No means No, dammit

[NatureBoy]

Man, some of these stories make me realize how lucky I had it at my old shop. My coaches usually had all their stuff together, called in time and, when they didn't, understood that they'd go in the day after (the place had insanely early deadlines, so when a game goes to extra innings, it's not getting in that night).

My only gripe was when a couple of track coaches would whine when I didn't get the top five in every event. Sorry guys, I'd rather get the winner or top three at most and write a decent story than run 15 inches of agate under three inches of copy.

 

[lone star scribe]

I remember the AD of a large, successful HS program inviting our prep editor (me) to a meeting with his coaching staff on calling in results. We gave the coaches an info sheet with deadline times, which could be a little confusing because we were a 5-day PM and Sat-Sun AM. We also had an 800 for results to be called in on the road.

The AD looked it over, turned to the coaches and said, "I don't see any problems here. Anybody have any problems getting their results phoned in? ... I didn't think so." And they got called in.

Meanwhile, parents at their big rival HS called us all the time wanting to know why the other school got so much publicity.

Maybe you need some f---ing leadership in your athletic dept!

 

[Big Buckin' agate_monkey]

There is this thing called the internet. Take the late boxscores and post them on the web. Although I work at a shop where we are boxscore nazi's and run down finals from teams who are 2 1/2 hours away, way past the brink of our coverage area. So take that advice for what it's worth.

Of course, if this is the paper I'm thinking it is, said paper just joined the agate-on-the-Web world.

 

[Oscar Madison]

I remember the AD of a large, successful HS program inviting our prep editor (me) to a meeting with his coaching staff on calling in results. We gave the coaches an info sheet with deadline times, which could be a little confusing because we were a 5-day PM and Sat-Sun AM. We also had an 800 for results to be called in on the road.

The AD looked it over, turned to the coaches and said, "I don't see any problems here. Anybody have any problems getting their results phoned in? ... I didn't think so." And they got called in.

Meanwhile, parents at their big rival HS called us all the time wanting to know why the other school got so much publicity.

Maybe you need some f---ing leadership in your athletic dept!

I had a similar situation with a much different result. The AD of the school, which happen to be across the street from my paper's office, was complaining that the rival high school was getting more coverage.

It just so happened at the time, that the rival school was making a run at the state football title, but that was beside the point. I felt this was a great opportunity to sit down with the AD and discuss the best way to get the results into the paper. The only one of his coach that ever called in a score was his cross country/track coach and he didn't always do it on time.

Anyway, I sit down with the AD and go through the whole process and explain to him that not only do we need his coaches to call in scores,  but do so in a timely fashion. I ever provided him with about a dozen of my business cards  and several sheets that he could pass out to his coaches explaining our deadline. When I left that paper seven months later, I had still yet to hear from any of his coaches, except the cross country/track coach. The entire meeting was a giant waste of time.

 

[Cadet]

Best thing I ever did was sit in, at the invitation of the athletic director, on his pre-season coaches meeting. That gave me the power to say "Per the athletic director, it is your responsibility to call in" every time a coach complained.

 

[PaperDoll]

Best thing I ever did was sit in, at the invitation of the athletic director, on his pre-season coaches meeting. That gave me the power to say "Per the athletic director, it is your responsibility to call in" every time a coach complained.

We have a couple of ADs who require their coaches -- not a kid/parent statistician -- to call in the results. If they're not in the paper the next day, the AD asks the coach why not. "I forgot" or "the other coach was supposed to call" are not acceptable responses.

I like those ADs. :)