Unreasonable Expectations

For those of you who didn't read my rant, it got me thinking that we need a new topic devoted solely to this topic.

We have numerous expectation in this field. Some are pefectly reasonable; some, however, are not.

Examples of things that I consider reasonable:
1. Providing accurate stats for both teams at all home events.
--Perfectly fine with me; I'll do that. It's expected. I love doing it. I think I'm unbiased in my statkeeping.
2. Providing media with updates.
--Ask me to send you a head shot? Sure. Stats when you arrive for a basketball game? There. In-game updates for radio broadcasts? Printed. Tip to the local paper that we're hiring a new coach/a local star is committed/my senior guard will score 1,000 points at tomorrow night's home game? I can do that.
3. Photos/previews for some national publication (lacrosse or wrestling are the biggest ones for these).
--Yeah, I can do that. I'll send you my coach's mug; I'll send you my preview; I can even send you the career stat line that StatCrew so easily generates.
4. Monthly staff meeting.
--O.K., granted I usually have about five minutes of time to say anything I have to say and the majority of the other hour and a half has nothing to do with me and I could definitely be doing something more productive. But, alright, I'll be there. I'll be a team player.
5. Provide content for my alumni magazine.
--Sure, I can find time to get you two pages of content four times a year. Even if your deadlines don't coincide with the end of the sports seasons. I'll get you something and a few photos.

However, there are many unreasonable expectations I get almost every day. Let's start with the NCAA.

--How can you possibly send me an email on February 15 requesting that I have ready - in case we make the tournament - some digital video ready to send to you for your championship banquet. Shouldn't have this been a request sent out back in, oh, I don't know, say, OCTOBER when we were all getting ready for basketball. Not when there's one week remaining in the season nor do I have the resources to get you DIGITAL VIDEO on that short of notice. Seriously, get a grip on reality. We're not D1 with big TV contracts here.

Moving right along to what got me in this mindset - travel.

--Am I really expected to go to every road game any of my teams play in. Besides the fact that would be impossible, since I can't be in two places at once, I can write just as well from my home or my office 15 minutes after the game and have the story to my media and on my website within an hour of the game. If I'm on the road, there is a 99% chance I'm not going to be able to access my webserver. Heck, there's a 50% chance I can't get to my email. If you're telling me that you don't mind waiting two, three, four hours for our website to be updated. OK, I'll travel, but I guess that would also mean you're giving me an unlimited travel budget. I mean, after all, I'm not paying for all of my food and gas out of my pocket. Does that make me a bad SID? I don't think so. Any other working person (which, by the way, is what we are doing when we travel) gets reimbursed for business conducted on the road - food, mileage, etc. True, I can ride the bus and not have to pay mileage. Which, I have done. But, I've also learned, some teams don't want to wait 15 extra minutes for me to write and send my story. Now, if it's a 4:00 game, yes, I'll write and the bus and hit send when I get back. That's logical. But, basketball, we're all on deadline. If I'm at an 8:00 game, I can't wait until I get back to hit send. Logically, if I'm on the bus, some coaches appreciate the travel enough to take my meal out of their travel budget, which I am grateful for. But, that's not always the case. Plus, sometimes, my teams travel in vans. If I'm going to ride in a van, I might as well just take my car. And, sometimes, I just like the freedom of being able to get there a little after the team does and leave after they do (because I have to write) and be able to eat where I want. Plus, on Saturdays I don't want to have to drive to the office to leave when I can just leave from my house. Which, is actually more important coming home.

In that light, are we expected to do stats at home and on the road?

--Personally, I have learned to trust the professionalism of my colleagues. I have to. They haven't perfected cloning yet. If I'm not on a road trip, I leave the stats in the trusting hands of my fellow SIDs - just as they do when they do not travel to my place. I have yet to have a home SID ask for my opinion on every play, and I have yet to do it for any SID who I am a host to. I call that part of professional courtesy. We have to all the courtesy to trust our fellow professionals to be accurate in the recording of the stats. After all, that's the most visible part of our job. And, those go do as history. They need to be accurate. Coaches are going to disagree. I think it's in their job descriptions because they complain when I do stats, knowing full-well I will not change it. Heck, sometimes I disagree with a hit/error ruling or the assist-to-field goal ratio (or turnover-to-steal ratio) on a basketball box score. Do I complain? Rarely--at least not openly. I leave it to that SID's interpretation. So many stats are open to interpretation. See assists. It's always been understood, in writing in some cases, that "the home book's official". I will give you the typical Monday-morning quarterbacking that occurs with football. For those DII/DIII SIDs, does a Monday morning roll around that either your coach (or the opposing SID on behalf of his coach) hasn't called to make a change to the defensive stats. And, after six hours of breaking down tape all day Sunday, I would expect them to go over every tackle and sack with a fine-tooth comb. They know best if it was a running play or passing play. I don't mind if you want to change a sack to a TFL because he was running (or visa-versa). After all, we're all after accuracy; are we not?

I'm sure there's unrealistic expections that everyone deals with day in and day out. I'm sure some have it a lot worse off than I do. I'm fortunate. I work with a great staff. I have great SIDs in my conference. But I still have those unreasonable expectations. We all do. Let's hear about yours...

For Love of the Game

Since we haven't had a new post in a while and since Sid Vicious brought up some pretty salient points in a lengthy comment on the last topic, I figured I'd turn some of those points into a new topic.

If we didn't have a love for what we do and/or a love for our student-athletes, we wouldn't care. We'd have left the profession soon after we got into it or we would stop trying, throw up our hands, and let the chips fall where they may. Those posters who are former SIDs obviously still care about the business or they wouldn't bother piping in.

Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in the "me" reasons why I shouldn't go a month or more without a day off, why I shouldn't work 60-70 hours a week, why there are certain things that shouldn't be my responsibility. They are all very valid reasons and represent an impetus for change in and of themselves, but they aren't the only reasons why we must push for serious reform.

I made an impassioned plea for an intern last February (a plea which was thankfully answered), writing a rather lengthy proposal detailing how the profession has rapidly changed over the last decade or so (Stat Crew, web sites, etc.), my working situation, etc. What I also made clear, however, was how having just one Sports Information employee was a disservice to athletics. What if I was incapacitated or had a family emergency? There was no one at this school who had web editing, publication, sports writing, AND Stat Crew experience and who would have the time to fill in. Furthermore, I readily admitted that the quality of my work was suffering because of the quantity of my work. (When it's 10:00 p.m. on a Saturday and you're on game release number eight for the day, your work tends to slip.) There were also a lot of things I wanted to do that we couldn't do with just one person and there were times when I felt certain sports would get thrown under the bus during our busiest times of the year.

I'm thrilled to have an intern. I pretty much limit him to 40 hours per week as required by law and made sure he was getting a stipend that put him above minimum wage (our coaches are currently in a pickle because our school has finally decided they need to enforce the "GA's aren't supposed to work 60 hours a week" rule). In all honesty, however, we now have two people doing in athletics what four or five people would do in our college's communications office. I'm not asking for a staff of three or four people tomorrow, but, with how much work my office does and how much of an impact it has (our web site gets 800-2,000 unique visitors per day), I honestly think I am worth 50% more in salary and that there should be at least one other full-time staff member and an intern in my office. More immediately, however, I think any school with at more than 10 total sports or more than four sports in one season should have at least one full-time staff member and one intern-level staff member.

We love our jobs and care about our athletic departments and that's one of the reasons why we know that change needs to occur.

Let's Talk About CoSIDA

Let’s talk about CoSIDA.

Is the 400-pound gorilla in the room our professional organization?

I know what I have done for CoSIDA. I initially paid my dues in order to nominate athletes. Because of the ingrained SID character flaw, I ended up taking on additional duties as if there isn’t enough to do around here. I serve on what I believe to be one of the more critical and difficult committees. I attended most of the convention in Philly. I uphold the Code of Ethics and read my magazine.

What has CoSIDA done for me?

I’ve filled out the survey. The results were about what I expected. My world went unchanged.

Why doesn’t our professional organization advocate on our behalf?

Hell, we dedicate our lives to advocating for others. A group of professional advocators should know how to do it on their own behalf.

Why are we DIII SID types relegated to an anonymous blog to have our voices heard?

I suppose the culture of the old guard is partly responsible. I hate listening to the old SIDs who brag about how much they have to do as if being overworked is an honor instead of unfortunate….

“My lacrosse and softball teams play at home today, and both of my basketball teams are in the NCAA Tournament tonight including one at home. I have five swimmers, three wrestlers, and two track athletes getting ready for nationals. My baseball and women’s lacrosse team are on the road and my only student worker was sneezed on by a sick chicken last week and he called in this morning saying something about having a bloody cough. I got here at 3:40 this morning, and I should be out by 3:40 tomorrow morning,” says Old SID A proud of how much he can handle.

“Yeah, I’ve got all of that, plus four gymnasts and two ice hockey teams still playng. Plus, my #1 singles tennis player got arrested for selling crack to an undercover police officer in front of a TV camera that was here doing a story on our drug free campus,” replies Old SID B in a stupid game of one-upsmanship that I have heard far too often.

To have that conversation in any manner than one person COMPLAINING to another should be criminal. What psychological pathology makes someone think that if they spend a minute not working, they are a better SID?

Its kind of like that old SNL skit where Billy Crystal is talking about drilling a hole in his toe and filling it with rubbing alcohol. I hate when that happens. But these guys are f#*king serious.

I am taking things the other way.

My IM away messages now say things like:

• Playing golf.
• Spending time with my wife.
• Letting my dog sniff my hand to see if he still remembers me.

I just don’t get to use any of them nearly enough. Let’s brag about the fact that we are working diligently to find ways to make having this job and having a personal life are not mutually exclusive concepts.

Why is their no CoSIDA Committee on best labor practices? Why aren’t guidelines being drawn as a baseline for a sport to SID ratio? For a sport to pay ratio? For competition blackout days Why isn’t this non-existent committee preparing a campaign to educate AD’s, HR personnel, and others up the food chain about the role we play? About limiting the scope of tasks in the famous clause: Other/Various tasks as assigned by the AD (which is where about 90 percent of my actual work in my three-page job description lies).

So here is what I am doing. After I am done with my committee work for this year, I am done being on any CoSIDA committees. I will remain done until CoSIDA begins to advocate on our behalf. Starting a committee dedicated to our rights as humans and workers would be a nice step. That’s a committee I want in on, and will gladly sign-up for.

I know there are other factors at play as to why this isn’t a priority, and I know some of my fellow bloggers have been at this longer than me. Help me out, what are they?

No one besides us is going to stick up for us? I thank all of my fellow posters for giving us a voice.