Sweet 16 of this Week 9/14/03 ?

Man, you guys are harsh about The Sweet 16, but I guess some reaction is better than no reaction. KQ, I don't get you man. You go around to all these boards starting flames. You even went to the Fla. Gators board and started flames about Bobby Bowden still wanting Chris Leak.

Man, I laughed at that.

Then you want to call us up like all is cool when you come on here and call us every name under the sun. Some people, right?

Anyhow, I know you all have your opinions about The Sweet 16. It's a poll to recognize our area schools. We wouldn't do a poll of statewide teams b/c we don't see them all and many of those schools are not in our coverage area. Once I had to give a $1,000 Sweet 16 banner to a S.C. team in an area where we sold only 300 papers.

That's why we reigned in some of the schools we used to do. Now we have 107 I believe.

As for the poll, it really ranks how strong a team is within its classification. It's not dead ahead like some polls, but if it were some of the teams in our area might not ever get ranked. We're not saying Albemarle could beat Richmond. C'mon fellas. We see as much if not more football than any paper in the state.

We're saying Albemarle, within its class is stronger than the teams below it and we feel it has a stronger chance to win a state title in its class than teams below it.

A lot of people harp on here about several different statewide polls and how they are so much better.

Well, maybe, but let me explain. All of those statewide polls are done the same way: a group of media and/or coaches vote each week based on a "how they fared" list or some such thing. Do I vote? Yes. Do I know if a Raleigh team is really better than Richmond? No.

Do the voters in other areas know a ton about teams from here? Doubt it. How do I know? They call us all the time asking, "where should (fill in the blank) be ranked." I call them, too.

Bottom line is this, I'm not bashing anyone's polls. I'm glad they're done, and generally they're pretty accurate. There will always be surprises. This is not like the college AP poll where I can see a Fla or Fla State on TV and somewhat measure them against a Michigan.

In high schools, teams get ranked on reputation. I see Mr. T Detector bashed us about a preseason ranking of a school. That same school was ranked No. 2 in several statewide polls. If a past winner starts out well, look for it to get ranked high. Sometimes I'll see a team from our area that I know well ranked in the top 10 in the state and say to Brett Honeycutt, "Wow, they're not that good, but look at where they're ranked."

All voters outside of a certain team's area will see that a past power is 3-0 and think, as I would, well they're good again. Are they always? No.

I don't know. I could go on. Sometimes it rankles me a little that The Sweet 16 gets bashed as much as it does. I'm glad you guys are reading it though, and I hope you continue.

Later,

Langston

 

Langston, thanks for enlightening some in here and what team do you think is the surprise team in the coverage area? Will the patriots repeat from what you have seen?

That KQ fellow is as you mentioned......not playing with a full deck!

 

That's part of the fun with a Sweet 16....disagreeing with the selections. Doesn't make the selections wrong...just a different viewpoint.

My surprise team so far this year is the Harding Rams...who'd a thunk it!!!

 

What a great point!! That's exactly how the readers in Charlotte feel about HS sports in the Charlotte Observer. The paper covers 107 schools with the majority of schools outside of Charlotte. With the limited space devoted to HS sports, it irks the readers of Charlotte to read about a school from (outside) our limits, knowing that many of the schools mentioned have their own local paper that does a great job in covering local teams.

I don't blame you Langston. You do a marvelous job in your reporting of HS sports...but I speak for many Charlotteans when I say I wish the CO would devote it's resources to CHARLOTTE AREA HS sports and let the out of town papers cover their own schools.

 

Well, we have an average circulation, including Sundays of about 290,000. We serve nearly one million readers a day. About half that circulation and half of those readers are from outside Charlotte, so we have to continue to serve those outlying schools.

Over the past few years, we've trimmed down some of our area schools, choosing to cover those only where we sell a certain number of papers.

We've also tried to boost coverage of Charlotte this season. I was brought back into city coverage to team with Cliff Mehrtens, who is still in my old job as primary city beat reporter. I'm more of a general assignment reporter now with a concentration on major projects and features revolving around preps.

Last year I had the same role but with an emphasis on the Piedmont. We've also involved Brett Honeycutt more.

I think column for column and word for word, we provide more prep coverage than any paper out there by far, but because our coverage is so regionalized, no person in one area sees it all.

We produce, on a Friday night, five different prep sections for example, each as big as the one you see in your hometown, just with different schools.

I wish there were more space, but being in a pro town and about to add another pro team, space is tough. We have to produce solid stories for them to challenge for the front page. Preps generally gets special play on Saturday, but as a regular thing, that's about it.

But i hear you about doing more Clt coverage. In a lot of ways I understand where you come from. I graduated from West Charlotte in 1984 so I know about what it's like to have the paper not cover you as much as you think it should. When I was in high school, we got a ton of coverage from the now defunct Charlotte News.

I hear you, Braves, though, and all of the others who email me about coverage. We want to do better, and one of the ways we can give great coverage is by doing great human interest stories. Those get major play. And I'm always looking for ideas.

 

Thanks Langston for letting us have a little in sight into the workings of the Observer.

 

Thank you, Langston, for several reasons:

1. taking the time from your busy schedule to post your informative replies to this forum. We are just starting up this football forum and smashmouth, as moderator, is working hard to
build this forum into an informative, entertaining and maybe (KQ free) ...nah..TD adds a little flavor. Just can't have too many of them.

2. ....and obviously, on a personal note, my family and I have a special place in our heart for you!!!!

Thank you again for joining up!!!

 

damn, and believe me, these aren't easy things to produce.

 

got that right.