Byrd v SJA article

[enigma]

www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050208/SPORTS01/502080311/1024

[415]

Shame there was nothing in the Advocate...oh wait there was...one line in the bottom corner in the prep report...

You would think with the success of BR areasoccer teams that the Advocate would publish more to support them.

[rivers2]

Even worse than that, 415, Bishop Sullivan played at Indy yesterday at 6:00 and not so much as a line score was reported in The Advocate.

Hopefully soon, someone at The Advocate will take a look at the demographics of the typical soccer household in terms of income and realize that this same group makes up the subscriber core of their readership. Pressure must come from above the sports hack level down there starting with the Manships working down.

[Mung]

This is a simple task: get the prep reporter's phone #, and call in your scores, and scheduled games. Here in Alexandria, we call in the scores after every game, and it makes the TV news and the newspaper. Call 'em enough and they might even show up for a game. Who's the prep reporter at the advocate? Robin Fambrough? A quick glance at the bylines shows Charles Salzer and Fred Aldrich wrote the two most recent soccer stories. If you don't call, who gets them the info? They've got many sports/scores to cover, so don't expect them to get out there on their own...help 'em out.

[rivers2]

Perhaps not so simple in practice as in theory. The procedure followed that I'm aware of is that each local team assigns a person to call the scores in and that is the basis for getting the score printed.

You are correct, Robin Frambrough is the Prep Reporter. Charles Salzer and Fred Aldrich whom you mention must be contributing writers as they are not staff writers.

Last night was not a busy night on the Baton Rouge Prep scene disallowing the usual Monday prep basketball games. You have a local team (Bishop Sullivan) that is advancing to it's second game in the playoffs at a local playing field and there still is no coverage. I understand that the Advocate did not fully detail a game played in Shreveport but surely a mere mention on a otherwise uneventful evening would have not been too much to expect for a local event.


Mung, your suggestions are appreciated and those people who are responsible for their teams scores being reported will hopefully add their two cents here

[3rdCoastStriker]

That was a nice article. In the BR area you'll see "more than the box scores" in the playoffs if you "notify" the Advocate. Also, they do take articles from "contributing reporters" with some discretion. They will not be out here just for the hell of it though. We're not part of the NCAA juggernaut or a "BOY'S" program.....

[rivers2]

Thanks for your comments, 3rd Coast. You must be speaking offically for the Advocate as you disavow being a juggernaut etc.? Whom do you refer to as "they" will not be out for the hell of it? In the context of what you said .... what does that mean?

Don't get me wrong, the Advocate is hands down the finest newspaper in Louisiana. My point was that through appearances soccer is regulated to 2nd class status on the Prep Pages. It's ironic that I say that and no less than three articles appear today but that is the exception. There is no arguement the importance of the partnership between those that notify and those that report. Please, however, don't dismiss the fact that a good reporter knows where a story is and shouldn't have to be told. A local team advancing to round two in a state playoff game at a local venue on an otherwise dead night deserves notice and a mere mention.

It's easy to expect excellence when excellence is so prevalent with other sports coverage.

[3rdCoastStriker]

I am being sarcastic. "They"? Who else could "they" be? Those "good reporters" only listen to the bug in their ear when it comes to female high school sports unless the ball is orange.

[enigma]

or flourescent yellow...