When it comes to a newspaper’s coverage of high school sports, no matter the town, the criticism is always the same.
Of the complaints we most often hear, “You favor (this team) over (that team),” is the most common.
Here’s the truth: every school, every team is equally important in our coverage of prep sports.
It makes no difference whatsoever if you’re a Florence school, Lee Central, Cheraw, Carvers Bay, Kingstree or any school in between. Your teams are in our coverage area and are newsworthy for us.
Here’s the thing, though. There are 37 high school football teams in the Pee Dee. We have a sports staff of four here at the Morning News.
It doesn’t take a math whiz to understand we can’t cover every team or know every player.
And we’re just talking football.
In addition to trying to keep up with 37 teams on the gridiron, we try to keep tabs on high school volleyball, tennis, basketball, golf, soccer, baseball, softball, track and field, Francis Marion University sports, Coker College sports, Florence-Darlington Technical College sports, RedWolves baseball, Phantoms football, Darlington Raceway and recreational sports.
Hundreds of teams, thousands of athletes.
Four sports writers. Whew.
High school sports are a wonderful way to bring communities together, and the newspaper is an important part of every community.
The sports section is a place for readers to celebrate their teams’ successes and fret over their shortcomings.
In the Saturday sports section, we want to give readers a report from every football game that’s played Friday night. On our weekly prep pages, we want every school represented.
But a sports staff of four alone can’t make that happen.
We need coaches to phone in results of games immediately following the final horn so we can meet nightly deadlines.
We need coaches to send back statistical forms we e-mail and fax out each week.
And we need athletic directors, players and parents to remind coaches to do so.
If this happens, every team gets ink, hundreds of players get recognition and our readers are served.
Help us help you and we all win.
Help us help you
The Morning News sports department needs coaches to report results and statistics.
Our office numbers:
(843) 317-7274, (843) 317-7271, (843) 317- 7262, (843) 317-7260
Our fax: (843) 317-7294
Our e-mail: csports@florencenews.com
— Unsigned editorials represent the views of this newspaper. Editorial Board members are Mark Laskowski (regional publisher), James Bennett (regional editor), Sam Bundy (sports editor), Kimberly Ginfrida (news editor), David Johnson (regional circulation director), Charles Tomlinson (Lake City News & Post editor) and Jackie Torok (metro editor).
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