More whining parents

[Mark2010]

****storm of the week. I rarely staff high school events, but because of a scheduling crunch, I filled in as a reporter at a state high school playoff semifinal game.

Hometown team (which was road team in this game) played very well against the No. 1 team in the state, going to double OT. Team scores to pull within one, but kicker shanks the extra point and they lose 24-23. I mention the kids' name and give a play-by-play of the overtime. Now a small group of parents are insinuating that I blamed the loss on this kid. Truthfully, I didn't, but he DID miss the kick that would have forced the third OT.

Is there any reason I shouldn't mention his name in the first several graphs?

 

[LevinTBlack]

****storm of the week. I rarely staff high school events, but because of a scheduling crunch, I filled in as a reporter at a state high school playoff semifinal game.

Hometown team (which was road team in this game) played very well against the No. 1 team in the state, going to double OT. Team scores to pull within one, but kicker shanks the extra point and they lose 24-23. I mention the kids' name and give a play-by-play of the overtime. Now a small group of parents are insinuating that I blamed the loss on this kid. Truthfully, I didn't, but he DID miss the kick that would have forced the third OT.

Is there any reason I shouldn't mention his name in the first several graphs?

Nope. Your job is tell what happened. If you say the kicker missed the kick (have to for this story) but don't say the name then people will wonder what his name is. Same goes for a QB who throws a bad pick or a RB who fumbles. You have to tell what happened even if it is bad.

 

[Tarheel316]

Mark, you absolutely did the right thing. It's central to the story. Whining parents are nothing new, believe me. I wrote a preview on a game two weeks ago where I mentioned that the team's leading rusher was sat down for disciplinary reasons the previous game. I had to account for the fact that a kid who had 1,200 yards for the season didn't play. I got a nasty email from some fan (anonymous of course) demanding that I apologize to the kid and school. I immediately called the coach, athletic director and an assistant principal and said I would not apologize. I wrote the fan back and reminded him that the player's many positive exploits on the field had been written about in great detail. I said I wasn't sorry and I would not apologize.

The whole thing blew over quickly. When I get some dumbass complaint like that, I respond politely but firmly. Works every time.

 

[Dick Whitman]

I never use the names of the goats in high school gamers, but not because I don't think we should. It's because I don't want to deal with the bull**** that you're dealing with. Cost-benefit analysis. Self-preservation. Call it what you will.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

If the kid won the game, you'd be mentioning his name, right?

Got to do the same thing if the kid loses the game. That doesn't mean ripping the kid to shreds. But mentioning that the kid missed the kick is something that has to be done for the thousands of people who aren't related to the kid.

Plus, I used to use examples like that when parents whined about why I didn't cover JV and junior high games. I'd tell them, "If they're the goat of the game, do you want me to put their names in? No? Well that's what I do when they're in varsity."

 

[Smallpotatoes]

I just want to note I did not start this thread.

 

[imjustagirl]

I just want to note I did not start this thread.

This made me laugh. Well done, taters.

 

[hondo]

I never use the names of the goats in high school gamers, but not because I don't think we should. It's because I don't want to deal with the bull**** that you're dealing with. Cost-benefit analysis. Self-preservation. Call it what you will.

Okay, I'll call it: you're a wuss. You're supposed to be a writer covering an event. Write what happens.

 

[EagleMorph]

Always write what happens.

You can do this tactfully, too. Don't pile on. See if you can talk to the kid, even briefly, about what was going through his mind at that point. Was he nervous? Did he slip? Did he feel like he kicked it strong, or did he know it was bad as soon as his foot hit it?

Did a soccer game where the team in our coverage area was down a goal and got a great chance on a free kick. Kid hammered it, but was off by about two inches and it hit the crossbar and eventually got cleared. Opposition scored to put the game out of reach a few minutes later, so the free kick was a chunk of my story.

He hit it perfectly, it just happened to hit the crossbar. I talked to the kid, who handled it well, and he explained his mindset and reaction. Same with the coach.

Handle it well, you won't have an issue 99% of the time. Of course, there's always that ONE parent...

 

[Dick Whitman]

I never use the names of the goats in high school gamers, but not because I don't think we should. It's because I don't want to deal with the bull**** that you're dealing with. Cost-benefit analysis. Self-preservation. Call it what you will.

Okay, I'll call it: you're a wuss. You're supposed to be a writer covering an event. Write what happens.

Guilty as charged.

What's funny is that I don't shy away from controversy whatsoever when it comes to harder news coverage or explanatory/feature coverage.

But this. This I just don't have the patience to deal with. Just not worth it.

 

[LevinTBlack]

I never use the names of the goats in high school gamers, but not because I don't think we should. It's because I don't want to deal with the bull**** that you're dealing with. Cost-benefit analysis. Self-preservation. Call it what you will.

Okay, I'll call it: you're a wuss. You're supposed to be a writer covering an event. Write what happens.

Guilty as charged.

What's funny is that I don't shy away from controversy whatsoever when it comes to harder news coverage or explanatory/feature coverage.

But this. This I just don't have the patience to deal with. Just not worth it.

Well you are paid to deal with it. This is akin to a principal not suspending a kid for fighting because it isn't worth the phone call the parents will make to complain. You have a job to do and a duty to serve your readers best.

 

[Dick Whitman]

I never use the names of the goats in high school gamers, but not because I don't think we should. It's because I don't want to deal with the bull**** that you're dealing with. Cost-benefit analysis. Self-preservation. Call it what you will.

Okay, I'll call it: you're a wuss. You're supposed to be a writer covering an event. Write what happens.

Guilty as charged.

What's funny is that I don't shy away from controversy whatsoever when it comes to harder news coverage or explanatory/feature coverage.

But this. This I just don't have the patience to deal with. Just not worth it.

Well you are paid to deal with it. This is akin to a principal not suspending a kid for fighting because it isn't worth the phone call the parents will make to complain. You have a job to do and a duty to serve your readers best.

Thanks, boss.

There are a lot of battles worth fighting in journalism. Calling out a 16-year-old no-name kid for missing an extra point isn't one of them.

 

[Mr. X]

As was mentioned earlier, your job is to report what happened. To me, that's not calling someone out. If I was editing your copy, I'd ask, "What was the name of the kicker?" That has to be included.

 

[Mark2010]

Thanks for the feedback. I stand by what I wrote. I asked to speak with the kicker, but the coach (nice guy, but a little controlling) declined. I certainly didn't pile on, nor did I say he cost them the game (no guarantee they would have won had the game continued... they were heavy underdogs playing over their heads).

This stuff is one reason I have lost interest in covering the high schools. People don't like to deal with the truth. Well, I feel like I have to report the facts, just as if it were the hard news section of the paper.

 

[HanSenSE]

As long as you're just reporting the facts, what could you be doing wrong? It's not like you (or anyone else) are writing a whole story devoted to his failures as a human being like you might in the pros. It's like those coaches who only call in wins ... hey, the kids know they lost, putting it in the paper doesn't change that.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Well, I feel like I have to report the facts, just as if it were the hard news section of the paper.

Devil's advocate: What if it were a Little League game?

 

[Dick Whitman]

There are a couple of situations when I don't mind doing it.

One is when the kid talks about it after the game.

Two is when he did a bunch of other awesome stuff in the game or on the season so that I can mitigate the line about him choking.

I would have been more likely to write it when I was 25 and full of **** and vinegar than when I'm 35 and have been on college and pro beats. Guess I'm getting softer. Or else - as I like to think about it - more able to wisely pick my battles.

 

[TheHacker]

I just want to note I did not start this thread.

This made me laugh. Well done, taters.

I was going to say the same thing ... I laughed out loud. Indeed, nice job taters.

@Tarheel, you called the coach and the AD, etc., over one e-mail complaining that you reported something that was (presumably) true? I know every community is different and I'm sure your relationships with your schools are different than mine, but I think we overreact to these things sometimes. It's good to smooth something over if the situation calls for it, but I'm not sure that one did.

@Mark, price of doing business, my friend. You have to report it. Have to. There's no question. Parents have zero perspective, and maybe we shouldn't expect them to. But when they get that bent out of shape about the basic facts of a game being reported, it makes me wonder why we even bother covering prep sports. The only people who really care about it don't want actual coverage, they want cheerleading and homerism. So we can never satisfy them. And yes, I realize I'm brutally cynical.

 

[BTExpress]

Every journalistic bone I have says put the name in.

But then I started thinking about it as someone who would be reading the story . . . or if someone was telling me about it.

BTExpress: "Hey, how did Local High do last night?"

Response: "They hung tough and had a chance to force OT. But they lost when the kicker missed the PAT."

BTExpress: "Oh, what a pity."

It would never occur to me to ask the name of the kicker. Nor can I say I would really care as a reader if it was left out.

Goes against everything we've been taught, I know. But I actually see ****'s point.

 

[flexmaster33]

I think you can go either way on this one.

My preference is not to name a goat at the high school level...I would have simply written...JoePa High missed the extra point to end the game.

Of course if the kicker's name shows up earlier in the story or in the scoring summary, people can connect the dots easy enough, but with high school kids I don't mind softening the blow a bit by listing game-changing miscues by team instead of player.

Of course at the college and pro level its names regardless.