Feb. 25, 1998
Contrary to popular belief, there is something more vicious than
a woman scorned: it's a sports parent slighted.
Our sports editor, Nick Georgandis, is by far the most talented
young sportswriter I've seen in years. But being prime-time material doesn't
make you immune to rabid mommies and daddies, and he's certainly been getting
his baptism by fire lately.
Having been in Nick's shoes quite a bit over the last 20 years,
I've heard the snarls before. To his credit, he's handled the sniping rather
well.
Love may be blind, but living vicariously through your child's
athletic abilities also makes you deaf, dumb and frothing-at-the-mouth
stupid.
It's too bad we're not in the television business, and could
play back the video of some of the childish commentary we receive.
The standard line is, of course: "You hate our school/team!"
Since taking over as managing editor here, I've been asked point-blank
"which school my kids go to," like that would prove a bias. My pat answer
any more is that “My kids are home-schooled!” (KISD won't let chihuahuas
enroll.)
Have you ever noticed that your perception of how your team or
school is covered is influenced in great measure by whether they're winning
or losing? I can't remember ever being accused of "bias" against a team
that was 14-0.
In the small-newspaper business, it's impossible for one writer
to be at every athletic event of every school every time the gates are
open. When you're dealing with the winter and spring sports here in KISD,
for example, you're dealing with something like 15-24 teams at three schools
in six or seven different sports — not counting Faith West Academy and
non-school sporting events. That's a heckuva lot of work for one guy.
We have to rely on reports from coaches — some of which are more
substantive than others and some of which are easier to understand than
others. I, for one, appreciate the fact that KISD coaches are far and away
the most cooperative I've ever dealt with, win, lose or draw.
And let's face it: as a small community newspaper, our bread
and butter is "refrigerator journalism." It would be truly stupid for us
to miss a chance to put something into the paper which we know Mommy and
Daddy are gonna clip and hang on the wall.
We also get a lot of flack for "hating" certain sports — soccer,
golf, swimming and tennis have been the most frequently-mentioned over
the years.
When you're a sportswriter, you're charged with the responsibility
of making your story as entertaining and informative as possible; it wouldn't
make sense to "hate" a sport. Personally, I think golf ranks among the
most boring sports on the planet — but I can still show you a couple of
award-winning golf stories I've written.
The comment is made, however, based on the fact that sports like
those mentioned above "don't get the same coverage football does." Of course
not. When you start filling up the stands with 8,000 people for a volleyball
match or a swim meet, that'll change — 8,000 people in the stands means
8,000 people who will pick up a copy of our paper to read the story.
(And yes, I've seen the entire populations of Wallis and East
Bernard at volleyball matches before, so it CAN happen.)
Of all the snarling I've heard over the years, though, there's
one that always crawls under my skin and makes me snarl back: "MY child
is OLYMPIC material! You're damaging his/her chances! for a pro/college
career!"
The talent of a truly gifted, Olympic-caliber young athlete usually
draws the media like a magnet. Stumping for publicity isn't required.
In 20 years in this business, I've seen literally thousands of
really good high-school athletes. I've seen hundreds that went on to play
college and/or pro ball, including a few who went on to the Olympics.
At the same time, I've seen hundreds whose talent was diminished
or destroyed because they started believing their own press clippings.
I've seen hundreds more who've gotten college scholarships based
on great publicity, only to discover they're really only marginal when
they step up to the next level — and that realization is devastating.
I've seen even more who were destroyed by being pushed too far
by mommies and daddies so bent on their own self-glorification they neglected
to consider the emotional and physical damage they were inflicting on their
offspring.
Support your kids. Revel with them, encourage them, challenge
them, even give them a moderate amount of prodding. But keep it all in
perspective.
There are a lot of things more important in life than sports.