How many different places have you gone to cover high school football?

[Smallpotatoes]

A few years ago, I started wondering how many different places I've gone to cover high school football. I made a list, trying to remember them all and came up with 65.
That number has held steady for the last few years because I've been at the same company for a while and cover the same schools, which usually play the same schools.
That includes three different states. The longest car-only trip was about 2 1/2 hours to Newport, N.H. and the longest trip overall was Nantucket, 90 minutes to Hyannis, another hour on the fast ferry.
I don't include college sites used for playoff or championship games in the list, nor do I include places where I've covered youth, college or semipro ball. Football fields where I've covered soccer, lacrosse, track or field hockey. but not football, don't count either.
Venues where two (or more) teams play only count as one place, even if I've seen more than one home team in that venue.
Does anybody here have a similar list? Has anybody had to fly to cover a high school game or take a boat ride? How many different states and what's the longest trip you've taken?

 

[Angola!]

A few years ago, I started wondering how many different places I've gone to cover high school football. I made a list, trying to remember them all and came up with 65.
That number has held steady for the last few years because I've been at the same company for a while and cover the same schools, which usually play the same schools.
That includes three different states. The longest car-only trip was about 2 1/2 hours to Newport, N.H. and the longest trip overall was Nantucket, 90 minutes to Hyannis, another hour on the fast ferry.
I don't include college sites used for playoff or championship games in the list, nor do I includes places where I've covered youth, college or semipro ball. Football fields where I've covered soccer, lacrosse, track or field hockey. but not football, don't count either.
Venues where two (or more) teams play only count as one place, even if I've seen more than one home team in that venue.
Does anybody here have a similar list? Has anybody had to fly to cover a high school game or take a boat ride? How many different states and what's the longest trip you've taken?

I have flown to cover a game in Northern Idaho. The longest drive I have done for a game was 4.5 hours for a state championship game last season.
As far as how many venues I've seen games in, I will have to do some deep thinking to remember that.

 

[Angola!]

I am at 28 different venues and I expect to add 2 to 5 more this season, depending on how the playoffs shake out.
I have only covered games in two states.

 

[slappy4428]

I am at 28 different venues and I expect to add 2 to 5 more this season, depending on how the playoffs shake out.
I have only covered games in two states.

Have been doing this for 20 years in three states...maybe 60-70.... I'd have to think about it...

 

[pressboxer]

I can verify something in the mid-80 range since 1989, but there's about a dozen or so other places that I can't remember for sure. I know I went there for football, but was it preseason tab stuff, a scrimmage or an actual game?

My longest trip was when I worked in Amarillo. One of the schools in the Oklahoma Panhandle that we covered reached the state finals two years in a row, playing at Stillwater both times. I think the beancounters up there are still trying to figure out why I had so many receipts from Eskimo Joe's for just a two-day, one-night trip.

My longest trip within the same state was probably when I was in New Mexico -- Carlsbad to Raton or Carlsbad to Socorro via Albuquerque -- but there have been several here in Texas that have been a minimum five hours one way. That's what I get for living in those areas of the state where 100 miles means you're just getting started.

Oddly enough, it doesn't look like I will add any new venues this season unless somebody around here makes a deep playoff run and winds up playing somewhere east of Abilene.

 

[Tom Petty]

I can verify something in the mid-80 range since 1989, but there's about a dozen or so other places that I can't remember for sure. I know I went there for football, but was it preseason tab stuff, a scrimmage or an actual game?

My longest trip was when I worked in Amarillo. One of the schools in the Oklahoma Panhandle that we covered reached the state finals two years in a row, playing at Stillwater both times. I think the beancounters up there are still trying to figure out why I had so many receipts from Eskimo Joe's for just a two-day, one-night trip.

My longest trip within the same state was probably when I was in New Mexico -- Carlsbad to Raton or Carlsbad to Socorro via Albuquerque -- but there have been several here in Texas that have been a minimum five hours one way. That's what I get for living in those areas of the state where 100 miles means you're just getting started.

Oddly enough, it doesn't look like I will add any new venues this season unless somebody around here makes a deep playoff run and winds up playing somewhere east of Abilene.

that would mean a trip to joe alan's, yes?

 

[pressboxer]

I can go there pretty much any time I visit the folks. Mom lives about three miles from there.

Of course, I'm not against ingesting a hunk of beef before waddling off to the pressbox at Shotwell.

 

[Tom Petty]

I can go there pretty much any time I visit the folks. Mom lives about three miles from there.

Of course, I'm not against ingesting a hunk of beef before waddling off to the pressbox at Shotwell.

i've been lucky enough to stop there three times. i would give plenty for a fourth visit, although i guess that does mean i'd have to actually enter texas again. ;)

 

[pressboxer]

The shortest route would be to come down from Oklahoma through Wichita Falls. But that would mean you would have to go through Oklahoma AND Texas.

 

[Tom Petty]

The shortest route would be to come down from Oklahoma through Wichita Falls. But that would mean you would have to go through Oklahoma AND Texas.

i took the heartbreakers to the tulsa zoo, once while in another state on vacation. thought oklahoma was a nice enough state, then i got out of the car and actually started talking to people.

 

[Knighthawk]

As a pro? Two - Silverdome and Ford Field. The only HSFB I cover is the state finals.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

A few years ago, I started wondering how many different places I've gone to cover high school football. I made a list, trying to remember them all and came up with 65.
That number has held steady for the last few years because I've been at the same company for a while and cover the same schools, which usually play the same schools.
That includes three different states. The longest car-only trip was about 2 1/2 hours to Newport, N.H. and the longest trip overall was Nantucket, 90 minutes to Hyannis, another hour on the fast ferry.
I don't include college sites used for playoff or championship games in the list, nor do I includes places where I've covered youth, college or semipro ball. Football fields where I've covered soccer, lacrosse, track or field hockey. but not football, don't count either.
Venues where two (or more) teams play only count as one place, even if I've seen more than one home team in that venue.
Does anybody here have a similar list? Has anybody had to fly to cover a high school game or take a boat ride? How many different states and what's the longest trip you've taken?

I have flown to cover a game in Northern Idaho. The longest drive I have done for a game was 4.5 hours for a state championship game last season.
As far as how many venues I've seen games in, I will have to do some deep thinking to remember that.

You flew to cover a high school football game!? The company paid for it!?
Who did the pregame coin toss? Super Dave Osborne?
I'd love to hear some background on that (the game. I'm not really that into Super Dave).


Angola, you and Handsome Harley fascinate me...

I've been to over 50 locations for high school games. Longest drive was four hours for a playoff game in Wheeling.
Made several three hours drives to places like Matewan, Williamson and Mt. View, for regular season games.

 

[crimsonace]

I've probably covered football at about 40 different places over the last decade -- the farthest being a 3-hour drive.

I've probably covered basketball in about 100 different gymnasiums, including the two largest high school gymnasiums in the country, and the tiny gymnasium where the bulk of the movie "Hoosiers" was shot.

 

[Cansportschick]

Since my province is so small, I have gone to 18 different places in the last four years. Some within walking distance, and some that were five-six hour drives.

 

[wickedwritah]

Smallpots didn't get this treatment, but I remember a poster here noting how the Cape Cod Times used to fly him from Hyannis to Nantucket, in the same plane the refs used to hop over.

If you don't get on the expensive fast-ferry or fly, it's a couple-hour boat ride.

(Still want to do the Island Bowl; maybe this year, finally.)

 

[txscoop]

Just started two weeks ago. My list is at 3.

 

[slappy4428]

28 in one state, two in another, 24 in this one... over 20 years

 

[Angola!]

A few years ago, I started wondering how many different places I've gone to cover high school football. I made a list, trying to remember them all and came up with 65.
That number has held steady for the last few years because I've been at the same company for a while and cover the same schools, which usually play the same schools.
That includes three different states. The longest car-only trip was about 2 1/2 hours to Newport, N.H. and the longest trip overall was Nantucket, 90 minutes to Hyannis, another hour on the fast ferry.
I don't include college sites used for playoff or championship games in the list, nor do I includes places where I've covered youth, college or semipro ball. Football fields where I've covered soccer, lacrosse, track or field hockey. but not football, don't count either.
Venues where two (or more) teams play only count as one place, even if I've seen more than one home team in that venue.
Does anybody here have a similar list? Has anybody had to fly to cover a high school game or take a boat ride? How many different states and what's the longest trip you've taken?

I have flown to cover a game in Northern Idaho. The longest drive I have done for a game was 4.5 hours for a state championship game last season.
As far as how many venues I've seen games in, I will have to do some deep thinking to remember that.

You flew to cover a high school football game!? The company paid for it!?
Who did the pregame coin toss? Super Dave Osborne?
I'd love to hear some background on that (the game. I'm not really that into Super Dave).

It was a state first round game in Idaho. There are only three rounds and it was the first time in the playoffs for a team in about 5 years. It was in November and the game was played in the panhandle of Idaho. To get there it would have been a 7-hour drive, cutting through Oregon and Washington (which would have involved crossing a major mountain pass) or driving on sketchy two-laners through mostly mountains up Idaho.
So, the paper flew me.
I think the only  reason they were down is because my parents lived in Spokane and the paper didn't have to pay for a hotel room or a rental car because my dad went to the game with me.
Actually, now that I think about it. The paper flew me up there two years in a row.
The best part of the first year's game was it was played in a crazy blizzard. There was no room in the press box so I walked the sidelines, keeping my notes in a giant zip lock bag. It snowed about 2 feet during the game and the team I was covering won in triple overtime on a half-back pass.
It was crazy.

The worst part was flying back it was crazy foggy in Boise and my plane circled for about 20 minutes before returning to Spokane because it was too dangerous to land. So, I had to get up and do it all over again in the morning. But it sure as hell beat driving 7 hours on snow-covered freeways/highways.

 

[chazp]

26 places in 9 years.

 

[Birdscribe]

I'm probably well over around 50 by now. That's 50 times having to find a stadium, find a place to write and file. Find locker rooms, find a spot in a crowded press box, find an outlet with working electricity, find a live phone line that would dial out. Find 450 good words in 20 minutes.

Yeah, but covering pro sports is hard.

Great points. And don't forget having a little pocket cash to bribe the janitor with to let you stay in the press box until you file, which I had to do a couple of times. Not counting the time I offered this guy $10 to get off the phone at the Palm Springs Big Boy so I could use it.

I stopped counting last night at 74, in two states: California and New Mexico. I'm sure there's probably a couple I'm missing, considering I worked for four different SoCal papers.

Longest drive in California was 5 hours to Morro Bay for a divisional final, although the first CIF playoff game I covered was in El Centro, right by the California-Arizona-Mexico border. Longest drive in New Mexico was 3 1/2 hours to Carlsbad.