Leading off today: High school sports reporting has long been an entry-level position for people aspiring to work in media and perhaps one day become a beat reporter for an NFL team or a columnist for a national website.
Some people never leave the high school beat entirely behind, even after moving up to more visible roles or greater responsibilities. So, I'm kicking off today with a couple of bits of storytelling by journalists who learned their craft well many years ago and continue to inform and entertain when returning to scholastic turf.
Yes, there absolutely is a time and place for booing
Bill Hammond wrote for and edited the sports section at the Evening Observer in Dunkirk. Like many folks employed by small-town publications, he moonlighted for a time to pick up a few extra bucks. In Hammond's case, the side hustle was officiating high school sports contests.
In a column this week, Hammond recalled working a modified-level girls basketball game at Dunkirk Middle School. He set up his story by explaining the balancing act the officials at that level must perform, namely that egregious fouls must always be called but witnessing a harmless gaffe sometimes requires swallowing the whistle to keep a game from dragging on far past dinner time.
As Hammond tells it, the game he was working was all but decided as the clock was ticking down to the final buzzer when a seventh-grader unleased an ambitious shot from beyond midcourt -- but only after picking up her dribble and taking five or six steps.
I'll let Hammond tell the rest of the story:
Well, you guessed it. Just after the final buzzer sounded, and quiet filled the gym, her unerring missile audibly ripped through the basket's net.
The eerie silence continued for another split second before the inevitable explosion into pandemonium.
The Dunkirk bench erupted with emotion and every one of its players raced onto the court to embrace their new hero. Even a few spectators joined the huddled, jumping mass of joy at midcourt. Sure, they had lost the game, but weren't going to be denied a major celebration.
It was really quite the shot. I've never seen one like it, especially from a slight seventh-grader.
And the booing? It was all for me. The spectators noticed me sheepishly waving off the basket from the backcourt after the official scorekeeper caught and held my gaze looking for a final, fateful decision.
The fans really let me have it. They had seen her take all of those extra, illegal steps, some even laughing at her frenzied last-second panic. But that mattered little to this mob. I was the unfeeling villain of this piece and I heard those boos long after I exited the gym door and headed to the locker room.
I didn't disagree with them or their boos and still don't. Remember, at this level it's learning when NOT to blow the whistle that truly matters.
The art of telling news with a featurish approach
Not all coaching changes are created equally. The reporting of some hirings really don't require more than two paragraphs, even on a slow news day. But others involve familar names and/or prominent programs than naturally pique the reader's curiosity.
In that case, it still only requires those same two paragraphs, but it's also often a rich environment for storytelling, and Syracuse.com veteran Lindsay Kramer totally nailed it with his lede to the story on a girls lacrosse hire:
Jessica Lavelle figured it was best to start her job interview to be the new coach of West Genesee girls lacrosse by stating the obvious as soon as she walked into the room.
"Immediately I was like, I just want to let everyone know I went to F-M and then they were like, 'Oh, strike one,'" Lavelle recalled. "I knew the territory I was stepping into."
Lavelle's interviewers knew exactly where she started her lacrosse education, of course, and as it turns out that tidbit didn't hurt her chances a bit. Wednesday night, the district's board of education approved her as the next head coach of the Wildcats.
Lavelle, 32, who played for Fayetteville-Manlius in 2009-10, takes over a powerhouse program. Former West Genny star Shannon Burke-Musak resigned last spring after coaching the Wildcats to three straight Section 3 titles and a berth in the 2024 NYSPHSAA finals. Overall, the Wildcats have made the finals eight times and won seven titles.
Still crunching the numbers on a monster night
WNYAthletics.com reports that the numbers are still being checked, but South Park senior running back Adam Nunes may have logged well more than 500 rushing yards on Thursday on his way to seven touchdowns in a 58-28 victory over Iroquois in Section 6 football action.
On top of all that, Nunes also intercepted a pass in coach Tim Delaney's 100th career victory.
The state record for rushing yards in a game is 584 by Joe Benedict of Sandy Creek in 2016, and Delaney said a film review would help determine if Nunes surpassed the mark. The issue stems an 80-yard jaunt off a swing pass that may have been a lateral.
"If his first touchdown of the game was considered a run and not a reception, then it broke the yardage record," Delaney told the website. "I've got to go back and watch the film and make sure it was a lateral. He's going to be really close either way."
Nunes' six other scores -- on carries of 65, 31, 61, 82, 93, and 42 yards -- accounted for 374 yards for South Park, ranked 18th in the state in Class B by the New York State Sportswriters Association..
Nunes, who has 12 touchdowns through three games, called his performance a team effort.
"Football is a game that's played 11-on-11, not 11-on-one, so I want to give a big shout out to my teammates and especially my offensive line," he said. "They blocked so well I could have had a car ride through those holes tonight. I know I couldn't have done it without them."
