August 29, 2007
Covering high school sports should not be a negative
By TOM WILLIAMS
Sports Columnist
Back in 1999, Brett Myers was 8-2 pitching for Englewood High School in
Jacksonville FL with a 0.80 earned run average. He was named the Male Athlete of
the Year at the school.
Chances are, he was excited about the coverage he got from the local sportswriters
covering high school sports.
If so, he must have a short memory because on Sunday, in talking about the
confrontation he had the night before with Sam Carchidi, who was covering the
Phillies for the Philadelphia Inquirer, something he has done for more than 20
years, Myers said dismissively, "he covers high school sports and then comes in
and tries to stir things up".
Makes it sound like covering high school sports is not something to point to with
pride, doesn't it? Creates the image that Carchidi, who has won awards for his
sports writing and authored two successful books, is a guy who is not very high
on the sports ladder.
Insinuating that a "guy who covers high school sports" must be inferior to the
guy who covers the Phillies on a regular basis is no more accurate than saying
that a guy who comes out of the bullpen is there because he can't make it as a
starter.
At a paper like the Inquirer, a paper that covers four local major professional
sports teams, plus lots of other professional and college sports, you will not
often see a high school story on the front page of the sports section. You won't
in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston or other similar cities either. You
have to turn a few pages to find the high school sports section. Many, many
readers turn those pages.
Covering high school sports is very rewarding. You get the chance to see young
athletes and, sometimes, young coaches developing the skills that will advance
them into the college ranks and occasionally into professional sports. Many
people in this area can remember the high school basketball players they've seen
in the Seagull Classic, the Battle By The Bay, the Boardwalk Basketball Classic -
players who went on to perform on ESPN or other national forums.
Covering high school sports can also be time consuming. When you arrive at
Citizen's Bank Park, for example, to cover the Phillies, you get a parking spot,
an elevator ride to the press box, a meal in the press dining room (used to be
free, now it's just reasonably priced) and anywhere from 20-50 pages of notes on
each team. You get a comfortable chair with table space in front of you and
plenty of electrical outlets. After the game, the players are available to talk
to you after another elevator ride.
To cover a high school baseball game, you'd better bring your own chair if
sitting in the aluminum bleachers hurts your back. If you don't get there early
and it is a big game, you may have a long walk from your car. You have to collect
the starting lineups from the two coaches - there are no notes - and there will
be no table space and probably no electrical outlets.
Tony Blum, who has been covering high school sports on the radio over five
decades, always believed it was the high school broadcaster who should make the
big bucks. He has to produce the broadcast by calling the athletics director
about facilities and the coaches for information. He has to haul his own
equipment and set it up. He frequently has to read the commercials while keeping
track of how many were read and, if something goes wrong, he may have to
interrupt his broadcast to try to repair it.
In the major leagues, you show up, take the elevator, read the notes while you
eat dinner or lunch and, throughout your broadcast, just read a few promo notes
that are handed to you by a crew member. After the broadcast, you take the
elevator to your car.
Of course, the major leaguers get the big bucks because there is so much more
money at stake. But there is no doubt that the high school broadcaster can play a
bigger overall role in that broadcast than his pro sports counterpart.
Both Carchidi (who answers 12 questions in our feature elsewhere in this paper)
and Myers have said they might have said things differently if they had Saturday
night to do over. Still, if you listen to the audio tape of the confrontation,
Myers goes way over the line, losing complete control of himself. Carchidi also
said that he loves covering high school sports. That it is much more fun, despite
all the hardships we just described, than covering the pros.
When you cover high school sports, you deal with athletics directors who are
educators first but find time to take care of your needs. You deal with coaches
who are teachers first and have schedules during their sport season that are
sometimes difficult to fathom. And you deal with teenage athletes who are excited
about their skills and eager to talk with you about them.
When a Brian Cunniff or a Bud Rinck covers high school sports, when anybody does,
they know that many of the stories turn up in somebody's scrapbook (bet Brett
Myers has a couple from his high school days). And, if you are a broadcaster,
your work might even be kept on cassettes, CDs or DVDs as a source of great
memories.
Like everything else that happens in high schools, the excitement of the sports
teams is something special. It is a brief period of a teenager's life and having
the opportunity, as a sports writer or broadcaster, to create a record of that
young athlete's achievements is a privilege.
Don't let Brett Myers' remark fool you. Covering high school sports can be
challenging. And it can be a lot of work. But it plays an important role, one
that should not be belittled.
Read more of
Tom Williams' columns