Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Bulletin board material

It's become clear to me the past few months how powerful the typed word can be around here.

It seems like every other week there's a prep sports team feeling overlooked or undervalued in the public sphere.

"Such and such team was not featured in The Tribune this week! How dare that Scroggin?!"

I've come to terms with the sentiment. It's a fact of life that every team in every sport cannot be mentioned in every story.

I'm usually allowed between 525 and 630 words to tell an engaging story you want to read — even if a friend or relative of yours is not playing — and include all the pertinent facts. Considering I've already typed more than 115 words so far on this blog post, it's not very much space.

So maybe you won't read about yourself or your favorite team in the sports pages tomorrow. With a dozen schools teaming up on one sports reporter, you probably won't.

Smart coaches have used the perceived slight as motivation. And that's all right with me. I'll still keep making coverage decisions based on the same criteria.

But know that if your team isn't getting constant coverage, there's still a positive to come out of it.

Your school's coach may be giving the uber-effective us-against-the-world speech right now as you read this.

And since The Tribune's coverage already produces so much bulletin board material, here's some more: Countywide power rankings for some of the winter team sports.

Boys Basketball
1. Morro Bay
2. San Luis Obispo
3. Mission Prep
4. Paso Robles
5. Templeton
Also considered: Arroyo Grande

Girls Basketball
1. Arroyo Grande
2. Morro Bay
3. Mission Prep
4. Atascadero
5. Paso Robles

Boys Soccer
1. San Luis Obispo
2. Paso Robles
3. Arroyo Grande
4. Nipomo
5. Atascadero

Girls Soccer
1. Arroyo Grande
2. San Luis Obispo
3. Atascadero
4. Nipomo
5. Mission Prep

Wrestling
1. Atascadero
2. Morro Bay
3. Paso Robles
4. Nipomo
5. Arroyo Grande

Hey, if your team wasn't mentioned or isn't as high as you think it should be. Feel free to print this page out, highlight whatever parts and send it to the coach. Some free motivation care of this blog. Happy Holidays!

** Regarding the omission of girls water polo: I don't know enough about anything at this point except Arroyo Grande might be the best around. I guess you can think of that statement as a bonus track of motivation.