Just need to vent a little here!

As I was reading the Sunday paper, looking for coverage of a major wrestling tournament in the Metro area that included 19 LOCAL high schools, I ran across their story.

I am more than a little disappointed to see the write-up this so called newspaper had to offer. Of the 14 weight classes, they referred to results of 7 Championship matches. No other results!!

To ALL of the other Champions, as well as those of you who placed or competed this weekend ---

Congratulations! It was enjoyable watching all of you compete.

Thanks for 2 days of quality wrestling and Good Luck for the remainder of the season.


Jeff Broadbent

I have to agree with you, Jeff. Wrestling coverage is normally an afterthought with the KC Star. I get very disappointed when their only coverage of dual events is just something like Team 1-66, Team 2-34. I want to know who wins each match at every weight. They publish all the detail for every boys and girls basketball game. I don't know what can be done about it other than to just complain to them. I guess if they get enough complaints that they might do a better job on wrestling coverage in the future.

I think you are both right on. And not only the KC Star, Metro Sports put a double duel of a few of the high schools from Mo. a couple of weeks ago. It was some really high quality wrestling, but the fact is I didn't see MS anywhere near the place. We had two national freestyle champs wrestling (Erisman and Shumate) not to mention some national placers. After reading the article I noticed they had Elsrode at Olathe East not at Olathe South. Very shoddy reporting to say the least. Another story they missed is STA won the tourney with, I beleive, six freshman in the lineup. Congratulations STA.

the KC STAR does a much better job in covering local wrestling than does most other bigger city papers that i have seen. I am going to defend them here on this one. I'm assuming MR. Broadbent that you are upset that your son didn't get the attention in the press that you thought he should have. Yes, he had an excellent tournament, but with wrestling you have to understand is not the #1 priority for the weekend paper. The Neighborhood news will cover the tournament more indepth for our area and i'm sure will mention justin and the others not mentioned. high school wrestling isn't going to be a big story with the chiefs, ku basketball and football, mu football, and basketball, etc, etc.

just wait for the Sun or Neighborhood news section and you will see more coverage. Don't worry about the press anyway. it doesn't matter that much. If kids continue to win, they will have to do a story on them.

Vikes now I will disagree with you - last week are paper did a story on how Turner and Olathe South were two of the better teams this side of the state - than when they met in a dual there was no one there from the star - plus the results were not even in the paper the next day.

duals have to be called in.

that is the home coaches fault.

the star doesn't employ enough people to send reporters to every dual, swim meet, basketball game, debate tourn, etc everyday. They have a reporter who covers certain high school. sports and the home team of any event calls that reporter to send in scores.

i'm not trying to argue with anyone, and i wish wrestling could be front page news, but the fact is that it isn't going to happen. My point is that we are lucky they even cover any wrestling.

Your right, we all would like them to be able to cover the sport we all enjoy.

Vikes,

I was hoping you had a name.

Obviously you dont know me very well, or you would know this isn't about seeing my sons results.

What I am frustrated with is the lack of coverage this tournament received considering it involved 19 Metro high schools.

It does appear they had someone there who pieced together a hit and miss story that gave recognition to 7 matches and some of the team standings.

Once again Congrats to all who participated! It was fun watching.

Jeff Broadbent

Jeff:

I do not remember the specifics of Sunday's article. If they did not mention specifically your son's championship match, it certainly should have been. I know you are not looking for any publicity for your son, but that was a very good match and a hotly contested weight group. It should have been mentioned in the story if it wasn't.

Vikes:

If this what the Star perceives as the general interest in wrestling, we need to change their view. Wrestling is not going to grow the way it should if it is always just going to be back page mention in the sports page. Maybe what you suggested is correct that the coaches need to take more responsiblity in reporting the scores but would they report the individual matches in a dual even if it was reported to them? As far as them not having enough staff to cover all events, they seem to have enough staff to cover all the major football games on a Friday night.

So yes it is a matter of general interest. I guess we need to find ways to build that up. It reminds me of when I was a young lad back in the early seventies and I was constantly being turned down by the ladies when I would ask them for a date. They seemed to prefer this handsome young Irishman. I thought I had no chance, since I was not nearly as handsome. I decided to develop my gift of gab. It was then that I started to get some dates. I bet Strengthman can remember those days.

I don't think Strengthman ever had to worry, he's an all-around Pimp Daddy, or whatever they say nowadays.

The things you guys say! Vince you had a gift for gab until you couldn't talk. And as far as a pimp
I was just a lovable Irishman.

If Kansas hs coaches as a group have a weakness it's promoting their sport. I would first check to see if in fact the results had been faxed/emailed to the Star. Then if they haven't talk to the host coach and find out why not. Explain that the sport which you follow needs all the pub it can get. If the results had been sent then write a letter to the paper nicely explaining your concern about the lack of coverage. At the very least the paper can post the results minus an article.
Vikes you are wrong our sport needs all the pub and coverage we can get.
If coaches don't send results and fans don't complain then we shouldn't be surprised if there is no coverage.

Yes the Irishman became envious of my new acquired gift of gab. He would no longer let me frequent his establishment so he could regain the attention of the ladies. The Irish wit and physical charm are things that I had to contend with my whole life. The point is though that I never gave up and I am a happily married man today. As a wrestling community we can not give up and must find a similiar way to make ourselves attractive to the general sports community.

I agree that wrestling doesn't get the sports coverage it deserves. I have called and e-mailed most local stations (including Metro Sports) in the past to notify them of major kids' events, i.e. State and Nationals and never gotten a response. With regard to the Star, they seem to be able to cover both football AND soccer in the fall, but maybe a good percentage of their sports reporters winter in Florida or Arizona or someplace like that. It would be interesting to see if we could improve coverage by contacting them REPEATEDLY, as subscribers to their paper. The address is: readerrep@kcstar.com.

I didn't say that wrestling didn't need coverage, what I meant was that kids don't need to worry about having their names in the paper. I remember back 5-6 years ago, the star and sun used to come out and have 3-4 reporters and camera people at the classic and the sm north tournament finals. I guess that was mainly due to guys like roberson, johnston, dyer, millsteads, beltran, etc. Guys that were big names. I know we have had great wrestlers since, but it might be the flavor of the "names" that keeps the paper away. maybe they don't know much about erisman, so they don't care. maybe the coaches of today don't take the time to call the paper, or force the issue, like in the past. Anyway you look at it, wrestling (sadly) is not even close to what the majority wants to hear about in KC. Metro sports covers football and basketball more, because the general population wants it more than wrestling. I still think metro does a good job of mentioning wrestling along with other sports. Do you see swim meets on metro or gymnastics? these are all sports that people who aren't invloved in don't really care or know about.

KCmom,
I doubt you will ever get kids events covered by the sports department of a local paper unless the event is being held in their city and then only as a favor to the local Chamber Of Commerce. In our local paper the kids events are covered in the local "community" section and that is probably where they should be. I don't want them competing for the little amount of print the big boys get!

mr. broadbent,

for you information i was the west wrestling coach for the past 2 years and have seen the huge improvment in your son. i was really excited to see him beat livengood and nearly win the 103 championship. this is why i thought you would be a little frustrated about coverage. i do know that there have been a couple of coaches in the past 2-3 years who don't care about media and have even gone as far as telling their kids they can't talk to a reporter. I also know of many who don't bother to call in home dual scores. maybe it is because of this that the paper doesn't report or the fact that they don't know anything about the sport. I do know that charlie redfield of the sun, who used to report for the star is a huge wretling fan and has always done a nice job covering the sport.

Well i believe they make enough money from wrestlers and their parents buying the paper jus to read results that they could afford to pay someone to type up all the results they can get from the two state area and jus dedicate one or two pages to just results. Thats jus my thoughts cuz i got up sick on sunday morning and left just to get the sunday paper and wuz dissapointed to only have results on a few tournys and only the top two placers in each weight.

I don't have any problem at all with coach Alley getting anything I ask for to me for articles on wrestling. But I know a lot of other coaches have problems communicating with the media for what ever reason.
I will say that it is a lot of work for both parties involved and sometimes you have to work with coaches you think are complete idiots, and I'm sure coaches think the same about some media. Bottom line is there has to be some interest in the community in reading about the sport, and if people want to read about wrestling, they should pick up the phone and call their newspaper.
Most small newspapers have very small staffs and they don't all cover sports. Athletics are shoved off on one member of the staff who has to work his regular 8-6 job, then spend four nights a week going to and writing about games, including Saturdays on his own time.
I'm sure a paper would be more than willing to publish anything a coach can get to them as far as results. At least most writers I know would.

My I make a suggestion… Call the Star and tell them that you and the rest of the metro teams are willing to boycott the paper unless there is an equal amount of press coverage afforded to wrestling. Basketball is KING! For the reasons that a beat prep writer can sit down for a couple of hours watch a game make a few token comments to the crowd. Place a phone call to the editor and he’s done for the day. Wrestling he would have to endure hours of something he has no clue what’s going on, watching sweaty boys roll around a mat. Deal with high-strung coaches that are in no mood to deal with some green horn reporter. It is not just in KC try to find wrestling results anywhere but here… Also take notice about the West they put there wrestling on the Radio pretty cool isn’t it. That because the people live and die this time of year for their passion Wrestling. Blame the Liberal media for this problem! And I’m talking Liberal KS because they listening to the wrestling on the radio. Wrestling is to Blue collar for these Blue Blood basketball snobs. Send the sport editor this thread and see if you don’t get some results.