What newspaper does the best job covering HS Athletics

[OLDREF]

In my opinion alot of newspapers are missing the boat on High School sports coverage in South East Texas. If you pick up the paper on any given day 90% of the sports page is AP generated with maybe two articles written by staff writers.
Top 10 Sports pages in South East Texas
1 Port Arthur News
2 Polk County Enterprise
3 Orange Leader
4 Bonwier Statesman
5 Fred Daily
6 Spurger Times
7 Nome Newsboy
8 Hardin County Times
9 The Buna Beacon
10 The Beaumont EMPTYprise
Thats embarrassing what we pay 50 cents for. I would pay a dollar for a decent Saturday morning paper with state wide scores and a couple of stories. I would pay 75 cents for a paper that would keep up with district stats,states rankings, maybe even go out on a limb and make some picks, area stat leaders in all classifications and feature one school a day.

[bellvillefan6699]

Hoofbeat in bellville high school.

[BH_146]

OLDREF

In our area, I think the Baytown Sun and the Houston Chronicle do great job considering thier resources. The Chronicle has a very large area in which they try to cover. There are only 3 assigned staff writers for the daily coverage of all sports and then have part-time people who put together articles for a regional coverage on Thursdays. And though were are only a 3A school among numerous 4 and 5A schools, our volleyball team was given a feature on Wednesday of last week in the main issue while the football team was the feature article in the regional coverage today.

And though many may gripe about the coverage from our local paper, The Baytown Sun, we usually have something almost weekly. This is from a staff of two who must cover all sports, male and female athletics, for 8 area schools. And they must do so within a 40 hour week because overtime must be justified by the writers and is usually discouraged.

You mentioned about you being willing to extra for additional information. Well many times the writers at these newspapers would love to have that information. With limited staffing, they must rely on local coaches to send in that info. Usually coaches begin with the intention of doing just that, but as the season wears on and losses mount, well the desire begins to fade. Or a there could be a number of other reasons, such as time, not agreeing with what has been written so why help them out, etc. ....

And yes that is a shame. I would be willing to say the majority of coaches have thier stats in a computer program before lunch is served on Saturday. So, the stats are just a couple of clicks from being sent to your local paper. But if they are not self-serving as viewed by the coach, then why give fodder to someone who may be after you. Some people see numbers as being either correct or false. But in reality, numbers are some of the easiest info to manipulate to try and prove a point.

Sorry for all the rambling, but I have been on all three sides. I have learned to appreciate the high school sports coverage when I can get it.

[vet93]

Back when Mike Lee was the sports editor...I think that the San Angelo Standard Times was hard to beat. Now they have kind of slipped into mediocrity.

[xlr8tor]

vet93:
Back when Mike Lee was the sports editor...I think that the San Angelo Standard Times was hard to beat. Now they have kind of slipped into mediocrity.Yup, for the past few years, I have heard them commonly called the "San Angelo Sub-Standard Times". Just my take.

[BurnetBandRules]

The Burnet Bulletin does an awesome job. A few years ago they hired a sports writer who does an excellent job in dscribing the game. There is a Sports section the covers ONLY Football for the first two pages and then the rest is devoted to indepth coverage of our J-V and Freshmen football/volleyball/basketball etc. They even do some coverage on other teams and always lists how our district has done, the stats aquired and players of the week. I don't know if it can be beaten.....but I am a Burnet fan so what can I say???

[rholl]

I think the Fort Worth Star Telegram does a very good job of it. I have a buddy in Houston who calls me to get updates on what is going on in football because he knows I can look at our paper an it will have the info.

[BrahmaMom]

The Bellville Times does a great job for a small town paper. Editor Bruce White puts his heart and soul into covering all the sports in town, down to the Little League tournaments. One critique of football reporting in general, the moms of the defensive players wish the defense would get more credit. There is probably a reason there isn't more defensive coverage, and the offensive report is more exciting, just an observation.

[KvilleWildcats60]

Burnet always thinks they have the best everything! :D

<small>[ October 02, 2003, 06:35 PM: Message edited by: KvilleWildcats60 ]</small>

[BHS#1]

I think the Burnet Bulletin is a great home town newspaper. Wayne and Monica work hard and do a great job!!!

[BHS#1]

Oh I forgot the front page of the sports page is in full color. :D

[BHS#1]

Hey Mr. KvilleWildcats60 are you a Burnet Basher? Maybe the Burnet Bulletin is better. You send me a copy of your hometown paper I'll send you one of ours.

[VWG]

I agree that the Ft. Worth Star Telegram does a great job with HS Sports. Their "Sports Zone" page for HS athletics is great, and their Friday edition with "Gameday" that covers HS football, college, and Pro is second to none.
One thing that bugs me about small town papers is that a bunch of them are "homers". If a team blows a game and everybody knows it they come up with a cream puff article and make it look as if it was just a tough night. Tell us how it really happened... did the coach make a questionable call, could the defense not stop anybody, was the QB throwing the ball to the wrong team all night?? Don't sugarcoat the game just because the home fans might get their feelings hurt.

[Da Mules]

In West Texas/Panhandle region, the Amarillo Globe-News has far & away the best coverage.
My nominee for the absolute worst high-school sports coverage in the entire state is the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Their Saturday edition rarely includes any games that end after 9:30 or so (apparently they can't stay up late enough to put out a decent report.) Very few articles; mostly just little one-paragraph game summaries. They are totally obsessed with Texas Tech-anything from football to competitive basket weaving, to the point of all but excluding high school athletics. Their obvious bias is that the closer a town is to the geographical center of Lubbock, the better the team.. sports section is not worth reading.