Taxpayers deserve JV coverage.

[doctorx]

Greeted one day by a voice mail left at 8:06 a.m. from screaming JV football mother, bellyaching that tiny Christian school varsity team gets too much coverage while public-school JV teams are snubbed. That was the gist of it; I deleted the voice mail in mid-rant.

Husband is a serial complainer who is forever trying to get this school official or that thrown out. (Also wants us to be rid of our publisher and editor) He points out that paper accepts several thousand dollars in advertising (mostly legal) from taxpayer-supported school system and therefore has an obligation to cover junior varsity teams. He does get the point that it's all we can do to keep track of various varsity sports and can't staff the games, but goes straight to superintendent and demands that he direct JV coaches to call in. (Their kid was starting QB for first two JV games.)

Best part is that JV team finally calls in after not having called on first two games -- and the kid loses starting job to demoted varsity backup, so he doesn't get his name in the paper after all.

Anyhoo, anyone ever had a parent try this angle?

 

[RickStain]

No, but I wish they would. I'm in a foul mood, and when that happens, I enjoy a good argument with an idiot.

 

[Smallpotatoes]

A few years ago, somebody sent in a team photo of some youth cheerleaders who went to some national competition.
The photo was so bad I couldn't even see the kids' faces. If the faces aren't visible, what's the point of running the photo, I figured.
The guy calls and asks why it hasn't been published and I tell him. He says another paper ran it, get it from them. Before he hangs up, he says he pays a lot of taxes in the town.
I just shook my head and bid him farewell.
Then I asked the SE of the other paper about the photo and he said, yeah, it was bad and he couldn't see the kids faces, but he ran it anyway.
Eventually, I relented. No sense in having some guy in town bad-mouthing the paper (and my boss told me I had to run it).
I guess the only people who care about the photo are either in it or have a kid in it and they already know what their faces look like.

 

[Cosmo]

Some of these parents need to be ****ing bludgeoned.

 

[doggieseatdoggies]

To hell with JV... I had an area varsity team HAVE to play another JV and beat the hell out of them so a JV mom calls and says "It's typical for the Daily Blab to go out and cover a game when they're playing a VARSITY team." Otherwise, we ignore them. The varsity coach was almost apologetic for being put in this position and promised the two-year reign of hell was over..no more JV scheduling issues.

That out of the way I'll top anything JV.

A second-grader's dad sent me this congenial email talking about the success of the WhipperSnapper Red Team which was the only undefeated team from our local league as they play throughout the region. "They really work hard and these coaches volunteer their time and I bet they'd really get a thrill out of seeing their names up there with those high school kids. They practice from 5-6:30 at the Bumpdille Elementary. Come on out and interview some of these kids. I'll help you in any way I can."

I said thanks for the warm invitation and I'd get to it in about 10 years.

 

[Liut]

I always encourage JV phone-ins and e-mails.

Insofar as the second-grade team, looks like a solid feature story to me. The tykes are in first place and travel to play other teams. The father was willing to make it easier by the arrangements.

Might be opening a can of worms from the other locals wanting coverage, but you establish contacts.

Look, I've blown off folks like this before, too, and I regret it. Youth sports can be news, IMHO.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Youth sports can be news. Problem is, there are only 24 hours in a day, and (supposedly), a sports journalist is only supposed to work 40 hours a week unless they (supposedly) get paid for OT. Something's gotta give.

There has to be a major reason to give coverage to a second-grade team besides being in first place (unless you are a really small hyperlocal paper). Are they winning because a sick teammate is in the hospital (cliche, I know) or something like that? You don't just write something to put a bunch of names in the paper (unless, as I said, your paper is really small). If that's all they want, let them submit a photo and a brief write-up themselves.

You have to give the readers who don't have kids on the team or any stake in it, to borrow a phrase from Moddy, something to read.

Otherwise, you'll be swamped by every youth parent around. And I'm sure the second graders will be quite quotable too.

 

[Liut]

There are many, many small hyperlocal papers out there that would, or should, look into a story like the second-grade team, especially in the summer. The news hook is the team is in first place and travels to play out-of-league competition.

I can relate to the other excuses, and have used them as I'm sure most of us have.

 

[Stitch]

There are many, many small hyperlocal papers out there that would, or should, look into a story like the second-grade team, especially in the summer. The news hook is the team is in first place and travels to play out-of-league competition.

I can relate to the other excuses, and have used them as I'm sure most of us have.

I'm sure the town cares about the second-grade football team. Might as well cover each church picnic as well.

 

[doggieseatdoggies]

There are many, many small hyperlocal papers out there that would, or should, look into a story like the second-grade team, especially in the summer. The news hook is the team is in first place and travels to play out-of-league competition.

I can relate to the other excuses, and have used them as I'm sure most of us have.

No that's not a news hook. All the teams in that league play that schedule. It's a 25,000 daily, so elementary age football is not a priority. We run the scores every weekend. That's it.

I did some handicap kid plays baseball story one summer in the dead period and I had five parents call including one who said her son is severe ADHD and plays ball. They're out of control and if you let one out of the cage, you'll pay.

And Stitch, you have a point. 100 people at the church picnic, 15 on the football team, two parents each. That's 45 people. Let's cover the church picnic.

 

[bmm]

I encourage submissions from the community on league titles in the lower ranks (like JV, junior high, etc.) and stuff like that, but I really have no time to cover that, especially in the fall and spring. I have five schools and, except for football, have to write, shoot and build pages myself. Then comes the "free" time I give over the weekend to the paper. Just not enough time for JV, freshmen, etc. in fall and spring. In winter, we'll tack on a graph at the end of the high school story with the JV result and the top two or three scorers for basketball. We have more time with less sports.

 

[Liut]

News hook at a 25,000 daily? No. At a smaller paper? Yes.

Always good to blow off readership, in a large market or small community.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

I encourage submissions from the community on league titles in the lower ranks (like JV, junior high, etc.) and stuff like that, but I really have no time to cover that, especially in the fall and spring. I have five schools and, except for football, have to write, shoot and build pages myself. Then comes the "free" time I give over the weekend to the paper. Just not enough time for JV, freshmen, etc. in fall and spring. In winter, we'll tack on a graph at the end of the high school story with the JV result and the top two or three scorers for basketball. We have more time with less sports.

That's what I used to tell the JV and modified parents. I'd tell them that it took me 40 hours a week to do the varsity coverage, and if I did the exact same thing for the JV and modified, that I'd be working 120 hours a week. And that's not considering the fact that the three levels were playing games at the same time.

 

[cyclingwriter]

Actually,
I had the semi-reverse happen.

A parent kept calling complaining that I should a story on the hockey program and that we never cover hockey and these kids try hard, etc. They call my publisher and he says do a story. I call up the coach, who never calls back. I call parent to tell them this. I never hear from them again. It was actually nice.

I had the same team with a girls' tennis team.

 

[playthrough]

There are many, many small hyperlocal papers out there that would, or should, look into a story like the second-grade team, especially in the summer. The news hook is the team is in first place and travels to play out-of-league competition.

I can relate to the other excuses, and have used them as I'm sure most of us have.

How about a hook on how absurd it is that a second-grade team is traveling out of town for games? Get the parents talking about how they're shelling out hundreds of dollars for Little Johnny's road follies. Ask the kids if they give a flying **** about being in first place (OK, don't say "flying"). Doesn't have to be written in a smarmy fashion, the facts and quotes will speak for themselves.

Write that story and you accomplish a) getting those names in the paper, b) maybe luring a broad range of readers (who scratch their heads and say WTF?) and, gloriously, c) pissing off the parents so much that they leave you alone.

 

[Stitch]

News hook at a 25,000 daily? No. At a smaller paper? Yes.

Always good to blow off readership, in a large market or small community.

Are you a publisher? It's not about blowing off the readership. It's about caring about what the readership wants. 95 percent of readers, I'm underestimating that, don't care about youth sports. Advertisers don't care unless the owner of the business has a kid in the program.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

Greeted one day by a voice mail left at 8:06 a.m. from screaming JV football mother, bellyaching that tiny Christian school varsity team gets too much coverage while public-school JV teams are snubbed. That was the gist of it; I deleted the voice mail in mid-rant.

Husband is a serial complainer who is forever trying to get this school official or that thrown out. (Also wants us to be rid of our publisher and editor) He points out that paper accepts several thousand dollars in advertising (mostly legal) from taxpayer-supported school system and therefore has an obligation to cover junior varsity teams. He does get the point that it's all we can do to keep track of various varsity sports and can't staff the games, but goes straight to superintendent and demands that he direct JV coaches to call in. (Their kid was starting QB for first two JV games.)

Best part is that JV team finally calls in after not having called on first two games -- and the kid loses starting job to demoted varsity backup, so he doesn't get his name in the paper after all.

Have Screaming Mommy and Whiny Daddy called in since Junior lost his starting spot?

Will they keep beating this drum after their kid's no longer on JV?

 

[deskslave]

There are many, many small hyperlocal papers out there that would, or should, look into a story like the second-grade team, especially in the summer. The news hook is the team is in first place and travels to play out-of-league competition.

I can relate to the other excuses, and have used them as I'm sure most of us have.

No that's not a news hook. All the teams in that league play that schedule. It's a 25,000 daily, so elementary age football is not a priority. We run the scores every weekend. That's it.

I did some handicap kid plays baseball story one summer in the dead period and I had five parents call including one who said her son is severe ADHD and plays ball. They're out of control and if you let one out of the cage, you'll pay.

And Stitch, you have a point. 100 people at the church picnic, 15 on the football team, two parents each. That's 45 people. Let's cover the church picnic.

Kids with stepmoms and stepdads work hard too! Harder, even, since they have to make more parents proud of them through accomplishing arbitrary tasks!

As for the second-grade football team, no one who gives a **** doesn't already know all there is to know. It's a NEWSpaper. It should be delivering NEWS.

I'd venture every youth football league in the country has an unbeaten team. Usually it's a result of bad player placement, often at the whim of some coach or other. If the team in question is bludgeoning all the other teams in its league, then the story, if there is one, is that the talent in the league has been poorly distributed. But somehow I doubt the parents will be too thrilled when you write that one.

 

[Bamadog]

It always goes a little something like this:

Caller- Why don't you cover JV games? Those kids work just as hard as the varsity kids. Why can't they get a write-up?
SE- Because we have four schools we cover in everything. All of these schools have baseball, boys' basketball, girls' basketball, fastpitch softball, boys' soccer, girls' soccer, football and golf. Eight teams a school. Times four that is 32 teams. Add JV in there and we're looking at 64 teams we have to cover. We have three people, paid for 40 hours a week of work. That's 120 hours of staff time a week. You do the math. It's not possible. Choices have to be made.
Caller- Click.

 

[Cadet]

Kids with stepmoms and stepdads work hard too! Harder, even, since they have to make more parents proud of them through accomplishing arbitrary tasks!

Quote of the day.

And seriously, those kids are SEVEN YEARS OLD. What happens when they turn 8? You gonna do a feature story then? How about when they're 10 and only lose 1 or 2 games a year. Another story, right? They were almost undefeated. It was the official's fault they lost, so it doesn't count. You gonna cover the team pizza party at Chuck E. Cheese, too? Interview them as they are handed their shiny gold-painted plastic trophies?