Wondering what I should do (High school coverage edition)

[Mr. X]

The only high school the weekly I write for covers played host to a summer interscholastic touch football tournament Saturday. I wrote an advance on it last week. Traditionally, I either come at the end or call the coach later to get the results and his comments.

I got to the school Saturday after he and everyone else had left. I went to the school Monday, thinking he would be there, but wasn't. Today, I called him at his office, home and on his cell phone, but he did not answer any of those calls.

Question is should I write "Coach John Doe could not be reached for the results of the tournament," or just ignore it and hope to get the results for next week's paper?

One reason I am leaning toward "Coach John Doe could not be reached for the results of the tournament," is that I want him to be the one blamed by parents for the absence of results, not me.

Background -- coach will become an administrator next week, stepping down from head coaching duties, but will still help call plays and formulate game plan. He had been coach for 19 seasons, an assistant for eight seasons before that and played at the school. He is very well-respected in the community.

He is not very good at returning calls.

 

[RickStain]

I'd go with "results were not made available," but I'm a huge wuss.

 

[slappy4428]

No, because the automatic response was "Well, you should have covered it..."
Your readers are going to look at it as blaming him for your not being there.
Now, if you had made previous arrangements for him to get them for you and he blew them off, it might be different.

 

[Ace]

It's freakin' touch football.

Do you have an email address for this coach?

 

[Mr. X]

I do, but he has told me he's not much of an e-mail person.

 

[WriteThinking]

I'd ignore it unless/until you get it.

It's flag football. If you don't have it, you don't have it. What were you going to write, save for the results, anyway? If it were some other story -- that you didn't have anything else about which to write -- you wouldn't just write a one-line announcement saying, "Coach So-and-So declined to provide the results/story." Would you?

But why'd you get there after the coach and everyone else had left?

If you wanted these results, you do have some culpability here.

 

[I Digress]

Gotta agree, this one's on you. If you typically get there at the end, and misjudged this time, it's not his fault you couldn't find him.

 

[jps]

yup.

 

[spnited]

Touch football tournament results?
You should have gone earlier and found a feature to do instead of worrying about getting results.
This is your fault, not the coach's.

 

[nmmetsfan]

The only high school the weekly I write for covers

Considering that quote, if it's important enough to put in the paper, you should have been there.

 

[Football_Bat]

If it was this kind of football

and you're not there ...

 

[rpmmutant]

You can't call a parent or a player? There has to be someone other than the coach who knows at least who won the tournament and might be able to give you a highlight or two.