Robledo vents, calls on all high school coaches to ...
Fred Robledo vents on his Tribune blog. I agree with him.
With the baseball and softball season starting Friday, MaxPreps made easy by yours truly is the best way to follow standings, schedules, rosters, stats and game-by-game results, as long the head coaches in your area don't play the "we don't want to get scouted," card again, and don't post anything. Bishop Amat baseball posted all last year and won their second straight championship. If you're good enough, it won't matter, so stop hiding. There is absolutely no excuse for not posting rosters, schedules and results, but still many of our area coaches do not post anything when this is their responsibility, and they know who they're. So, parents, players and fans, please remind your high school coach to take care of this, which makes it easier for all of us to follow what's going on with your high school teams. Why CIF hasn't made this mandatory is beyond me, because coaches who do post on a regular basis have become punished by coaches who hide their stats, then surprise us with mind-boggling final numbers at the end of the year. It's not fair and it won't be until everyone plays by the same rules. I guarantee before the internet that every coach who once played loved seeing their stats in the paper, especially those who had great high school careers. So, now it's the coaches' turn to do the same for their players, because after all, what do coaches always tell us, "it's about the kids." Okay, then make it about the kids. There is only so much I can do, and last year was a pathetic example of too many coaches not posting anything.
TOURNAMENT ALERT: I need baseball and softball tournament schedules for all area tournaments. Please email baseball schedules to me at miguel.melendez@sgvn.com and e-mail softball schedules to keith.lair@sgvn.com. Also, to report scores call 626-962-8811, ext. 2233 or 2242. You can also email results to scores@sgvn.com, and please make sure to leave a call-back number in case we have questions. Can't wait until the season starts.
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Melendez worked as a correspondent for the San Gabriel Valley Tribune for three years and later landed a job as a freelance writer at the Los Angeles Times before accepting an offer at The Orange County Register covering high schools. Melendez covered Major League Soccer at The Register for three years before being promoted to report on the Lakers, Angels and Dodgers for the Web. Melendez also worked for the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Fresno Bee, Oakland Tribune and The Boston Globe. E-mail opinions, suggestions and tips to miguel.melendez@sgvn.com. |
I am your frequent reader. Can you inform me how do you fight with comments spam on your blog?
Fred,
The only reason that a coach wouldn't post stats is that evidence of performance creates accountability. When the phrase all positions are earned is used but isn't truly the case.You see really good players that deserve the start yet get little playing time. Often times you'll see 3 or 4 players that are significantly better. Stats are evidence to a players performance which could be used against this type of coaching. Of course,stats are only as good as the person keeping them. It's interesting that one person has complete control over a teams success.Look at Michael Jordan, one of the greatest basketball players that ever played if not the greatest, either way.He didn't make his high school basketball team as a sophomore. How exactly did that happen? How do you live something like that down? you don't. your always gonna be the idiot that cut jordan.
So Max Preps doesn't have all the rosters up. Big deal. Go ask the coaches or find a scorekeeper or something. Get off your butt and do some work and stop being so lazy!
I don't think the papers even look at the reports coming out of MaxPreps. I reported scores for every softball game that Mayfield had last year into MaxPreps. Each time I filled out all of the stats, game summaries, etc. and then I used the options to e-mail out the information to the Pasadena Star News and not once was any of the information picked up in the Star News.
I repeatedly sent e-mails to Galetti and after a number of them he responded that I had to "Call-in" the scores or they won't get reported.
I tried calling in the scores, but it is a huge hassle and often the information that you report doesn't get recorded properly, so I gave up.
If coaches tried harder, folks would not complain about poor coverage or coverage that includes incorrect records. It is very easy for a coach to report scores, rosters and stats (or assign the task to a willing parent). AND maxpreps includes a media distribution option for the coaches complete with a check list of newspapers they will e-mail your results and stats to. This service is free. It takes about 10 minutes to record stats after a game. Too many coaches think their job ends when the final whistle blows for the night. Do a little more.
That said, local writers need to understand that when they are only taking team records off of MaxPreps and MaxPreps shows one team with 21 games played and the other team with seven games played, the team with seven games has an incomplete record that should not be printed in the paper. A little more common sense needs to be used by the writer.
Mooney, perhaps you're right in regards to volleyball and other sports. If you're emailing in results to scores@sgvn.com and they're not getting into the paper, let me know about it. I made a suggestion last year that league's should get together and create a webpage where sharing information is easy. For example if the Rio Hondo league set up a maxpreps type webpage that included standings, stats, schedules and results for all sports, and made it mandatory for coaches to update it on a regular basis, that would solve a lot of problems, and make it easy for the public to follow what's going on. I certainly would promote the heck out of it.
"If it isn't financially viable for Star News to do so, they won't."
You said it all-it isn't and "they" don't.
eagleball:
quoting:
"Fred Robledo vents on his Tribune blog. I agree with him."
You are correct; MaxPreps does not cover sports other than: basketball, baseball, football, lacrosse, soccer, softball, volleyball, and wrestling. My suggestion is this local newspaper take up the missing sports. There is a large population not served that could be. If it isn't financially viable for Star News to do so, they won't.
Man and the Moon(ey),
Clearly the reason some of the other sports are not reported is that resources (even MaxPreps) don't allow publishers to do so. The most compelling sprots/stories will usually wind up some where for the public's consumption. If you need to know about something that is not being posted/printed, fall back on your network of peers. No one is "venting". People simply want a level source for information (even if it is garbage). Take it easy and let the major sports of interest bask in the publications...
What about those of us who would like to see results from more sports than just football, soccer, basketball, softball, and baseball?
If we're using MaxPreps as the standard for what sports are "newsworthy" (which I don't necessarily agree with,) and if I'm remembering correctly, girls volleyball didn't get the press it deserved last fall, especially compared to the press received by soccer this past season (obviously football will dominate during the fall season, but that shouldn't mean we neglect the primary girls sport at the same time, and most people would agree that basketball is the main winter sport)
If we're calling on coaches to "do the right thing" shouldn't we also give credit to all of the athletes and teams who compete in our area? I'd like to see results from every sport instead of the occasional piece on a specific athlete or team from the "minor" sports. Working together with coaches, it shouldn't be hard to set up a system that could simply give match/game results from every sport that competes in CIF. (The Times used to do something pretty basic but got rid of it, I'm assuming for budget reasons.) If nothing else, a page similar to a blog dedicated to posting results only (maybe stats too, or a separate one for stats.)
As far as reporting scores, there were several times I emailed in results from girls volleyball matches and I did not see them anywhere in the print edition or online. It's something I do anyway to get the information to other stakeholders, but other coaches might be less inclined to report if it's not used. However, I do understand the demands placed on the newspaper staff and sympathize with the difficulty in satisfying everyone and making sure nothing falls through the cracks.
All this to say, perhaps it's not a matter of coaches trying to "hide" results or neglecting their responsibility, as much as coaches not feeling their efforts are fully utilized. High school coaches have a lot of work to do (especially at the varsity level,) are underpaid, and often underappriciated. The difference they make "for the kids" can not easily be measured, and it's the only reason they do it. "Venting" towards them in a public forum, and saying they are not doing their job, is inappropriate.
If we report the scores to MaxPreps and then have MaxPreps send the information to the Pasadena Star News, do we still have to call in the scores? Can't you use the reports from MaxPreps?
yeah I was wondering why there weren't any rosters for some football teams....and in other sports.