DATE: Sunday, June 1, 1997                  TAG: 9705300346

SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN             PAGE: 14   EDITION: FINAL 

COLUMN: NOTEBOOK 

SOURCE: James C. Black 

                                            LENGTH:   52 lines

MAYBE IT'S THE WRITER WHO DOES NOT GET RESPECT

A friendly comment to all the high school athletes, parents and coaches in the area - STAY OFF OF MY BACK.

Now, let me explain.

I'm at a high school event interiewing an athletel and the inevitable statements are made: ``We don't get any respect'' or ``We were pumped up after what we read in the paper.''

You're kidding me, right?

Whether it's an article or a headline, I have found that sports page items frequently become billboard material. If a coach or athlete decides to use articles in such a way, that's fine but don't misrepresent the meaning or purposes of our stories. We're here to inform the community as to what's going on, not to demean or embarrass anyone.

When sports writers work on previews, we don't sit around picking the ``teams to beat'' based on any personal opinions we may have.

We have a procedure of compiling information from coaches' preseason forms, coaches' opinions and information we may have received from other sources.

From this, we write previews centered around the consensus favorite. And more often than not, based on the reporting, one team will appear to be the strongest of the bunch hence a headline: Great Bridge is expected to win Southeastern District.

No disrespect to anyone, but a lot of people seem to have a hard time understanding this. Just because one team is thought to be a little better than the others does not mean we're trying to spite the rest of the pack. What do you suggests, a headline that says: Eight teams expected to win Southeastern District?

And obviously, the criticisms go well beyond the previews.

I remember talking to one coach who felt spited because we did not list his team's game in our ``Coming Up'' section on Tuesday. Such highlighted games usually feature the top teams in a district or a huge rivalry. Neither situation applied to this coach's team.

But despite the tone of my column, these remarks don't ruin my day or send me home crying. To some degree, I almost take it as a compliment because that shows me people not only read but also care about what we publish.

I guess the thing that bothers me, however, is the nonsense some coaches occasionally feed to their athletes.

Some coaches, and I know from conversations, take what we write and twist it around. They want their athletes to take the field with this ``Me against the world'' attitude and that nobody respects them. No one gave them a chance to win.

Coaches need to be careful on what they tell their athletes. A coach may say one thing while the athletes take an entirely different message from the speech. Trust me, I know.

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