Ever cover two games at the same time?

[FuturaBold]

Two games? At my last stop, I HAD to cover three games in the same night. I was told by the editor that all three were big games (two high school playoff games and one college rivalry game) and that all three needed to run the next day.
It can be done

This is like a regular occurrence for me at my one-man sports shop that tries to cover six high schools, especially in the spring ...

Obviously you don't "cover the game" but you go to say one school, take lots of pics of softball, soccer and baseball going on at the same time, hustle as much information as you can at each stop and then come back and write up whatever you can -- then later write roundups for all the games you didn't see, process photos, design pages, curse at the coaches who send stuff in right at the edge of deadline, curse the coaches that you wanted to hear from that didn't call you back, load everything on the web, and go home at say 3 or 4 a.m. wondering how you ever got into this profession...

Then two days later, rinse and repeat...

One day a few years ago, I went to a playoff tennis match at one school (4 p.m. start), and then a softball-baseball simulataneous doubleheader at another about 35 minutes away (6 p.m. start) and then hustled back to see the end of a big baseball game at the other end of the county (7:30 p.m. start). Fortunately on that night, everything worked well enough for me to arrive just in time to see the big plays... wrote some decent "stories" out of all that mess ...

 

[SportsDude]

I covered a baseball doubleheader and a softball doubleheader at the same time before. I knew one coach was better at getting stats than the other, so I covered the game I knew I would get the least info from. In between games at one, I went to the other to snap photos. Made sure to catch the coach before the firs DH ended.

For some reason, I felt incredibly stupid doing it.

 

[fremont]

Whether anyone likes it or not, this sort of thing is going to happen more and more as manpower gets cut. Either you do it or you don't get to enough people and they lose interest.

 

[Stitch]

Why all the trouble to write gamers? Why isn't a phone call to one coach the next day good enough or catch the kids at practice the next day? It seems like people are killing themselves and the writing suffers, because your gamers aren't going to be the greatest if you are splitting your time between two or three events going on at the same time.

 

[InTheSkeller]

No, but I have loved two women at the same time.<p>

You tell me which is more difficult. ???

 

[fremont]

Why all the trouble to write gamers? Why isn't a phone call to one coach the next day good enough or catch the kids at practice the next day? It seems like people are killing themselves and the writing suffers, because your gamers aren't going to be the greatest if you are splitting your time between two or three events going on at the same time.

Well back in the day there might have been two or three people to cover the two or three events, but that's not the case anymore. Less people are doing more work. For that reason, product is suffering in one way or another no matter what you do.

The other problem with this is getting people to call in, which is not done consistently. Also, I've found that I need to see teams to write anything that even smacks of authority on them, and I'm sure a lot of people agree. Got more teams than you have warm bodies? This sort of doubletasking becomes almost inevitable.

These weren't going on at the same time, but for years on Friday nights I've covered varsity volleyball matches that begin a couple hours before football. I'd (usually) have enough time to see the whole match and maybe even get a quick little sound bite from the coach(es) and produce, say, an 8-incher. Sometimes less when there wasn't enough room, but it was guaranteed to get in unlike depending on the team to call in - either they do or they don't. Plus, then nobody can ***** about you not ever being at their games.

Your publisher would probably love to pink-slip your entire sports staff and have coaches call in, all the time. They do that for free, when they do, while they have to pay folks like you and me.

 

[RedCanuck]

Yep, a lot of nights here the local high school will have a tripleheader in rugby and a doubleheader in soccer on the same night. Usually I'll focus on one sport but keep an eye on the other field.

Usually, the games were staggered enough that I could get a feel for both games and have time to talk to the coaches and players at different times.
Then, of course, neither soccer nor rugby coverage is as naturally stats-driven as baseball, football, or basketball.

 

[dsg155]

Have tried, it doesn't work well at all. One of the two is going to suffer.

 

[hockeybeat]

Never covered two games at the same time. I did cover a NHL game and a college hoops game in the same day. Luckily, both games were in the same arena.

 

[suburbia]

I've done two HS ice hockey games at once, but only while having to write a few paragraphs (with one quote) on the other game. And in both cases I was able to get any agate that I needed after the game. That would obviously not be the case for a baseball game where I needed a full box score.

 

[Mystery_Meat]

Funny, but that's what I did today. Rainouts forced softball semis and finals to the same day, and a combo of long games and an injury delay made it pretty tough to keep everything straight. God only knows if I did. But that's what you have to deal with sometimes.

 

[AgatePage]

Four girls soccer state semifinals, three different sites. Games 1 & 2 at same place, Game 3 20 minutes away, Game 4 35 minutes from Game 3. Saw every second of every game and wrote 4 12-inch stories. Crazy as hell, but i made deadline. Thank God.

 

[fremont]

Four girls soccer state semifinals, three different sites. Games 1 & 2 at same place, Game 3 20 minutes away, Game 4 35 minutes from Game 3. Saw every second of every game and wrote 4 12-inch stories. Crazy as hell, but i made deadline. Thank God.

That's something else. How much time between games?

 

[AgatePage]

Four girls soccer state semifinals, three different sites. Games 1 & 2 at same place, Game 3 20 minutes away, Game 4 35 minutes from Game 3. Saw every second of every game and wrote 4 12-inch stories. Crazy as hell, but i made deadline. Thank God.

That's something else. How much time between games?

Noon, 2:30, 5, 7:30. I walked into Game 3 about 3 minutes before it started and was walking into the stadium at first whistle for Game 4. A guy that also covered game 1 asked me "where you been?", as he knew what I was doing. The other 3-4 people in the box just thought I was lazy.

 

[fremont]

Four girls soccer state semifinals, three different sites. Games 1 & 2 at same place, Game 3 20 minutes away, Game 4 35 minutes from Game 3. Saw every second of every game and wrote 4 12-inch stories. Crazy as hell, but i made deadline. Thank God.

That's something else. How much time between games?

Noon, 2:30, 5, 7:30. I walked into Game 3 about 3 minutes before it started and was walking into the stadium at first whistle for Game 4. A guy that also covered game 1 asked me "where you been?", as he knew what I was doing. The other 3-4 people in the box just thought I was lazy.

You're ****ing awesome. Seriously.

I don't know if I could pull that off, not without missing something.

 

[mike311gd]

Four girls soccer state semifinals, three different sites. Games 1 & 2 at same place, Game 3 20 minutes away, Game 4 35 minutes from Game 3. Saw every second of every game and wrote 4 12-inch stories. Crazy as hell, but i made deadline. Thank God.

That's something else. How much time between games?

Noon, 2:30, 5, 7:30. I walked into Game 3 about 3 minutes before it started and was walking into the stadium at first whistle for Game 4. A guy that also covered game 1 asked me "where you been?", as he knew what I was doing. The other 3-4 people in the box just thought I was lazy.

I did the same thing yesterday. When I got to my first game, the other two writers gave me their schedules. Mine was a little more hectic, I think, but not by much at all. Actually, one of the guys had a longer day but more time in between games. Either way, I don't want to do it again, and I'm sure he doesn't, either.

Rain sucks.

 

[AgatePage]

Four girls soccer state semifinals, three different sites. Games 1 & 2 at same place, Game 3 20 minutes away, Game 4 35 minutes from Game 3. Saw every second of every game and wrote 4 12-inch stories. Crazy as hell, but i made deadline. Thank God.

That's something else. How much time between games?

Noon, 2:30, 5, 7:30. I walked into Game 3 about 3 minutes before it started and was walking into the stadium at first whistle for Game 4. A guy that also covered game 1 asked me "where you been?", as he knew what I was doing. The other 3-4 people in the box just thought I was lazy.

You're ****ing awesome. Seriously.

I don't know if I could pull that off, not without missing something.

Going in, I thought I was going to die. But because there was so little time to **** around with things, I used the time in the car between games and back to the office after Game 4 to find my leads in my head so I could hit the ground typing at my next game. The nice thing was that all the rosters were already done when you got there (so no scrambling for that) and it was a Saturday so traffic was manageable between sites.

All in all, one of my better days in the biz.

And Mikey, rain is the most evil of all of Mother Nature's children. Evil. Evil. Evil.