THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 3, 1996 TAG: 9603020003
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LYNN FEIGENBAUM
LENGTH: Medium: 99 lines
Maybe it's the post-Super Bowl doldrums, but sports fans have pitched me some real knuckle balls lately.
``I'm sick of half reports on the box-scores page, and results that are read in Borneo before you get them'' - you know, that sort of thing. I could fill a good chunk of this page with the questions and comments we've fielded.
Instead, we picked out a few hot buttons for our panel of experts: Bob Fleming (sports section editor) and team leaders Chic Riebel (high-school and community sports), Carl Fincke (college and pro sports) and Joe Garvey (sports copy desk).
Why do you bury stories about the Hampton Roads Admirals on your inside pages, except when something bad happens?
Bob Fleming: Since mid-October, the Admirals have appeared on the Sports front more than 20 times.
Coverage this season, however, has been complicated by the near arrival of a Canadian Football League team. We needed to switch our Admirals beat writer, Harry Minium, to CFL coverage in November, and we've been playing catch-up since.
We firmed up our coverage in January, when staff writer Jim Ducibella, who covers the Washington Redskins, assumed the Admirals beat after the NFL season ended.
We supplement game coverage with stories and columns on a range of topics, including player profiles, team analysis - even a feature on Scope's Zamboni driver.
By bad news, you might mean the recent incident at Scope between coach John Brophy and a fan. Brophy apparently tossed a hacksaw blade at the fan after an exchange of remarks. This was news.
Old Dominion's Lady Monarchs are No. 7 in the most recent Associated Press women's college basketball poll. Why don't you do more features?
Carl Fincke: Every day, we have to make judgments in the sports pages based on limited space and resources. A driving factor is: Which stories and teams are the majority of our readers interested in?
Generally, coverage is decided by a team's success and drawing power. It's not an exact science, by any means.
We take the Lady Monarchs beat seriously. We have done four features on the team, and plan to have at least two more before they enter NCAA tournament play.
Since Jan. 1, we have covered every ODU women's game but one with a staff writer.
You publish Athletes of the Week on Wednesdays. But why don't you honor coaches?
Chic Riebel: By its nature, the Athletes of the Week is for athletes.
In the high-school winter-sports season, there were seven varsity sports going on at 38 high schools. In a 12-week season, that means we can only honor about 24 kids from more than 200 teams.
If given a choice, we're sure that even the coaches will say that it should be the kids who are singled out. When we see really interesting situations about coaches, we try to write them as features.
You have yet to run the Tidewater Conference of Independent Schools all-conference football selections, even though the season's been over two months.
Chic Riebel: The TCIS all-conference football selections appeared in the community tabloids in the latter part of December, about six weeks after the season ended.
The TCIS team was not released to us until the first week of December. At that time, we were devoting most of the space in the tabloids to winter sports previews.
In addition, there were all-district and all-TCIS teams in other sports that were competing for space.
You get the Super Bowl results in the North Carolina edition, but not late ODU scores, and sometimes you don't do a followup article the next day for N.C. readers.
Joe Garvey: Our deadline for closing out our last page for the North Carolina edition is 10:45 p.m. Most night events end too late to make that edition. The Super Bowl, however, starts around 6:15 and is over in time for the North Carolina edition.
Space and other news of the day determine whether we can run follow-up stories to the previous night's games in the North Carolina edition. But at the very least, the box scores should run and our agate clerks have been reminded to run them.
You NEVER PUBLISH ANY-THING/PUBLISH TOO MUCH on:
NASCAR
Old Dominion University
Norfolk State University
Washington Redskins
NFL/NBA/NHL
High schools
Community sports
Bob Fleming: Our sports news-hole is finite. Sports fans' interests seem infinite.
We'll continue to use our best judgment to bring readers the most newsworthy and timely sports news in the most engaging way possible. Keep reading our sports report, and continue to tell us how we're doing.
How to contact Sports: Call section editor Bob Fleming at 446-2369. Or write: The Virginian-Pilot, 150 W. Brambleton Ave., Norfolk, Va. 23510.
by CNB