Alright so today I gotta share how I covered South Shelby High football stuff. Started with seeing a notification on my phone about their latest game win. Grabbed my notebook, totally messy and coffee-stained but whatever. Headed straight to the bleachers with zero prep, not even checking kickoff time.
Covering the Game Itself
Sat down right as the game kicked off, tripping over someone’s giant foam finger on the way. Seriously, why are those so big? Tried writing down plays as they happened – my handwriting’s garbage when rushed, ended up with doodles that looked like spaghetti diagrams. QB threw a touchdown pass and I just scribbled “LONG THROW YES!!!” like an idiot. Couldn’t see the jersey numbers half the time either.
Tracking Scores Like a Rookie
Totally winged the scorekeeping. Tried tallying points per quarter on my hand – smudged it by halftime grabbing nachos. Some guy yelled “INTERCEPTION!” so I jotted it down, only to realize later it was actually a fumble recovery. Whole thing was a hot mess. By third quarter I just snapped pics of the scoreboard every five minutes. Felt kinda lazy but whatever works.
- Pre-game: Scribbled starters wrong three times, crossed out so hard paper ripped.
- Halftime: Forgot how much time left, asked a mom with a stopwatch.
- Final whistle: Thought it was 24-21, official said 28-21. Close enough I guess?
Compiling the Schedule Disaster
After the win chaos, remembered people would wanna know future games. Asked coach for schedule printout – he gave me this crumpled paper full of coffee rings and pen smears. Transferred dates into my phone calendar while walking to the parking lot. Dropped phone twice, almost got hit by a minivan backing up. Classic. Typed it up late at night watching reruns, mixed up home/away games twice before fixing it. Should’ve just photographed the damn schedule.
Ended my notes with: “Next time bring binoculars and a clipboard. And maybe pay attention instead of yelling at refs.” Still wonder why my notebooks always smell like stale popcorn. Anyway, you’d think tracking high school football would be easy but nope.