarten, the bar that had the reputation of never checking IDs.

 

[JackReacher]

Gillen is awesome. On a layover in Memphis a few years back, I saw him at one of the bars. He had just finished calling a game for whatever conference tournament was in Memphis that day. Anyway, I just walked up to him and introduced myself as someone who covered a few of his games at U.Va. and someone he certainly doesn't remember. We ended up shooting the **** for a few minutes. Couldn't have been nicer.

And yeah, U.Va. students are the worst. :)

 

[ConnSptsEditor]

I thought Jerry Ratcliffe was the sports editor there? I see a byline dated 2/16/12 on their website. Is the new guy above him?

 

[Big Circus]

The new guy is the SE. Hootie is still on staff in more of a columnist role (not sure of his exact title).

 

[Hoos3725]

Here's some positive news: St. Maarten will reopen.

http://www.readthehook.com/102910/st-maarten-caf-set-re-open#.T01GMfbFoEs.facebook