HS coaches just don't get it

[Glen Rosales]

I had to throw this out there...
Our local prep editor and a TV sports guy were asked by the flak for the NM high school sports association to speak at a coaches association meeting regarding relating to the media.
The seminar immediately prior on officiating was jam packed.
The seminar in question, not so much. Zero coaches. Nada. Zip. Zilch.
Ya gotta love it.

 

[dargan]

Sounds about right.

 

[Tom Petty]

maybe the coaches can BLOG! and there will be no need for the media.

 

[StaggerLee]

maybe the coaches can BLOG! and there will be no need for the media.

Introducing, Gannett's newest creation:

www.highschoolsports.net

Careful what you ask for Tom.

Gannett has high hopes for highschoolsports.net. Their fairy tale plans are to have 100 percent participation from all schools and have high school players, coaches, fans all blogging and submitting videos and photos.

Yay.

 

[Tom Petty]

maybe the coaches can BLOG! and there will be no need for the media.

Introducing, Gannett's newest creation:

www.highschoolsports.net

Careful what you ask for Tom.

Gannett has high hopes for highschoolsports.net. Their fairy tale plans are to have 100 percent participation from all schools and have high school players, coaches, fans all blogging and submitting videos and photos.

Yay.

awesome pull, stagger.

HS coaches and communications skills ... a true match made in heaven.

 

[Cadet]

I had to throw this out there...
Our local prep editor and a TV sports guy were asked by the flak for the NM high school sports association to speak at a coaches association meeting regarding relating to the media.
The seminar immediately prior on officiating was jam packed.
The seminar in question, not so much. Zero coaches. Nada. Zip. Zilch.
Ya gotta love it.

There's serious interest in the topic of officiating because of the officials shortage.

There's no interest in the topic of media because there is no shortage of print, tv, radio or internet media (let alone fanboi blogs, booster websites, and the "bloggy spawn" that is scout.com, rivals.com, maxpreps.com, etc.) hanging on the every word of kids not yet old enough to vote.

 

[BYH]

maybe the coaches can BLOG! and there will be no need for the media.

Introducing, Gannett's newest creation:

www.highschoolsports.net

Careful what you ask for Tom.

Gannett has high hopes for highschoolsports.net. Their fairy tale plans are to have 100 percent participation from all schools and have high school players, coaches, fans all blogging and submitting videos and photos.

Yay.

awesome pull, stagger.

HS coaches and communications skills ... a true match made in heaven.

WEST SIDE HIGH 59, EAST SIDE HIGH 6
West sIde hiGh is da best! F**k you Easties! Aron Eddwords through four 518 yards and 12 touchdowns to lede us vicktory. He thru six teedees 2 Bobi Myller who allso, cuaht, ate too point cunverseons. Miller had 298 yards reeseeveeng. On DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEfence, Billy "The Bad Man" Wallker lived up two his Knickname bi having 21 sacks. F**k you Easties! I'm going to screw my wive's breains out 2nite!--Coach Cleetus T. Jones

And then, of course, the writeup from East Side High in which they win 21-18.

 

[schiezainc]

maybe the coaches can BLOG! and there will be no need for the media.

Introducing, Gannett's newest creation:

www.highschoolsports.net

Careful what you ask for Tom.

Gannett has high hopes for highschoolsports.net. Their fairy tale plans are to have 100 percent participation from all schools and have high school players, coaches, fans all blogging and submitting videos and photos.

Yay.

awesome pull, stagger.

HS coaches and communications skills ... a true match made in heaven.

WEST SIDE HIGH 59, EAST SIDE HIGH 6
West sIde hiGh is da best! F**k you Easties! Aron Eddwords through four 518 yards and 12 touchdowns to lede us vicktory. He thru six teedees 2 Bobi Myller who allso, cuaht, ate too point cunverseons. Miller had 298 yards reeseeveeng. On DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEfence, Billy "The Bad Man" Wallker lived up two his Knickname bi having 21 sacks. F**k you Easties! I'm going to screw my wive's breains out 2nite!--Coach Cleetus T. Jones

And then, of course, the writeup from East Side High in which they win 21-18.

So cheer for dear old East Side High.........

 

[EmbassyRow]

Must...resist...Lean on Me threadjack...

 

[StaggerLee]

maybe the coaches can BLOG! and there will be no need for the media.

Introducing, Gannett's newest creation:

www.highschoolsports.net

Careful what you ask for Tom.

Gannett has high hopes for highschoolsports.net. Their fairy tale plans are to have 100 percent participation from all schools and have high school players, coaches, fans all blogging and submitting videos and photos.

Yay.

awesome pull, stagger.

HS coaches and communications skills ... a true match made in heaven.

WEST SIDE HIGH 59, EAST SIDE HIGH 6
West sIde hiGh is da best! F**k you Easties! Aron Eddwords through four 518 yards and 12 touchdowns to lede us vicktory. He thru six teedees 2 Bobi Myller who allso, cuaht, ate too point cunverseons. Miller had 298 yards reeseeveeng. On DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEfence, Billy "The Bad Man" Wallker lived up two his Knickname bi having 21 sacks. F**k you Easties! I'm going to screw my wive's breains out 2nite!--Coach Cleetus T. Jones

And then, of course, the writeup from East Side High in which they win 21-18.

As of right now, nobody can figure out a way to keep players/fans/parents from updating (ie changing) their team's stats, so I can't wait for the first day to wake up and see right guard Tub O'Lard listed with 1,000 yards rushing and 28 TDs.

I wonder if anybody ever thinks out ideas these days, or they just throw stuff out there and hope it sticks.

 

[SportsDude]

maybe the coaches can BLOG! and there will be no need for the media.

Introducing, Gannett's newest creation:

www.highschoolsports.net

Careful what you ask for Tom.

Gannett has high hopes for highschoolsports.net. Their fairy tale plans are to have 100 percent participation from all schools and have high school players, coaches, fans all blogging and submitting videos and photos.

Yay.

Never knew Gannett ran that site.

Until last fall, we didn't have computers with browsers that could open it. About half of our coverage schools refused to fax in schedules because "we could just get it from the site." Made assembling a tab much more fun.

 

[Songbird]

Only cooked spaghetti sticks.

 

[SportsDude]

maybe the coaches can BLOG! and there will be no need for the media.

Introducing, Gannett's newest creation:

www.highschoolsports.net

Careful what you ask for Tom.

Gannett has high hopes for highschoolsports.net. Their fairy tale plans are to have 100 percent participation from all schools and have high school players, coaches, fans all blogging and submitting videos and photos.

Yay.

awesome pull, stagger.

HS coaches and communications skills ... a true match made in heaven.

WEST SIDE HIGH 59, EAST SIDE HIGH 6
West sIde hiGh is da best! F**k you Easties! Aron Eddwords through four 518 yards and 12 touchdowns to lede us vicktory. He thru six teedees 2 Bobi Myller who allso, cuaht, ate too point cunverseons. Miller had 298 yards reeseeveeng. On DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEfence, Billy "The Bad Man" Wallker lived up two his Knickname bi having 21 sacks. F**k you Easties! I'm going to screw my wive's breains out 2nite!--Coach Cleetus T. Jones

And then, of course, the writeup from East Side High in which they win 21-18.

As of right now, nobody can figure out a way to keep players/fans/parents from updating (ie changing) their team's stats, so I can't wait for the first day to wake up and see right guard Tub O'Lard listed with 1,000 yards rushing and 28 TDs.

I wonder if anybody ever thinks out ideas these days, or they just throw stuff out there and hope it sticks.

They don't care if it's accurate, as long as people are clicking it. If Johnny Tailback is visiting 100 times a day to update his stats and just happens to click some ads on the way, all the better.

 

[Sam Mills 51]

Must...resist...Lean on Me threadjack...

... 'cause you're a baby and you don't know sh_t.

They used to call me Crazy Joe. Now they can call me Batman!

-----

Cadet, I'm sure there are many places where there is a shortage of officials. Furthermore, there are undoubtedly many more places where quality officials are at a critical shortage.

That latter point shouldn't overlooked. Some will do it, but how many will do it well given the proper training and how many are motivated to do more than go through the motions?

 

[shotglass]

I want to preface this by saying I'm not "scolding." Really I'm not, especially because I have some of the same doubts the rest of you do.

But the tone of this thread troubles me, and it should trouble some of you, too.

I understand the anonymous blowing off of steam. I mean, there would BE no SportsJournalists.com without it. What I'm wondering, though, is, does this attitude about new ideas -- intentionally or not -- spill over when you're the one trying to get the public to embrace the idea?

Because if it does, folks, you're shooting yourselves in the foot.

It's weird that the 50-year-old geezer is reminding some of you younger people that it's not 1985 anymore. But it's not 1985 anymore. We can't come in to work and do what we've done for years, and walk out at 12:30 a.m. knowing that there's going to be a newspaper tomorrow, the day after, the month after, no matter how successful we have been at it in the past.

We can't bury our heads in the sand; the print business is in trouble, whether it's by our scorecard or if it's by management's scorecard. It really doesn't matter which one, because if management perceives it's in trouble, the hurtin' is going to trickle down to you and me.

You're going to have to try different things. In some cases, drastically different things than what we've been brought up with. Do you think 15 years ago, we'd be putting up a blog item on our top story for the next day at 4:30 p.m.? Hell, no. No way we'd let the TV cycle get a hold of the news. Now, it's common practice. If you get it out ANYWHERE first, you got it first.

Now, this interactive thing is going to take hold at some point. You can safely take that to the bank. And when it does, you should hope and pray that it's YOUR newspaper or YOUR chain that's at the forefront of it. Because if it is, you're one step closer to having a job through the duration.

If your paper comes up with something like this and all your energy is spent rolling your eyes about it ... you're part of the problem. If you get involved with it, try to figure out how to PREVENT Coach Cletus from gumming up the works, keep a vigilant eye with the rest of your staff on questionable entries ... you're part of the solution.

I'm going to try and shut up now and let you all have at it.

 

[pseudo]

maybe the coaches can BLOG! and there will be no need for the media.

Introducing, Gannett's newest creation:

www.highschoolsports.net

Careful what you ask for Tom.

Gannett has high hopes for highschoolsports.net. Their fairy tale plans are to have 100 percent participation from all schools and have high school players, coaches, fans all blogging and submitting videos and photos.

Yay.

Never knew Gannett ran that site.

Until last fall, we didn't have computers with browsers that could open it. About half of our coverage schools refused to fax in schedules because "we could just get it from the site." Made assembling a tab much more fun.

Their ADs suck, then. Our school uses that site, but the AD still took the time to e-mail me all the schedules.

 

[ScribePharisee]

maybe the coaches can BLOG! and there will be no need for the media.

Introducing, Gannett's newest creation:

www.highschoolsports.net

Careful what you ask for Tom.

Gannett has high hopes for highschoolsports.net. Their fairy tale plans are to have 100 percent participation from all schools and have high school players, coaches, fans all blogging and submitting videos and photos.

Yay.

awesome pull, stagger.

HS coaches and communications skills ... a true match made in heaven.

WEST SIDE HIGH 59, EAST SIDE HIGH 6
West sIde hiGh is da best! F**k you Easties! Aron Eddwords through four 518 yards and 12 touchdowns to lede us vicktory. He thru six teedees 2 Bobi Myller who allso, cuaht, ate too point cunverseons. Miller had 298 yards reeseeveeng. On DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEfence, Billy "The Bad Man" Wallker lived up two his Knickname bi having 21 sacks. F**k you Easties! I'm going to screw my wive's breains out 2nite!--Coach Cleetus T. Jones

And then, of course, the writeup from East Side High in which they win 21-18.

As of right now, nobody can figure out a way to keep players/fans/parents from updating (ie changing) their team's stats, so I can't wait for the first day to wake up and see right guard Tub O'Lard listed with 1,000 yards rushing and 28 TDs.

I wonder if anybody ever thinks out ideas these days, or they just throw stuff out there and hope it sticks.

They don't care if it's accurate, as long as people are clicking it. If Johnny Tailback is visiting 100 times a day to update his stats and just happens to click some ads on the way, all the better.

Does anyone read the cold, scary truth in that? Do you really think the media moguls give a **** more about accuracy and journalistic integrity if it meant a few dollars to shareholders?

 

[StaggerLee]

I want to preface this by saying I'm not "scolding." Really I'm not, especially because I have some of the same doubts the rest of you do.

But the tone of this thread troubles me, and it should trouble some of you, too.

I understand the anonymous blowing off of steam. I mean, there would BE no SportsJournalists.com without it. What I'm wondering, though, is, does this attitude about new ideas -- intentionally or not -- spill over when you're the one trying to get the public to embrace the idea?

Because if it does, folks, you're shooting yourselves in the foot.

It's weird that the 50-year-old geezer is reminding some of you younger people that it's not 1985 anymore. But it's not 1985 anymore. We can't come in to work and do what we've done for years, and walk out at 12:30 a.m. knowing that there's going to be a newspaper tomorrow, the day after, the month after, no matter how successful we have been at it in the past.

We can't bury our heads in the sand; the print business is in trouble, whether it's by our scorecard or if it's by management's scorecard. It really doesn't matter which one, because if management perceives it's in trouble, the hurtin' is going to trickle down to you and me.

You're going to have to try different things. In some cases, drastically different things than what we've been brought up with. Do you think 15 years ago, we'd be putting up a blog item on our top story for the next day at 4:30 p.m.? Hell, no. No way we'd let the TV cycle get a hold of the news. Now, it's common practice. If you get it out ANYWHERE first, you got it first.

Now, this interactive thing is going to take hold at some point. You can safely take that to the bank. And when it does, you should hope and pray that it's YOUR newspaper or YOUR chain that's at the forefront of it. Because if it is, you're one step closer to having a job through the duration.

If your paper comes up with something like this and all your energy is spent rolling your eyes about it ... you're part of the problem. If you get involved with it, try to figure out how to PREVENT Coach Cletus from gumming up the works, keep a vigilant eye with the rest of your staff on questionable entries ... you're part of the solution.

I'm going to try and shut up now and let you all have at it.

Well, I'm definitely not one of those anti-change people. I embrace new ideas, when I feel like they're good ideas. I actually embrace staff blogging, because I think that's a good way to connect with the reader. I embrace live chats with beat writers. I embrace some of the video work I've seen.

I don't embrace this highschoolsports.net. It's basically a scrapbook for crazy parents/coaches. I have no problem with having a web site to keep track of all of your area teams, but I don't like the idea of parents/fans/players being able to make changes to the page or add pictures to the galleries. Because you know that eventually you're going to get some idiot or some psycho dad losing control and doing something that's going to embarrass his/her/its team and YOUR newspaper, because you're the one asking people to go there.

And I don't think there's any newsroom in the country that has enough people right now to police every school's page (talking about 50-somewhat schools just in the our area alone) and make sure inappropriate material is not being posted. And if that were the case, why not just give the sports staff complete and absolute control on what goes on the site.

I do like the idea of a site that keeps all of our area teams' stats and information, but I don't know if user-generated content is the way to go. But Gannett dumped a lot of money into this venture and it's going to be forced to work, until the next big thing comes along.

 

[Big Buckin' agate_monkey]

I tried an idea like this at a TV station as a Web editor ... and this was a TV station that spent a lot of time on prep sports. The sports director had 20 minutes of a 35-minute newscast on Friday nights during football and basketball season.

Corporate loved the idea. "Oh, that's great. We'll set up the site and the coaches, players, parents, etc. can run the thing. And when Podunk High parent complains about East Bum**** High getting more coverage on the site, we'll explain they're more than welcome to submit information."

So we set it up. I inputed schedules for 80-some teams, worked on some design, figured out how to deal with video on the site (that was actually a challenge because they were cheap skates *SHOCKING*), created pages for each team, etc. On the main page and each team page, I had a note inviting players, coaches, parents, students, etc. to submit photos, videos and stats for their team's page. I invited students interested in journalism to send in game stories from their games.

I got jack ****. Nada, nil, zilch.

I still think it's a good idea in theory. There's someone involved with each football and basketball team that would be willing to input a little bit of information each week. The problem is, when East Bum**** High is 0-8 going into the last week of the season, said individual has little reason to update the info. And when Podunk High is 2-0 and just beat Farmertans & Sluts High in what will be the biggest game of the year for each, said individual will be too busy drinking at the local watering hole to update the site that night ... then it'll get pushed off to Sunday and before you know it, it's Monday and it's not update.

In theory, great idea. In reality, I wanna see it work, but I don't think it will.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

I want to preface this by saying I'm not "scolding." Really I'm not, especially because I have some of the same doubts the rest of you do.

But the tone of this thread troubles me, and it should trouble some of you, too.

I understand the anonymous blowing off of steam. I mean, there would BE no SportsJournalists.com without it. What I'm wondering, though, is, does this attitude about new ideas -- intentionally or not -- spill over when you're the one trying to get the public to embrace the idea?

Because if it does, folks, you're shooting yourselves in the foot.

It's weird that the 50-year-old geezer is reminding some of you younger people that it's not 1985 anymore. But it's not 1985 anymore. We can't come in to work and do what we've done for years, and walk out at 12:30 a.m. knowing that there's going to be a newspaper tomorrow, the day after, the month after, no matter how successful we have been at it in the past.

We can't bury our heads in the sand; the print business is in trouble, whether it's by our scorecard or if it's by management's scorecard. It really doesn't matter which one, because if management perceives it's in trouble, the hurtin' is going to trickle down to you and me.

You're going to have to try different things. In some cases, drastically different things than what we've been brought up with. Do you think 15 years ago, we'd be putting up a blog item on our top story for the next day at 4:30 p.m.? Hell, no. No way we'd let the TV cycle get a hold of the news. Now, it's common practice. If you get it out ANYWHERE first, you got it first.

Now, this interactive thing is going to take hold at some point. You can safely take that to the bank. And when it does, you should hope and pray that it's YOUR newspaper or YOUR chain that's at the forefront of it. Because if it is, you're one step closer to having a job through the duration.

If your paper comes up with something like this and all your energy is spent rolling your eyes about it ... you're part of the problem. If you get involved with it, try to figure out how to PREVENT Coach Cletus from gumming up the works, keep a vigilant eye with the rest of your staff on questionable entries ... you're part of the solution.

I'm going to try and shut up now and let you all have at it.

It's not that I don't object to changes in the industry. What I do object to is changes that are just thrown out there for the sake of changes, instead of being well thought-out and planned and it ends up backfiring.