Going easy on preps?

[Smallpotatoes]

Just tell what happened and let the readers make up their own minds.

 

[Batman]

I remember back in the prep days covering a tense end-of-season game. Winner goes to playoffs. Loser stays home. One team scores very late, needing extra point for tie and OT. Kicker has been area's best for years. Never misses.
He misses. Team stays home.

I felt bad mentioning his name in the story, but there was no choice. We kicked it around in the office and the consensus was "he missed the kick, it has to be said."

A few years later, I ran into the kid and we were talking about that. He looked at me and said, "I missed the kick, it had to be said."

Bottom line: Treat preps like anything else. Be fair. Don't sugarcoat, don't go out of your way to be harsh. Be fair.

Situation like that, it always helps to interview the kid after the game, too. Give them a chance to say what went wrong, even if it's as simple as "I missed the kick" or "I was imagining boning three cheerleaders after we finished this game-winning touchdown drive, took my eye off the ball and fumbled the snap."
It gives a story a kind of even-handed feel, and lets you explain what happened in the kid's own words without slamming him.

 

[The Last Boy Scout]

3) At this level, never refer to anything as "great."

What if the kid is a top 100 college prospect? Even if it's preps, if they're acknowledged as a hot recruit and a "great talent", I think you can make some exceptions to this.

Might work for you and many others on the board, but where I work, a kid signing to play NAIA is our highest-caliber athlete.

 

[patchs]

One word I try to avoid in preps is star.
I like standout better.
Moddy has the right advice, be fair, let the facts speak for themselves, don't go overboard negative or positive.

 

[shotglass]

Contrarian shot on the scene.

1. Jargon is not a black-and-white, never-use-it type of issue. Jargon is often easily recognized ways of saying something. And wincing every time jargon is used is a case of over-thinking the issue.

2. Same thing with upsets. There ARE upsets in high school sports. Plain and simple. You DO usually have an idea of who's better than whom.

If you don't EVER want to use jargon, or you don't EVER want to refer to a high school result as an upset, that's your call. To me, it's taking some of the tools out of your toolbox. Of course, as that asshole Tony Sinclair says, "Always in mod-er-a-tion."

 

[farmerjerome]

I've been writing negatively lately and I'm always afraid I'm going to regret it.

Last week I pointed out a kid that fumbled the ball, and later I wished I just attributed it to the team. It wasn't game-changing, it was just one mistakes in a series of mistakes.

Today, I used a little more anaylsis -- like the secondary was soft, inexperience played a role -- stuff like that.

Sometimes when we're forced to cover bad teams, we have to write the truth.

 

[UPChip]

An interesting topic.

My SE has always told me to write positive leads with HS kids, i.e. "The Braves rolled 35-0" instead of "The Broncos got crushed 35-0," but that's probably fairly standard. If I'm dealing with a real whipping, I like to use non-violent verbs that still indicate the nature of the contest, like "rolled," "cruised," "dispatched" etc. About the worst I'll go is "routed," which used to mean something a lot different back in the olden times, but so did conventional terms like "sacked," too.

 

[I'll never tell]

speaking of all this prep stuff ... if we're putting on kid gloves for everything, what do you do when you know about some stuff (drinking beer, smoking dope) on a kids myspace page?

 

[mike311gd]

speaking of all this prep stuff ... if we're putting on kid gloves for everything, what do you do when you know about some stuff (drinking beer, smoking dope) on a kids myspace page?

Until it becomes a legal matter, is it a story anyway? And who's to say everything on a Myspace page is the truth?

 

[outofplace]

Contrarian shot on the scene.

1. Jargon is not a black-and-white, never-use-it type of issue. Jargon is often easily recognized ways of saying something. And wincing every time jargon is used is a case of over-thinking the issue.

2. Same thing with upsets. There ARE upsets in high school sports. Plain and simple. You DO usually have an idea of who's better than whom.

If you don't EVER want to use jargon, or you don't EVER want to refer to a high school result as an upset, that's your call. To me, it's taking some of the tools out of your toolbox. Of course, as that asshole Tony Sinclair says, "Always in mod-er-a-tion."

Well put. It is silly to say there are no upsets at the high school level just because there is no betting. I can see avoiding writing that a team was favored, because then there is a question of who were they favored by. But if a winless team beats and undefeated, top-ranked opponent, it is an upset.

 

[Eagleboy]

I had an issue of word choice this week when covering a game. One player missed two extra points and a game-winning field goal at the end of regulation, then his team lost at the end of overtime.

I put it down that he missed the extra points, indirectly leading to the loss, but because he was the team's tailback, I made sure to include that he also ran for 80 yards and two touchdowns. It was, in my opinion, a fair trade-off - after all, I wasn't nailing the kid, and I gave equal weight to his misses as I did his accomplishments.

 

[I'll never tell]

speaking of all this prep stuff ... if we're putting on kid gloves for everything, what do you do when you know about some stuff (drinking beer, smoking dope) on a kids myspace page?

Until it becomes a legal matter, is it a story anyway? And who's to say everything on a Myspace page is the truth?

Well, I'd be willing to bet it's not photoshopped. Also, isn't this basically what happened to Matt Stafford when he was caught with drinking at the Talladega Superspeedway infield?

I'm just saying a 15-year-old kid boozin it up ain't a good thing. But it sure as hell ain't my job to be his father.

So you're saying I go up to the coach, "Hey, you seen your star LBs myspace page?" and then wait to write the story ... Star linebacker missed biggest rivalry game of the season due to an undisclosed injury. Panty waste coach cited HIPA.

 

[Mystery_Meat]

I've been writing negatively lately and I'm always afraid I'm going to regret it.

Last week I pointed out a kid that fumbled the ball, and later I wished I just attributed it to the team. It wasn't game-changing, it was just one mistakes in a series of mistakes.

Today, I used a little more anaylsis -- like the secondary was soft, inexperience played a role -- stuff like that.

Sometimes when we're forced to cover bad teams, we have to write the truth.

I know what you're going for, but we have to write the truth anyway. Sure, Johnny Fumblefail's parents might well appreciate that you hid his six-pack of turnovers in vague terms or glossed over them entirely, but the people who weren't at the game will wonder if you knew anything at all about who had the ball, and the people who were at the game will say with a knowing chuckle, "we know what really happened." So will you, but do you want to give people reason to think you don't?

 

[mike311gd]

speaking of all this prep stuff ... if we're putting on kid gloves for everything, what do you do when you know about some stuff (drinking beer, smoking dope) on a kids myspace page?

Until it becomes a legal matter, is it a story anyway? And who's to say everything on a Myspace page is the truth?

Well, I'd be willing to bet it's not photoshopped. Also, isn't this basically what happened to Matt Stafford when he was caught with drinking at the Talladega Superspeedway infield?

I'm just saying a 15-year-old kid boozin it up ain't a good thing. But it sure as hell ain't my job to be his father.

So you're saying I go up to the coach, "Hey, you seen your star LBs myspace page?" and then wait to write the story ... Star linebacker missed biggest rivalry game of the season due to an undisclosed injury. Panty waste coach cited HIPA.

I'm not saying you tell on the kid and wait for an action so you can write. But I don't think a kid drinking or smoking is a story until something does happen. If you see a picture on his or her Myspace page and he wasn't disciplined, by anyone, is that a story? Now, if you see the pictures, then the coach says he's out for "disciplinary reasons," but won't reveal anything else, you might have something. But with HIPA, all you can do is talk to the player because you just don't know the "real" reason, and by law, no coach can tell you. Myspace information, in my opinion, is all speculation unless you can get a solid source or two.

 

[I'll never tell]

I guess I left the [/sarcasm] off when I was refering to HIPA. One coach cited it once, stringer wrote it in the paper and now it's a running joke/crutch that coaches tell us when they don't want to tell us that they suspended a kid.

 

[Jeremy Goodwin]

Contrarian shot on the scene.

1. Jargon is not a black-and-white, never-use-it type of issue. Jargon is often easily recognized ways of saying something. And wincing every time jargon is used is a case of over-thinking the issue.

2. Same thing with upsets. There ARE upsets in high school sports. Plain and simple. You DO usually have an idea of who's better than whom.

If you don't EVER want to use jargon, or you don't EVER want to refer to a high school result as an upset, that's your call. To me, it's taking some of the tools out of your toolbox. Of course, as that asshole Tony Sinclair says, "Always in mod-er-a-tion."

Well put. It is silly to say there are no upsets at the high school level just because there is no betting. I can see avoiding writing that a team was favored, because then there is a question of who were they favored by. But if a winless team beats and undefeated, top-ranked opponent, it is an upset.

A lot of times teams are favored by papers in terms of polls/rankings. Some states have AP/coaches associations for statewide rankings and a lot of papers that cover double-digit high schools have their local top 10 or 20. If an unranked team is going against your paper's No. 1 team, I'd say No. 1 is favored. Just like when No. 1 is favored when they play No. 9 in a local poll.

 

[Gold]

I remember back in the prep days covering a tense end-of-season game. Winner goes to playoffs. Loser stays home. One team scores very late, needing extra point for tie and OT. Kicker has been area's best for years. Never misses.
He misses. Team stays home.

I felt bad mentioning his name in the story, but there was no choice. We kicked it around in the office and the consensus was "he missed the kick, it has to be said."

A few years later, I ran into the kid and we were talking about that. He looked at me and said, "I missed the kick, it had to be said."

Bottom line: Treat preps like anything else. Be fair. Don't sugarcoat, don't go out of your way to be harsh. Be fair.

the other thing is, there were other people who made mistakes on the losing team. A missed tackle may have been as important, if not as obvious, as the missed extra point.

 

[Prodigal Son]

I had an issue of word choice this week when covering a game. One player missed two extra points and a game-winning field goal at the end of regulation, then his team lost at the end of overtime.

I put it down that he missed the extra points, indirectly leading to the loss, but because he was the team's tailback, I made sure to include that he also ran for 80 yards and two touchdowns. It was, in my opinion, a fair trade-off - after all, I wasn't nailing the kid, and I gave equal weight to his misses as I did his accomplishments.

I think that is the best solution. You give them credit for the good and you point out the bad too. That's the only fair thing to do while still being true to the craft.

 

[TheMethod]

Quick anecdote:
Last spring I was covering a state baseball game. It was a tight game, and the team from my coverage area had made an improbable and electrifying comeback from 7 runs down to tie the game.
That was, until their shorstop made three errors in one inning on three completely routine plays. He singlehandedly cost them the game. It was absolutely devastating to watch, and I don't even know anybody on the team or give one **** about the school.
Well, there's no dancing around that. I kept it out of my lead, but that's the most I could do for the kid. I described the plays frankly, and in detail, but didn't feel like I needed any adjectives to tell it. Fortunately, I also had quotes from the coach to help me out.
One of the players saw me the next day covering a different game, and asked my if I had written the previous day's story. I told him I had, and that I felt bad for the kid. But I never heard any actual complaints.

 

[novelist_wannabe]

As a general practice, I stay away from evaluative terms. The first and most egregious one I noticed on this thread was 'choked.' It is much better to demonstrate the turn of events that constitute a choke than to just say a team or a player choked. "With 1:11 left and the ball on the 1-yard line, Clinton Portis fumbled away the Redskins' last chance at a comeback win." If that happens, you don't have to say it was a choke job. That much is evident in the facts. I do the same thing with preps. I do not shy away from naming a kid that made a mistake (fumble, interception, missed free throw, whatever) -- it happened in front of hundreds or thousands of people, so I fail to see how it being in the paper is a big deal.

A fellow board member covered a state wrestling tournament a few years back where a kid won his weight class final and then ran in front of the fans of his opponent's school and flipped them off. The officials saw this, dq'd him and awarded his opponent a win by forfeit. With the points from his win, his team would have won the state championship; without them, the team finished second. The writer took holy hell for reporting all that, but there was no way to varnish the truth of what happened. I wouldn't rake him over the coals, but I'm not going to treat that situation with kid gloves, either.