Gridiron

[Outlaw85]

Overall a pretty good issue, but I'm disappointed that both the Crossett and Hamburg Jr. High teams had no team photo.

How many phone calls have you had about the Jr. Meeks ad?

[heathwaldrop]

outlaw67 said:

Overall a pretty good issue, but I'm disappointed that both the Crossett and Hamburg Jr. High teams had no team photo.

We've never done this in the nine years that I've been doing the section.

How many phone calls have you had about the Jr. Meeks ad?

I haven't had any, but then again advertising isn't my department.

[Outlaw85]

I never notice until this year about the Jr. high. But
I had also never saw the Ledgers football section until this year. They ran pictures of both Jr. High teams,rosters of all teams and an article, pic and roster of Abiding Faith. That is the one thing I would grade them higher on. My opinion but I think they did a better job covering all football in the county. but Ya'll did alot better job with original articles. Not really complaning here just criticing.

As for the Jr. Meeks ad, your people ran the wrong picture. That's Jake Currie not Ty Meeks in the picture.

[jwh]

New car prices are going through the roof now.... ;D

[heathwaldrop]

Gridiron always has been conceived of as a high-school section. We tell stories and cover angles about current and former local players that you would not know otherwise. So it's not only about a static photo or two and some information that a coach gives us. And we also try to reach the widest audience by including angles about football that aren't necessarily so obvious, like last year when we had a feature on school mascots.

We do feel that our approach to the section is what makes it reader-friendly and unique. Other newspapers around the state have called me to get consultation on how we produce Gridiron, because they wanted to lift ideas from us. The section is that respected. It is considered to be the best preseason football section in the state published by a newspaper, hands-down. As a matter of fact "Hooten's Arkansas Football" even has elements in it that were taken from Gridiron.

Large group photographs are a waste of space in newsprint. The photos have to be run too small and the resolution is too low to be able to tell anything about anyone who is in them. We don't want to print an item just for the sake of being able to say that we've done it. We want it to add something to the overall section.

This is one reason why we don't run rosters anymore. The rosters provided to us have proven to be highly-inaccurate (especially when it comes to heights and weights) through the years. Also this is information that is available readily in a game program. The whole idea behind Gridiron is to provide information that you can't get in a game program or from other sources.

[Outlaw85]

I still think it's crappy to leave them out.

[old lion]

Heath, you did a good job on the gridiron as always. I have enjoyed reading it as I always have in the past. I think you do an excellent job on your research and outcome. The section on Hamburg was good, but I was kinda expecting an article from the Coach Crews era. The Mickey Moss definiately brought back some good memories. Keep up the good work.

[bbolin4]

I think everyone would have liked to see something on the Jr. High Teams as well....They are the future!!!!

I would have also liked to have seen something on Grant Jackson and Rylan Reed.....2 kids who have stuck with it to become starters.......I would like to see something on all players from Ashley County that are still doing well......I think all of our Arkansas Tech guys graduated last year....I remember a good article on Mark Caldwell last year....He is another good kid who did well......

[heathwaldrop]

outlaw67 said:

I still think it's crappy to leave them out.

Could be something that we'll consider for the future. I won't go into all of that now. But you said yourself that you never even noticed that it wasn't in there until this year. I'm guessing it is because this is the first year that you have had a son who is on the team.

BTW, the News Observer will cover Norman Junior High all throughout the season, eighth and ninth grade.

[heathwaldrop]

jgriever said:

The section on Hamburg was good, but I was kinda expecting an article from the Coach Crews era.

We had this as a story idea but late in the process decided to shelve it in favor of the story on the '97 team since this is the 10th anniversary. We were having a lot of trouble figuring out the angle on the Crews era. The idea hasnt' been abandoned, just placed in holding.

[heathwaldrop]

bbolin4 said:

I would have also liked to have seen something on Grant Jackson and Rylan Reed.....2 kids who have stuck with it to become starters.......I would like to see something on all players from Ashley County that are still doing well......

Well, we have a limited amount of space and a limited amount of manpower, not to mention a limited amount of time. I doubt that anybody noticed this but we had to go up from 32 pages to 36 this year to accommodate everything and 36 is kind of the upper limit on tabloid sections. We were slam-full in 36 pages. And what you saw represented A LOT of work.

We seriously considered both Rylan and Grant for stories. However, Grant was the focus of a cover story in 2003 and we did a big feature on Rylan when he was debating between football and baseball in 2000. So those things had to be taken into consideration. We don't like to repeat features about people if we can help it.

The formula that we try to follow is:

•Season preview about CHS
•Season preview about HHS
•Feature about some aspect of CHS team
•Feature about some aspect of HHS team
•Broad-appeal feature (like school mascots)
•Fourth feature (often current college players)

We were prepared to have classification previews this year by our own Kyle O'Neal, but simply ran out of space to include them.

[Outlaw85]

Take it for what it's worth but I think many of us would like to see a feature entitled, "Where are they now?" or something along those lines. A feature that would focus on 1 or 2 Eagles and 1 or 2 Lions. Go back in time and remember some of the great players of the past. Bill Pierce, Ronald Matheny, Jesse Clark or Keith Kidd from Crossett. Cedric Holt, Bobby Duckworth, Londale Bankston or Kenny McQuay from Hamburg. Just gave those as an example.

I think a feature like that would appeal to most of your readers.

[heathwaldrop]

outlaw67 said:

I think a feature like that would appeal to most of your readers.

We've done some similar things to that before, including this year with the story on the '97 HHS team. But it's always the kind of thing that we like to explore. What we want to do is to find the right angle and go with that. Anniversaries always make a good angle for a retrospective. We did several different stories along those lines in 2001 when Greg Johnson took over as head coach at HHS.

When's the next major anniversary for a state-title team? Isnt' there one next year?

[Outlaw85]

Almost forgot but next year will be the 30th anniversary of the 78 championship. A team that featured Kidd,Matheny and Pierce.

[heathwaldrop]

Well, that's a good idea for a retrospective then.