Does this irk anybody else about preps coverage?

[Mark2010]

About a year ago I witnessed the absolute worst girls basketball game I've ever seen.
I considered revising my lead and fluffing it up but the more I thought about it, the more I thought the overwhelming 'negativity' in it was deserved. It was what happened.

Like some sort of elaborate game of ‘hot potato’, the [home team] and [visiting team] girls basketball teams spent 32 minutes Wednesday night seeing which squad could perfect the art of giving away a victory.
In the end, however, the Wizards found a way to win at losing. Namely, they were able to cough up the ball more than the Mariners –14 times in the second half to be precise—and completely forgot how to rebound the ball on key possessions to watch a once comfortable lead turn into another head-scratching defeat.
[visiting team] senior [name] scored a game-high 17 points to rally her team from a deficit as large as 15 points as the Mariners outlasted the Wizards, 57-50, in an exhibition on poor shooting to improve to 3-3 in league play and 4-3 overall on the season.

Needless to say I got several phone calls and many people told me they didn't like that I phrased things the way I did. My reply? "Did you watch that game?"

Why is it that girls basketball teams are always either really great or awful? I once covered a game won by a local team 72-0. Yes, that was no misprint. The sad thing was that they stopped pressing halfway through THE FIRST QUARTER and emptied the bench before halftime. Yowsers!

Fortunately it wasn't an area team that got beat that bad. That would have been a fun story to write.

Um, it was 72-7, and the losers were scoreless in the second half. I was there.I remember it. That was the game that prompted me to write the column on the virtue of a "mercy rule" similar to the 10-run rule in little league.

I remember my lede.... "If Tuesday's game between perennial power (Insert name) and (insert name) was a boxing match, they would have stopped it. At the weigh in."

 

[daytonadan1983]

Three stories I'd like to share

1) Once had a district soccer game where a bad team was ending its season against a very good team. At the end of a 5-0 game, two players kicked the ball into their own goal -- it's now a 7-0 game and took off their shirts and acted like asses. Of course I put their names in the article. The athletic director thanked me.

2) Regarding sitting through bad girls basketball. I had one of those 39-31 slobberknockers the other night. The team that scored 31 was averaging 55 a game and the leading scorer was held to two field goals. The coach of the 3-5 team that scored 39 broke down why his freshman power forward played great defense. Turned out to be a good write.

3) Once had to write a feature at a scrimmage for a summer league team going to state. Coach let me hang around the dugout and picked up that his best hitter was having trouble on 0-2 counts. He got two hits on 0-2 counts during the scrimmage, so I ran with that. Player's dad was kinda perturbed, because of his son's admitted ``struggle.'' Coach loved it. Player got a big 0-2 hit during the tournament.

 

[Ace]

Who doesn't have trouble on 0-2 counts?

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

2) Regarding sitting through bad girls basketball. I had one of those 39-31 slobberknockers the other night. The team that scored 31 was averaging 55 a game and the leading scorer was held to two field goals. The coach of the 3-5 team that scored 39 broke down why his freshman power forward played great defense. Turned out to be a good write.

You can't do that! How dare you glorify a freshman? The seniors have worked hard for four years and the coach has no right to bench them! Their sacrifice must be honored! You're in the coach's pocket anyway! I'll talk to the publisher when I see him at Rotary on Wednesday and you'll get what's coming to you!

 

[daytonadan1983]

The coach did, not me.

Might I suggest DeCaf?

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

The coach did, not me.

Might I suggest DeCaf?

facepalm.jpg

I didn't think the blue type would be necessary. I was wrong.

 

[txsportsscribe]

When I was in sixth grade, our kickball diamond was on the far end of the playground. Our teacher always told us boys not to kick the ball on the roof of the school, but you know we had to try.

And wouldn't you know it, the one day I managed to do it, the photographer of the West Bo**** Bugle was there and got a shot of me doing it. I had to manually rewind film strips for the next three weeks after my teacher saw that in the paper.

**** newspapers. THIS is why they're dying. **** 'em.

you only cover us when we kick the ball on the roof

 

[spud]

I guess to clarify, I don't shy away from telling the "story" if the game sucks. If a team's bad, I'll tell it that way.

But my editors continually get after me for calling out specific players. If a kid, who's the leader of the team, is awful for a game and completely disappears, should I include the quote from the coach railing on the kid (all on record, mind you) or remove it and just tell, sans quote and "piling on," or what have you, that he was ineffective?

 

[spud]

Anyway. I'm done. My ultimate point: you can avoid "fluff" while also avoiding put-downs.

This is what I'm talking about with gray area. Finding that middle ground isn't as easy as it sounds.

Unless by put-downs you're talking playground stuff. In that case, it's really impossible. I can't write an article without "dumbass shot" or "****ing idiot" somewhere.

 

[jps]

I guess to clarify, I don't shy away from telling the "story" if the game sucks. If a team's bad, I'll tell it that way.

But my editors continually get after me for calling out specific players. If a kid, who's the leader of the team, is awful for a game and completely disappears, should I include the quote from the coach railing on the kid (all on record, mind you) or remove it and just tell, sans quote and "piling on," or what have you, that he was ineffective?

little johnny, typically the team's top scoring threat, struggled, hitting for just 3 points, all at the free throw line; he wasn't able to hit on any of his 12 attempts from the field. teammate x picked up the slack, pacing the team with 21 points, but it wasn't enough.
"I just really struggled tonight," johnny said. "I'm not sure what happened. I'll just have to get back in the gym and get to work.
"x did a great job tonight, though, and really showed that he'll be a threat the rest of the season."


>> point out the kid sucked. he did, and he normally doesn't. fine. he's a big shot, he can deal with it. but just say it happened and leave it. I wouldn't throw a coach quote in there - but getting the kid to say he sucked is fine. and no one can complain that way, either.

 

[Angola!]

I guess to clarify, I don't shy away from telling the "story" if the game sucks. If a team's bad, I'll tell it that way.

But my editors continually get after me for calling out specific players. If a kid, who's the leader of the team, is awful for a game and completely disappears, should I include the quote from the coach railing on the kid (all on record, mind you) or remove it and just tell, sans quote and "piling on," or what have you, that he was ineffective?

The coach rails on kids? That seems a bit strange to me, but I'd run with it.

If you are going to glorify kids when they do good on the field/court, then you have to write about them when they blow the game. You can't just gloss over the fact that some kid made a terrible error, costing his team the game.

Here's a lede I wrote a couple of years ago when a kid cost his baseball team a trip to the state tournament:

As the ball skidded past Avery Rigg’s outstretched glove, the entire Crane baseball team  fell to the ground in agony.
Tate Taylor threw a potential double-play ball past Rigg for an error, allowing Holliday runner Aaron Thomas to score from third and push the Eagles into the Class 2A state tournament for the 11th time in their history.
“He was trying to make a big play,” Crane coach Naldo Esparza said. “You can’t take that away from him. That’s the way it goes sometimes.”
Holliday’s 5-4 victory in eight innings in Game 3 of the Region I-2A final series on Saturday at Driggers Field at McMurry University in Abilene gave the Eagles the best-of-3 series two games to one.   Crane had forced a third game with a 19-3 victory in five innings in Game 2 earlier Saturday.
“It’s no one’s fault … it is not Tate’s fault, not anyone’s fault,” Crane pitcher Travis Lee said. “We had a lot of opportunities to pull ahead and didn’t.”

...

In the eighth, Holliday’s Brayden Little reached on a single leading off. Chris McCasland then reached on a fielder’s choice and Lane Gilmore drew a walk, setting the table for Luke Finch’s ground ball to shortstop Ben Sutherland.
Sutherland flipped the ball to Taylor, who bare-handed it, turned and fired wide to first base, scoring courtesy runner Thomas.

I didn't hear anything but positive information from the team and fans after the game. I tried to interview the kid who made the error, but I was writing on deadline and he was laying on the ground in the dugout crying. I guess that could have been my lede, but I went with the angle of all the players dropping to the ground like they were dead.


Edit: I just noticed I made a major mistake in that story. It wasn't an error on the second baseman, but a fielder's choice. You can't assume a double play, so in reality the run was earned. Whoops.

 

[andyouare?]

Playoff softball was always tough. Inevitably, it ended 1-0 on a throwing error or some other kind of error. What do you say?

When the score's 1-0 after 12 innings, you kind of have to describe that one run.

"Mary Smith, a hard-working senior who's nice to her grandparents, made an errant throw that ended her team's season."

 

[jps]

huh. didn't know abi-lene was hyphenated ... learn something new, I guess.

-- gola, had a girls basketball coach that had a miserable team and, while he knew exactly what he was doing, none of them could do a thing right in most games. zero talent. it was awful. he interviewed with me off the cuff and would sometimes get pretty negative. his comments were 100 percent accurate, but why run em if everyone knows it already? college or pros, sure, they all go in. but for high school, I'd run maybe one or two of the mid-level negatives and move on.

(remember one time he told me that he asked his assistant to hit him if he ever called for a particular player to go into the game. he was, I think, about 80 percent serious. the assistant never did, as far as I know, but she should have.)

 

[Angola!]

huh. didn't know abi-lene was hyphenated ... learn something new, I guess.

I blame my archive.

Anyway, you are right, I wouldn't run all the negative stuff and I'd be somewhat wary of a coach that rails on specific players, but at the same time, you have to tell what happened.

 

[pseudo]

League championship football game, a real defensive struggle. Late in the third quarter, an East Bumf*** RB breaks loose for the game's first score ... and decides to celebrate the occasion by doing a flip into the end zone. Fifteen-yard penalty, another five on a false start, missed XP. EBHS turns the ball over with just a couple of minutes left, the other team scores, kicks the XP, and the Bumf***ers lose 7-6.

No, you don't skewer the kid, but you HAVE to tell the readers why his team was trying an extra point from the 22. Even more so, after finding out he had planned his celebration ahead of time, talking about it in school during the week leading up to the game.

 

[shotglass]

Still pissed about the kickball. I coulda had a full ride.

 

[crimsonace]

You can't do that! How dare you glorify a freshman? The seniors have worked hard for four years and the coach has no right to bench them!

Not only do the journos get nailed about this, it's more fun being a coach in this situation.

"Why isn't Susie playing?"
"Because she never shows up at workouts, and has never improved her skills in three years, and all of these freshmen have passed her up."
"But she's a senior."
"And that's supposed to be important to me because ... "
"She's entitled to playing time. She's a SENIOR."
"That's nice. But in two months, your SENIOR turnover machine isn't going to be in our program anymore. That freshmen who spent the entire offseason showing up at workouts and now scores 8 points, grabs 5 rebounds and guards the opposing team's best player is. Want to watch the game film?"
"But, but, but ... I'm going to the superintendent."

 

[Some Guy]

There is a balance you have to strike when covering preps.

If the quarterback throws an interception, write the quarterback threw an interception. If the shortstop made an error, write he made an error. I don't believe in leaving out facts to save hurt feelings.

However, you can't rip a high school kid for an on-the-field performance like you can at the major college and pro level. Just state the pertinent facts and leave it at that.

I don't mind going a little negative on a HS team as a whole. If they suck, write they sucked. But I don't believe in singling out high school kids for individual rip jobs.

 

[DirtyDeeds]

My shop has a fairly strict policy on this, and it drives me nuts at times. My feeling is if it's a critical fumble or missed kick it should be included, but we are not supposed to name kids who make such mistakes. I agree with those who said that most of the kids' friends/family were likely there, so what's the harm in reporting it if it's pertinent? Now, throwing them under the bus, or writing a column rippin a team/athlete? I don't think that's necessary.

 

[jps]

My shop has a fairly strict policy on this, and it drives me nuts at times. My feeling is if it's a critical fumble or missed kick it should be included, but we are not supposed to name kids who make such mistakes. I agree with those who said that most of the kids' friends/family were likely there, so what's the harm in reporting it if it's pertinent? Now, throwing them under the bus, or writing a column rippin a team/athlete? I don't think that's necessary.

how is that even possible? pick goes for game-winner, dribble off the foot ends last chance at a winning shot, error (like gola's) costs the game .... things happen in sport, and you've gotta talk about em.