Waiting for a call

It hurts my feelings to be persona non grata. Well maybe I don't care if people get mad at me all that much. When you are working on stories and people don’t return your calls it doesn’t make you too happy. I feel like a teen age girl sitting home all alone on a Friday night waiting for the phone to ring.

Right now I think to some people we are persona non grata at The Courier Sports Department. I have been trying to get ahold of former Ada and Kent State punter Josh Brazen for a feature on what it was like for him to be at Buffalo Bills training camp. He got cut about a week and a half ago I haven’t been able to reach him. He lived out a dream every kid that ever puts on the pads thinks about getting a shot in the NFL, It would make an interesting story I think.

Also I called Findlay High School athletic director Jerry Snodgrass for a story on the OHSAA’s side of the new rules on formulating their divisions beginning next year. Since he is president of the Board of Control I figured he’d be the guy to talk to. I wrote a story on the subject a few weeks ago just to get the word out because no one seemed to know anything about it. And Mark Heiman wrote a pretty funny column on the matter this week with fictional characters Gus Gridiron and Willie Whistleblower that probably wouldn’t sit well with much of the OHSAA brass (were waiting to get all press privileges revoked at the Courier for OHSAA events this year).

I haven’t been able to reach him yet. I’m also working on a story about coaches having to cut kids from their teams. What the impact is on the coach, the kid, the parents. How to do it, how not to do it. I wanted his perspective on the issue as a former coach and as an administrator.

And of course I’m still hoping Old Fort principal Tom Weaver calls me back today because last I heard they didn’t have a soccer coach. They are on just about everyone’s soccer schedule in the area and a member of the locally-based North Central Ohio Soccer Association. They have had some pretty good teams the last couple of years and if they don’t field a team because they couldn’t get a coach that’s newsworthy and other people should know about it.

Everyone enjoys reading about the good stuff. Kids working going the extra mile to improve, teams winning championships or coaches who care about their programs and their kids. It’s the other stuff, some people don’t want to see in the paper. And that’s why they don’t return calls or may get defensive when you ask about certain things.

Good, bad or ugly all stories should be told.

Noteworthy…

-- With three first-year tennis coaches don’t expect many results in the newspaper this year. Of course we will always have Findlay High School’s results and Ryan Whipple, Fostoria’s young second-year coach does a good job too but the other area schools like Upper Sandusky, Ottawa-Glandorf and Bluffton won’t probably report too may matches. As always we’ll do what we can though.

--- We put together weekly notes on each of the area football games for our use strictly in the office. It has match ups, team records and other interesting tidbits we can put in game stories. I’ll post our weekly notes on this blog on Thursday nights if anyone is interested in seeing it.

--- Browns running back Lee Suggs failed his physical with the New York Jets and the trade worked out between the two teams has been voided. If he can’t pass the Jets physical, it doesn’t speak well for my beloved Brownies and their physical standards. It’s killing me that I shell out $44 per game for my season tickets and this is what I am getting for my money.

--- We’re getting the final few stories done for the football tab. It goes to print Sunday night after Monday’s edition of the Courier is printed.