Coaching and fandom. Serious business.

When one watches sports live, it’s sometimes more interesting to observe the coaches and the crowd rather than to watch the game itself. It adds an extra layer or two to the experience.

I went to two different basketball games on Saturday, and both games made me feel that maybe I was only just a passive observer in both parties’ crazed little world of sports fandom.

First, I watched the USD men play Valley City State (ND). The game itself was pretty much over before the end of the first half, as USD simply outran the Vikings. What made the game memorable, however, were the reactions from Valley City’s coach throughout the game. His team would eventually lose by nearly 30 points, but he incessantly yelled at the refs throughout the game for (admittedly often) bad or missed calls. His whining was far more entertaining than the game itself, especially when anyone in the DakotaDome could hear him due to very few fans showing up to watch the game. The coach’s “Oh GOSH DARNIT!” and paraphrased variations of “I wouldn’t be yelling so much if you’d actually make those calls!” were all the entertainment I needed.

One of the refs gave Valley City’s coach a severe warning and told him to back off or there would be more trouble. I personally think the only reason the coach didn’t get ejected because the game itself was way out of hand. Why toss a coach out when his team is losing by 20 to 30 points with a few minutes left when it would be considered nothing but a hilarious (but ultimately pointless) use (abuse?) of power?

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Later that night, I went to the Summit Activities Center to watch the Gazelles play Huron. Huron’s coach was a beast both in the way he looked and the way he yelled at his players during every play. Do the Huron girls truly know what he’s talking about? How do they react to his consistent yelling? There were several times in which he would yell at specific players right in front of their faces! I would be personally horrified to play under this coach in any circumstance, never mind the fact he was coaching high school girls! P&D assistant sports editor Jeremy Hoeck and I both agreed he likely came from a football coaching background, and sure enough…we spotted a Huron football jacket on the sidelines that might have been his.

Both of us watched the game near the visitors’ section, and the Huron fans, many of them grown adults, were just about as crazy as the coach! Let’s take a step back and realize that this is girls’ basketball. An early-season game! High school! Girls’ basketball! It’s not really all that important! Right?

Both the coach and the fans would yell at the refs over supposedly blown calls, cheer when the Gazelles missed a shot or caused a foul and went absolutely nuts when Yankton’s final three-point shot at the buzzer wasn’t enough to win the game. It sounded somewhat like Huron had just won a playoff game against the Gazelles, only the team and its fans didn’t storm the court after the buzzer. Because, you know, good sportsmanship and everything.

Yet funny enough, while waiting for Jeremy to finish up his interviews, I randomly chatted with the Huron coach and found him to be a pretty mellow guy. Maybe it was because his team had earned a well-fought win, maybe it was because the game was over and he needed to relax. But he came off as a totally different person after the game.

What makes coaches and fans come off as crazy people like both examples today? Was I simply too passive in comparison because I really didn’t have a rooting team? Was it because while I love sports and root for certain teams all the same, I’m not nearly as emotionally attached?

Whatever the case, both games on Saturday were fascinating experiences to me. Now if only the Gazelles could play a game that didn’t end in such a heartbreaking defeat.

Enjoy Some Engrish!

I think it’s safe to say that the overall experience last night in the newsroom was…exhilarating, to say the least. Election nights are always interesting because of the numerous things that can go right…and the many things that can go horribly wrong. But the end result is that things worked out, and we somehow put together a newspaper that night for you to read today.

Anyway, I’m not here to talk about the election, or politics in general. I think the country as a whole needs a break from that for at least a few weeks. I just hope everyone can now go back to having better moods now as the country prepares for our next President’s inauguration.

So now for something completely different. I want to try and brighten everyone’s moods a bit as I admit my love for dorky video game music. Take a listen to “Reach Out To The Truth”, the poppy battle theme from Persona 4, which will be coming out in December on the (still kicking!) PlayStation2.

So you can’t make heads or tails of the lyrics, right? It’s what many people like to call ‘Engrish’. The Japanese like the English language and sometimes use it in everyday life, but many just aren’t that great at using our language. There are many examples of that on this website. Take a look if you you’re a grammar/spelling dork such as myself and/or like a quick laugh or two.

Anyway, according to the Persona 4 soundtrack’s liner notes, the following are the supposed lyrics for the song. Try to sing along! The lyrics actually make the song an oddly empowering message, don’t you think?

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Now I face out, I hold out
I reach out to the truth of my life
Seeking to seize on the whole moment. Yeah!

Yeah / Naked truth lies only if you realize / Appearing in nobody’s eyes till they sterilize
Stop the guerrilla warfare to keep it fair / Bro charges your rage to a smarter greater cause
You know the stake is high stardom is near / Those who sympathized you die killers pass by
Do not waste your time in hating flirting guys / Use your might to AIs do justice to them all

Now I face out I hold out
I reach out to the truth of my life
Seeking to seize on the whole moment to now break away
Oh god let me out Can you let me out
Can you set me free from this dark inner world
Save me now Last beat in the Soul

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I hope today and the rest of the week works out for anyone reading!

Baiting the media.

If you’ve read and/or watched any major media these past few months, you know tensions are really high in this upcoming election because of the sorts of audiences the two major candidates attract. You see all the speeches, the rallies, all the smear attacks…everything that does not equate into the calm, moral campaigns we should expect from our prospective leaders.

But why are things so heated? To be honest, I think it’s due to the very media we consume. There are two major points/trends that I feel the media has failed the public dearly on.

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The first trend is how everything has to be a horse race. It’s clear that the goal of mass media these days is less and less about proper coverage and more and more about making money.  When ratings are high and interests are tweaked, life is good.

According to the mass media, this election is a deadheat…way too close to call. So here comes all the news personalities, all the pundits…everyone coming out of the woodwork to tell a nationwide audience why his candidate is better than that other guy or why this guy is a terrorist and why/or either of them is bad for America.

The pundity overkill concerning the race being too close to call is one thing, but it’s another thing when real poll numbers using legitimate statistics say that’s the farthest from the truth. Check out websites like Real Clear Politics or FiveThirtyEight for a more realistic idea of how the election is turning out. National polls mean very little! It’s the state polls that matter! And according to most of the polls coming out of battleground states, things just aren’t all that close.

Yet that reality isn’t exciting enough for the media. Everyone/everything has to be close and the race has to be exciting, or people won’t read or watch their content. It’s incredibly frustrating to me that the mass media has turned into tabloid journalism, where everything has to be exciting and raw for it to be given any sort of coverage. Real news that affects the world is not always exciting, and some people need to realize that.

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And with that, is the second point/trend. You can call it “Joe The Plumber”.

I watched the third Presidental debate and knew the second that John McCain uttered the term “Joe The Plumber” that there was an ulterior motive behind it. I knew it was total “bait” for both the general public and the national media. And sure enough, the mass media took that “bait” and “Joe The Plumber” became a national figure…even when the word got out that he wasn’t remotely what/who he said he was.

“Joe The Plumber” is apparently a voice of some large, mainstream portion of America, so much so that McCain decided to finish off his campaign with “Joe The Plumber” campaign stops. The whole thing strikes me as both intellectually and morally dishonest and frankly embarrassing. And yet the media continues to give him airtime.

So what does this have to do with selecting content for a daily newspaper? Well, the other night there were “Joe The Plumber” AP wire stories. I ignored them. I’m not ignoring “Joe” because he’s supporting McCain, as the same standards would apply even if he endorsed Obama or Bob Barr or even Chuck Baldwin. There were also numerous “attack” stories from both sides of the political spectrum.  I also immediately ignored them.

It’s because the average small-town newspaper has limited space each night, and there are far more relevant things that readers should know about. The financial crisis, things going on internationally, the war in Iraq, things like that. The average small-town newspaper has no room for “Joe The Plumber” or other forms of celebrity news. You can read all of that sort of news on places all across the Internet. When it comes to your daily newspaper, I personally think we have a moral obligation to try and offer as much relevant news as we can with the limited space we have.

But much of that news…isn’t the sort of exciting things some want you to hear about.

Signing In…

Is it just me, or are there some people who wish this blog to not just be about the sports side and/or the triumphant adventures of Cole Hamels?

(I’m kidding, sports side! Please don’t shun me.)

Anyway, hello there! My name is Mike Keitges, and I serve as the Press & Dakotan’s primary news page designer. I also occasionally write stories for the newspaper. I’ve been in Yankton now for more than a year and honestly have enjoyed most, if not all, my time here so far. Yankton is the right size of town for me at this point in my life, as it’s not too large yet I can pretty much get anything I need or want here.

I hopefully will post entries here at a decent rate and I will try to write about work, newspapers and the state of journalism overall.

A lot of work each night goes into developing a daily newspaper. Choices concerning the importance/relevance of stories, good focus, lack of bias, lack of pointless “white noise” stories, available (but often limited) national art and within all of that — the lack of any space to put all we want to put in each edition!

It can be a challenge day in and day out! But when I have discussions with others about the future of the newspaper business, I’m still excited about print media’s needed transformation in the future. Even at 26 and someone who really does embrace the digital age, I like newspapers and think they still can play a needed role in the media.

I’m looking forward to writing more and more, as well as slipping in something fun into the staff blog every so often!