Advice to SIDs

4-16-90

Perspective: Advice to SIDs

It was a pretty good week for Cobber sports. The track team had several outstanding performances. And the college announced that this summer's renovation of the Cobber fieldhouse will include installation of a beautiful wood floor.

But this week also marked the beginning of annual the big job shuffle in sports, including those in the sports information business. A lot of people are moving out or moving on. And a lot of new people are becoming SIDs, in spite of, or perhaps due to, knowing nothing about what the job involves.

As a veteran of nearly two years on the job (and in an effort to impress my employer with my insight) I thought it might be helpful to share with those prospective SIDs out there some of the pitfalls to avoid as they embark upon this glamourous career. If it is true that one learns the most from one's mistakes, I feel more than qualified to pass on the following nuggets of wisdom.

Here, then, are the 20 dumbest things you will be tempted to do as an SID.

20. Stick up for coaches who only call their road-game scores into the media when they win.

19. Stick up for a coach who claims to have a grudge with a local reporter.

18. Try to understand the arguments as to why fighting is an essential part of hockey.

17. Try to explain to a soccer coach why the press will not cover the world's most popular game.

16. Ask your track coach for the score of a track meet.

(Answer: No team scores were kept.) 15. Assume that your athletes' hometown weekly newspapers want to get your release on Thursday, two days after their deadline.

14. Assume that the Minneapolis-St. Paul TV stations are interested in high school or small college sports.

13. Assume that women's sports have been widely accepted. (Example: Billy Tubbs' attempt to get rid of Oklahoma women's basketball, saying it wasn't profitable. He didn't mention men's track or men's gymnastics, or men's swimming, or men's soccer, or men's golf.)

12. Assume that men coaches in men's sports are tickled with the growth of women's sports. (Example: Billy Tubbs' attempt to get rid of women's basketball.)

11. Assume that there is no competition between coaches within your department. (Safe Example: Billy Tubbs' attempt to get rid of women's basketball.)

10. Assume that those who coach women sports (men or women) are as responsible about media relations as those who coach men's sports. (Example: Two MIAC women's basketball coaches did not include the two best players in the league, Concordia's Michelle Thykeson and St. Thomas' Laurie Trow, on their 15-person all-conference ballot.)

9. Complain in your news releases (which go to faculty members in other departments) that the athletic department is just not getting enough money or support from the administration.

8. Second-guess your football coach on whether he should have gone for the tie or the win.

7. Call one of the refs in your league (who will surely ref another of your team's games) a pervert because he let a game get out of hand.

6. Tell the wrestling team that you haven't had time to get their team poster done because you were focusing on "major" sports.

5. Listen to anyone who comes up to you and starts the conversation with "Could you just write up something about..."

4. Report the score of one of your games to just one of the three local TV stations because you're tired and want to go home.

3. Tell life-long residents of the football press box that they have no business being up there.

2. Assume that men's basketball coaches are as concerned about their athletes getting an education as they are about winning games. (Example: Billy Tubbs. Or the MIAC basketball schedule that calls for countless Monday and Wednesday games and no back-to-back games.) And ...(drum roll)...the Number One Dumbest Thing you will be tempted to do as a Sports Information Director is...

1. Admit to anyone that you were stupid enough to have taken this job for quarter-time or half-time pay.

These pages are maintained by Jerry Pyle pyle@cord.edu . These articles are copyrighted © and may not be published or reproduced without the express permission of Jerry Pyle.

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