The Homer Article

[jfs1000]

If a guy on my team has a huge dominating game, then I got to the opposing coach and ask him about the guy that I am covering.

Early in my career when I covered preps exclusively, I would get two coaches quotes and the star player. You know, going back and reading my stories, they were garbage. Good prose choked by quotes. I felt obligated to put in these quotes.

Now, I get only what I need. Sometimes I talk to the kids and if I don't like what they said, or it didn't add anything, I don't put it in.

I have a problem with prep writers who go overboard as mike does (no offense, I like your passion). It would appear to me that a lot of prep writers that I come across sometimes overdo their stories by adding player quotes everywhere. I have talked about this with them and I get "These kids will get a kick out of it and when will they ever get interviewed again?"

Maybe I am jaded, but when did this have any influence on the coverage? I am not at a metro either, but we don't have to kiss these kids asses either. Do a professional job and if it is worth making a big deal out of it, do so. If not, don't try and make it bigger than it is.

Mike, are you a stringer? This may account for why many of us have different views. If you ever sat on a high school desk for a year, you would go nuts reading life or death game stories every day. You got to ask yourself, was the game as important as I am writing it?

 

[forever_town]

Sometimes it just isn't possible to get quotes from both teams. Ideally, I'd like to have at least both coaches and both star players, but sometimes you have to make a decision which locker room you're going to be in and/or which coach you can get. And you CAN'T get both because of scheduling.

That's one reason that of the sports I've covered so far, I enjoyed covering women's basketball the most. You usually get both coaches and players from both teams in the media room and you can get both sides. And, I didn't have to go into the locker room and feel like I was invading an inner sanctum.

 

[jfs1000]

Sometimes it just isn't possible to get quotes from both teams. Ideally, I'd like to have at least both coaches and both star players, but sometimes you have to make a decision which locker room you're going to be in and/or which coach you can get. And you CAN'T get both because of scheduling.

That's one reason that of the sports I've covered so far, I enjoyed covering women's basketball the most. You usually get both coaches and players from both teams in the media room and you can get both sides. And, I didn't have to go into the locker room and feel like I was invading an inner sanctum.

Is this on a prep beat?

 

[forever_town]

No, women's college basketball.

 

[mike311gd]

Mike, are you a stringer? This may account for why many of us have different views. If you ever sat on a high school desk for a year, you would go nuts reading life or death game stories every day. You got to ask yourself, was the game as important as I am writing it?

No, I work at a major metro, and have worked for a small- and mid-market papers in my career -- and dealt with editing preps copy at each stop. I'm not saying every story needs fives sources -- especially on a regular-season blow outs. The point of me starting this post wasn't to say everyone who does the one-source, one-team/side is lazy (on gamers, not features), although it seems many took it that way; it was to voice my belief that in more cases than not, a one-side, one-team article doesn't give the reader the whole story.

The last game I saw was a perfect game in a state baseball final. I interviewed a player from the "opposing" team, who gave me a dynamite quote. That made it into my article only because it added to my story's development, not its length.

Sure, sometimes on the prep beat you simply can't get to both sides, but I always do my best to grab both sides because, to me, I think it's right. That is my belief, right or wrong. And it's worked well for me, so far.

 

[Your Huckleberry]

To hell with both sides. Write it like you see it. Be a homer if you enjoyed the win. Be a blubbering ball of mess if you were crushed by a defeat.