Your Friday night routine

[bmm]

Get to game 30-45 minutes beforehand. Sometimes earlier if needed.
Most of the time I'm on the sidelines. Last week I was up in the press box and could do stats easier myself.
Get back to office and crank out story. Type up my agate and agate from two to three other games, along with standings and area scores.
Do my story
Layout pages
Half proof the page
Get it in right before deadline

 

[farmerjerome]

1.Night before game, set up spreadsheat for stats (it's easier to just hit autosum).
2.Arrive at gamesite 30 minutes beforehand to set up laptop.
3.Pee.
4.If there is any questions about the away team's star players, I ask the camera guy (almost all of our opponents are from WAY out of town).
5.Save a file for my story, and do box score as needed.
6.Have lead written midway through the third quarter.
7.Have story written with room for quotes by end of game.
8.Write story in car, file from home.

I know this sounds very strange to a lot of you, but I cover maybe one game a year that ISN'T a blowout. It's always the same school too. I drive 6,000 miles away just to have a nervous breakdown. They're Saturday afternoon games too, so I'm not even on deadline.

 

[BB Bobcat]

This thread makes me glad I don't do this any more.

I always thought covering a HS football game is one of the toughest things in the business. Ironic that it's where so many people start, before moving on to easier stuff.

 

[Den1983]

This thread makes me glad I don't do this any more.

I always thought covering a HS football game is one of the toughest things in the business. Ironic that it's where so many people start, before moving on to easier stuff.

Truer words have never been spoken. A high school football beat is a GRIND.

 

[EagleMorph]

We had an 11:30 deadline, with 7:30 start times, but now we don't have a Saturday paper. Bit bizarre in a football hotbed, but that's the way this business breaks sometimes.

Most of our schools can be adventures to get in and out of, so I try and arrive at least a half hour before game time. I'd like to use this time to talk to coaches, but that would prevent me from claiming a spot in the press box and navigating the huddled masses and screaming children in the typical crowd.

So, instead, I talk to the timekeeper and other personnel in the press box as I set up my stats spreadsheet and word documents. I keep a running play by play of sorts, plugging in stats after each series in the spreadsheet, which then automatically tabulates totals. I can just plug those into our agate format and tack that onto the end of my story before submitting it.

I try and have a storyline formulated by the third quarter, but we have a lot of close games in our neck of the woods. If it's a non-conference game involving one team from our area and one team out of our area, I'll just begin writing around our team. It's sort of a hyperlocal approach, but not completely.

During the final minute of play, I'll keep tab on stats in my notebook as I make my way down to the field. If both teams are from our area, I'll grab the visitors first, either walking with them and getting the interview(s) that way, or positioning myself so I can grab the home team as well.

I try and grab the players first, coach last, because I can always follow the squad to the locker room and talk to the coach while the players dress and get ready to leave. But sometimes it's easier to grab the coach first and tell him who I need to talk to, especially if it's a packed stadium and it'll take me a while to get out anyway.

We now have 7:00 starts in a lot of our stadiums, so if I can get out of the stadium and on the road by 9:30, I'm in good shape. Last year, it was 10:00. First game this year was still after 10:00.

I have everything formulated in my head, hopefully a couple paragraphs and maybe a lede already written in my laptop, so I can get home (always no later than 30 minutes after the end of the game) and finish writing. If it was a tight game and I have a potential lead and a couple paragraphs, plus some final stats, and I get home by 10:30, I can have a final story to the office by 11 easily.

That allows for a half hour of leeway.

I enjoy it, but if I don't have to do stats (a couple schools in our area do them for the press), then I'm absolutely ecstatic. So much easier to cover games when you don't have to keep track of stats.

 

[Den1983]

Games in my area start at 7:30 p.m., but we just had our deadline cut by an hour (from midnight to 11 p.m.), effective in early October.

Considering that we only have two company laptops, and no air cards, this will make any football night a challenge, simply because six of the seven local teams are pass-heavy and games don't end until 10:45 anyway.

I would think we won't have any problem with other sports, but it will make for an interesting close to the football season, and hopefully it doesn't dramatically change our coverage.

BTW, the late deadline will be because, instead of printing in the paper's backyard (essentially), we will now be printing at a sister paper 145 miles away.

 

[HanSenSE]

Usually arrive 45 mins to an hour before the game. In this area, the JV plays before the varsity, so I make sure to get the score, thus taking care of the last line of the box for the dozen people who care about the JVs.

Been getting rosters off Maxpreps of late since I find it ridiculous to pay up to $5 (yes, I know I can expense it) for rosters wrapped around dozens of pages of local merchants that support the home team, so I should too. I always check the roster against the copy given the announcer, since I don't trust Maxpreps to have the latest roster, especially in the playoffs when a lot of JV kids get called up.oster isn't on Maxpreps, the announcers usually will give me their copy after the game. Luckily it's a short sprint downstairs.

(This isn't a problem in basketball, since I keep my own stats and get the lineups out of the book, but I had to lay down the law last winter when a shooter came back from a game we were getting called in with a roster he got at the gate that had no number, which we didn't find out until he got back. Now shooters are required to at least shoot a photo of the book and reporters have to check Maxpreps rosters against the book).

Will usually set up my stats sheet while watching warmups, and always say hello to the AD on duty, the school principal and other coaches I see in the crowd. It's a good way to keep contacts up.

Find it easier to work upstairs, to keep stats and not be pestered to death trying to explain the game to the players' girlfriend that is keeping the book or some of the folks who usually have no business being on the field in the first place.

 

[spud]

Usually arrive 45 mins to an hour before the game. In this area, the JV plays before the varsity, so I make sure to get the score, thus taking care of the last line of the box for the dozen people who care about the JVs.

Been getting rosters off Maxpreps of late since I find it ridiculous to pay up to $5 (yes, I know I can expense it) for rosters wrapped around dozens of pages of local merchants that support the home team, so I should too. I always check the roster against the copy given the announcer, since I don't trust Maxpreps to have the latest roster, especially in the playoffs when a lot of JV kids get called up.oster isn't on Maxpreps, the announcers usually will give me their copy after the game. Luckily it's a short sprint downstairs.

(This isn't a problem in basketball, since I keep my own stats and get the lineups out of the book, but I had to lay down the law last winter when a shooter came back from a game we were getting called in with a roster he got at the gate that had no number, which we didn't find out until he got back. Now shooters are required to at least shoot a photo of the book and reporters have to check Maxpreps rosters against the book).

Will usually set up my stats sheet while watching warmups, and always say hello to the AD on duty, the school principal and other coaches I see in the crowd. It's a good way to keep contacts up.

Find it easier to work upstairs, to keep stats and not be pestered to death trying to explain the game to the players' girlfriend that is keeping the book or some of the folks who usually have no business being on the field in the first place.

Seems easier to just get most team rosters from the respective schools, no? That's what we do.

 

[crimsonace]

When I was in print (and had a 1 a.m. deadline).

*-Show up about 45 minutes early, set up my stat sheets, get the lay of the land, maybe chat with school personnel/ADs/other people and see if I can get some nuggets of info.
*-Either walk the sidelines or stay in the press box depending on my mood for the evening (and the weather). I was usually in the press box, but sometimes I'd walk (one of the games I walked was a 63-49 game that broke several state records for offense).
*-Halftime: Total up stats, maybe start my second Coke.
*-End of game: Total up stats, interview coaches & players, and head back to the newsroom to write up the game, total boxscores and paginate.

Now that I'm a broadcaster, I show up usually 90 minutes early, set up my equipment, make sure everything is working, go down and get pregame coach interviews, grab a carbonated beverage to drink during the game, see if I can squirrel up a halftime guest, and start talking. The nice thing is, my night ends at 10:00 now and I'm on my way home (although I usually blog about the game & the night's action and go to bed after midnight).

 

[BB Bobcat]

Im surprised how many of you go back to the office to write. I never had time.

I had an old Trash 100. I'd bang away a few graphs on the sideline at halftime and write the rest after the game in the press box. Or coach's office. Wherever I could find a phone.

You guys remember those couplers?

Now I'd just get myself a laptop with an air card. Good to go.

 

[EagleMorph]

Now I'd just get myself a laptop with an air card. Good to go.

Office doesn't supply a laptop, so I have to use my own. Don't get paid well enough, coupled with other bills and expenses, to pay for an air card.

You just get by and do it however you can.

 

[Den1983]

Now I'd just get myself a laptop with an air card. Good to go.

Office doesn't supply a laptop, so I have to use my own. Don't get paid well enough, coupled with other bills and expenses, to pay for an air card.

You just get by and do it however you can.

We're fortunate to get laptops. Air cards have been nonexistent, but I hear they're in talks of getting some. I'll believe it when I see it.

 

[HanSenSE]

@spud: True, but sometimes we don't have the luxury of making assignments a week in advance. We do keep them all on file, though. I have enough trouble getting schools in our area to send us their schedules!

 

[jlee]

3. Pee.

Probably the best advice on this thread. Nothing like writing a state semifinal gamer with two deadlines to make.

 

[Rumpleforeskin]

At my old shop, I had to take photos and stats, so I hung out on the sideline. Once I moved to my new job, I just needed to write and do stats, so the press box works for me.

First shop was also a weekly, so I didn't need to write that day, but I tried to hammer it out. Current shop is a PM paper, but I still hammer it out that night and put some on the web.

 

[Den1983]

At my old shop, I had to take photos and stats, so I hung out on the sideline. Once I moved to my new job, I just needed to write and do stats, so the press box works for me.

I tend to roam the sidelines for scrimmages, but as far as the actual games, I'm better off in the press box. I get a better view and I can see the whole field and plays develop better.