eachflyhalf: enemy territory source code

I got an email from legendary sports editor Larry Ames. So I'm just going to post it:

Larry Ames here, retired two and a half years retired and enjoying life.....

I read your high school blog and have an answer and possible solution for your dilemma.

When I was at The Globe, what we did was this:

We covered more than 300 schools, including prep and private schools.

Naturally, we couldn't be the official source for the preps, but what we did was focus on what we could do best and cover the hell out of the big events -- the sectional and state tournaments.

We had two full pages weekly (originally both on Tuesday and later one on Monday and another on Tuesday). One page was all standings, stars of the weeks, etc.).

We did daily roundups and covered major games.

For football season, we covered big games and did roundups with summaries.

But on the big day of the season, Thanksgiving, we covered 23 of the 80 rival holiday games, shooting 10 games. We had half of the front page and eight inside open pages. Fourteeen years after I left, the Globe is still doing it. We covered the postseason with previews and photos and the staff columnists (yes, I finally convinced the Montvilles, Ryans and Shaughnessys to cover the Thanksgiving and championship prep games). One year, the national high school athletic association newsletter had a story where our football coverage was so superb and believed we had the best prep coverage in America. Fact is, we had perhaps 25 percent of the space of some of the major metros across the country.

We covered the prep hockey, basketball, etc. Tournaments with the same fervor.

We were there when the readers noticed the most.

We instituted a Scholar-Athlete program in 1986 and the paper started a feature honoring excellence in 1971. Originally there was one division. Now there are seven, two of which now honor me.....We also had All-area teams (the Globe now does it in one Sunday section).

One thing I did that separated us from everyone else was write a controversial prep column, dealing with issues and coverage of the state athletic association. People felt that I cared about their individual schools and sports. I also hit the banquet circuit when I was invited to speak. Invariably, when I was at a banquet, I received comments about how the Globe appreciated their community and their athletic program.

You don't always need a big staff to produce big results.