PJ Star

[wily coyote]

I have been putting this off for some time but after reading todays Sports page I felt I couldn't hold off any longer. I have several friends in the Sports Dept. and Many retired writers from my officiating days. My beef is not with any of them and I want to make that perfectly clear. My beef is that the local coverage of High School basketball is just absolutely pathetic. No write-ups of Mid-Illini or Mid State 6 games is just hard to believe we've come to this. I have kept my paper for Sudoku's and crosswords puzzles I guess. High Schools kids and teams get zero coverage and they deserve much better. My next cost savings will be an easy decision. PJ Star you will be gone!!! That is a no brainer for what we pay for that worthless Sports page. I, like many of the players during my career I'm sure made friends with a lot of the sportswriters covering their games. Those days seem to be long gone as will be my subscription.

[tornado]

agree- but it's even way, way worse for other sports - especially girls sports..
things like small school VB, softball or soccer...
the game reports and even the box scores often never get reported at all...
but there's little chance it'll ever change- the PJS not only has budget issues, but they just don't have anyone who even wants to cover this..
When I read the columns on the various sports "Area Player of the Year" and All Area teams, I know for a fact the writer has never even seen 90% of those kids or their teams play.

I might give as contrast - guys like Jim Mattson or Kurt Pegler or Lee Hall....
their sports staffs are comprised of ONE SINGLE PERSON and yet I have seen Jim and Kurt at literally hundreds of local high school games and events.
So how is it they can get 1000 times more detail & coverage than a multimillion dollar corporation with a staff of dozens, even hundreds? It's cuz they care and they have something unique anymore - dedication to excellence.

[lefty]

agree- but it's even way, way worse for other sports - especially girls sports..
things like small school VB, softball or soccer...
the game reports and even the box scores often never get reported at all...
but there's little chance it'll ever change- the PJS not only has budget issues, but they just don't have anyone who even wants to cover this..
When I read the columns on the various sports "Area Player of the Year" and All Area teams, I know for a fact the writer has never even seen 90% of those kids or their teams play.

I might give as contrast - guys like Jim Mattson or Kurt Pegler or Lee Hall....
their sports staffs are comprised of ONE SINGLE PERSON and yet I have seen Jim and Kurt at literally hundreds of local high school games and events.
So how is it they can get 1000 times more detail & coverage than a multimillion dollar corporation with a staff of dozens, even hundreds? It's cuz they care and they have something unique anymore - dedication to excellence.

I thought it was up to the schools to submit box scores the PJS.....but I get the point...there just isn't much coverage of HS sports which is sad for the community

[tornado]

they can submit but it doesn't guarantee they get covered beyond that - but I rest my case if the only way a school can get a mention is to do the work themselves, submit it and hope for the best..

[wily coyote]

they can submit but it doesn't guarantee they get covered beyond that - but I rest my case if the only way a school can get a mention is to do the work themselves, submit it and hope for the best..

I want to see more than a box score. I want to see a write-up about the game. I'd like to see what officials worked the game and I don't think a write-up is asking to much for what we pay for this paper. Really sad what has happened to this paper.

[turtle]

I want to see more than a box score. I want to see a write-up about the game. I'd like to see what officials worked the game and I don't think a write-up is asking to much for what we pay for this paper. Really sad what has happened to this paper.

this x 1000 -- I also think HS coverage is more desirable than these small time college and JUCO games they waste time on

[tornado]

they send the entire staff to cover cross country meets & have 2 or 3 separate writeups daily for a week cuz one of the sports editors is a cross country fan, and local bowling gets pretty decent coverage cuz Juan Campos appears to love bowling...and there's one other topic that seemed to get covered every day for weeks but...so that obviously is the key - if it is not a sport one of the main guys at PJS loves, then it simply gets no coverage.

[Da Coach]

They also seem to prefer to write multiple long, glorifying columns about the last place finisher in cross country, but then ignore the top teams and the best performers in every other sport.
I dumped my subscription several years ago and haven't missed it.

[wily coyote]

They also seem to prefer to write multiple long, glorifying columns about the last place finisher in cross country, but then ignore the top teams and the best performers in every other sport.
I dumped my subscription several years ago and haven't missed it.

I'm real close to pulling the trigger. Even the print has become so much smaller for most of the sports pages. It's just pathetic what they put out today.

[wily coyote]

this x 1000 -- I also think HS coverage is more desirable than these small time college and JUCO games they waste time on

Couldn't agree more turtle. They put so much in there that most people don't give a hoot about than short change the HS kids that deserve the press. It's pretty sorry.