High School coaches blowing you off

[mrudi19]

Has anyone ever had a high school coach blow you off? This came up for me tonight covering a high school girls basketball game. It's our main high school too in the area, so a majority of our readers read it. The team is bad at 4-12 and the coach had talked to me after every game, but declined comment after a loss tonight, and of course mentioned that in the article. I did have quotes from the road coach and our paper has a policy where we don't talk to high school kids after a loss. I don't think he has a problem with me, just didn't want to say something that would get him trouble (he has in the past for making comments in the paper). What do you do in that situation? I guess I probably could asked the assistant coach for a post game interview.

 

[Petrie]

Two things:
1) In that situation, try the assistant. Not an ideal source, but it'll at least get you by.
2) An even better solution would be to get your paper to change a senseless policy. Suddenly kids forget how to talk if they lose?
Will they enjoy talking about a loss? Of course not. Will they do it? Absolutely.

 

[outofplace]

Definitely talk to the assistant. There really isn't much else you can do given the paper's policy regarding players on losing teams.

I've only had a coach refuse to speak to me at all once, and that was a protest. His team got a crappy district playoff seed and he blamed the local media, so he promised he would not talk to us until his team's run in the district playoffs was over. I just ignored it and talked to the players. They ended up winning their district. I was really tempted to not talk to him that night, but I figured it wasn't worth writing a weaker story just to be petty.

Another time a coach was so pissed after a loss that he said almost nothing to me, then refused to let me talk to his players. I didn't think he was particularly rude about it, but his wife did. She was standing nearby and she apologized for him. Funny thing is, most of the time, he was one of the most accommodating coaches I have ever dealt with.

 

[Brad Guire]

Sure. Not a big deal though, just go talk to someone else.

And your paper won't let you talk to kids after a loss? I'd try get the glass office to re-evaluate that. That would be like my boss telling me I can't talk to the prosecutor after the deputy D.A. blew a conviction by causing a mistrial (true story). People lose. That's life.

 

[HanSenSE]

Only happened once in my second stint as a sporto. They didn't play well and he probably didn't want to say anything. I wrote it without him and mentioned it in the storry. There were no hard feelings about that, just thought the readers should know.

 

[Rhody31]

I wouldn't call that "blowing you off."
Blowing you off would be if a coach acknowledges you, then complete ignores you after a game.
And regardless of the paper's policy, you should always talk to your local players first, then the coach.

 

[Colton]

Almost 20 years ago, we had a boys basketball coach who got PO'd before the season and vowed not to talk to us, nor would he allow us to talk his players.

His team went 0-21.

Twenty-one times, we approached him for comment... and he refused all 21.

All 21 gamers included the sentence, "Pudunk coach Joe Asshat refused comment."

 

[Shoeless Joe]

If a guy talks to you 99 times and the 100th is a bad night and he doesn't, no big deal. If you approach him on a given night and he says, "I really just don't have anything to say." No big deal.

If it's a guy who regularly acts like a ****, call him out that he refused comment.

 

[Colton]

Joe: Couldn't agree more. This guy had been prickish many times in the past, after almost every loss, in fact.

 

[Mystery Meat II]

Sometimes people just don't want to talk.

Obviously if it's a going concern, you might want to talk to the AD about it, and also let your boss know because readers aren't going to understand *why* there's no local team quotes, just that there aren't, so be prepared for possible backlash. But even the most quotable people have nights where they can't or won't comment.

In that case, you do the best you've can with what've you've got and move on. Most times it's nothing personal and a reflection with their anger or frustration about the night's events.

The "don't talk to kids after a loss" policy is silly, but I also understand at some level why it's there -- some boss probably sees it as exploitative of a kid's emotions, and some readers would be there too. Not saying I agree, and I think we've all have great quotes come from high schoolers after a devastating defeat, but at least I understand what they're going for. Plus I'll be honest, I've made kids relive losses minutes after they've happened, and I'll think to myself "is this really worth it to make them go through this? Does the story benefit THAT much?" But you use your judgment.

 

[expendable]

Wait. You dont' get your jollies making a kid relive a loss, just minutes after it happened? ****, that's one of the remaining perks of the job.

 

[Drip]

It happens. No big deal. The same coach may talk to you again. I remember Alonzo Mourning's high school coach wouldn't talk to the press and his team won a state championship and was runner up Mourning's senior season. Talk about difficult. Try writing about a winning program whose coach or players don't talk to the media.
As for your paper's policy, it's foolish. I'd love to know why it is in place.

 

[JackReacher]

Almost 20 years ago, we had a boys basketball coach who got PO'd before the season and vowed not to talk to us, nor would he allow us to talk his players.

His team went 0-21.

Twenty-one times, we approached him for comment... and he refused all 21.

All 21 gamers included the sentence, "Pudunk coach Joe Asshat refused comment."

Had a similar thing happen to me. Only the coach wouldn't let his kids talk. Win or lose. "Coach Joe Asshat does not allow his players to speak to the media." was in every story. And that drove him ****ing crazy. Not enough to change his policy (which he carried on when he took over for his dad, who coached for 984847 years). But each time I asked him if I could talk to his players after the game, he got VERY rick about it, often telling me to go kick rocks.

After one game, it got really heated and ended when the coach's father (former coach) started walking briskly toward me in a manner that said he was about to start something he didn't want to finish. The other coaches grabbed him and he seemed content to scream at me for a minute or two, telling me how I'll never be good enough to work at the Washington Post (good one, coach!) and telling me how I'm the reason no one read our paper (can't imagine I was the ONLY reason, but whatever). I laughed, told him I had a deadline and left.

But ohhh, it made them so furious every game when I continued to ask if I could speak to one of his players. I took great joy in that. ****ing douchebags.

 

[Mystery Meat II]

Having spent a cup of coffee (which I quickly spilled on myself) in Sonner's shop, I can attest to that. And the worst part was that there really wasn't much you could do about it. Coach was never going to change his policy.

You could say "well, don't cover their games if they won't give you player access, but that's a non-starter, because as it was, that school has a massive chip on its shoulder when it comes to coverage, particularly as it relates to one othe rschool. If Tinytown HS made the front page for any reason at all, you could be sure that someone from Littleburg HS would complain about how Tinytown ALWAYS makes the paper and Littleburg NEVER does. Most readers wouldn't give a damn why you weren't covering their kids, just that you weren't.

 

[JackReacher]

And he thought he was doing us a favor by letting his players talk to the media during the postseason. Thanks coach. You're a great American.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Had the local softball coach blow me off the day her team lost in the sectional championship, 1-0. I approached her after the game, asked if she was ready to talk. She sighed and said go ahead.

I decided to ask her to reflect on the whole season. She rolled her eyes, then walked away. The AD, who was there, told me to try her at home when I got back.

Get back to the newsroom, I call her up. She apologized, said she had made a mistake in originally agreeing to talk because she just wasn't in a very good mood.

She hadn't blown me off before, so I just chalked it up to one of those one-time deals. And she was always accomodating after that.

 

[CA_journo]

We had a football coach this year of one of the better teams in the area, who for the first few games, didn't want to talk to us, saying "Nah, it's all about the kids." I didn't really feel like putting "Coach Joe Schmoe declined comment," since he kind of explained to me that whenever he sees his name in the paper, he thinks that could've been another opportunity for one of his players to get some pub. After a few games, I explained that it helps to get the coach's point of view in addition to players, he relented, but every time I went up to him, I had to say "OK, I spoke to player A, B and C."

 

[Ace]

A person has the right to decide to talk to you or not.

Your paper's policy is 1,000 times dumber than some coach giving you a no comment.

 

[writingump]

I figure every coach has one night a year they can blow us off for whatever reason. After that, it's their problem. Had a football coach one year who cut us off at the weekly shop where I cut my teeth because my moron managing editor wrote a column saying his 15-yard penalty cost the team the game (even though it came after the interception which TRULY cost his team the game). So I just kept doing my job and didn't even mention him. Knowing what I know 20-some years later, though, I would have mentioned it every chance I had. As for the paper's policy of not quoting losing players: Just silly.

 

[JackReacher]

A person has the right to decide to talk to you or not.

Your paper's policy is 1,000 times dumber than some coach giving you a no comment.

Not sure who this is directed to, but in my situation, that coach was the only coach in the coverage area who wouldn't let his players talk. Which means we had quotes every day from players on every team we covered except his. Our policy simply informed the readers why they weren't reading quotes from players on that particular team.