When the media interviews a high school coach should the reporter take the coach at his word for everything or should the reporter question and/or dig deeper if something the coach says doesn't add up?

 

Obviously if it is a college or pro coach the reporter should dig deeper. Is high school any different?

I think it depends on the situation.

Dig until they can get a good quote.

Balancing act I would imagine. You want access so you do not want to rub the coach the wrong way by saying, for example, "So, Coach, he was being disciplined , right?"

No quote will ever top the Enquirer writer who didn't get the joke from Conner's Tom Stellman a few years ago about Highlands.

I agree Clyde, was that the 2-12 comment?

 

I had a Pro send me this, I think it makes a lot of sense:

 

"all you can do is ask the coach the question. If it's a ridiculous answer, you can say something like "Well, I've heard it's a disciplinary matter." If the coach sticks to his answer, you publish it and let the chips fall where they may. If the coach wants to look like an idiot, let him."

No quote will ever top the Enquirer writer who didn't get the joke from Conner's Tom Stellman a few years ago about Highlands.

 

Amen to that.

Agree with JS that it depends entirely on the situation.

 

I've had coaches try and do that numerous times during interviews. I almost always try and get a little more out of them, but most of the time do not. I just leave it at that and go about my business.

 

Some of the best quotes I've ever gotten -- and I'm sure JS is in the same boat -- were off the record. It'd have been nice if I could have used some of them.

No quote will ever top the Enquirer writer who didn't get the joke from Conner's Tom Stellman a few years ago about Highlands.

What was that?

I always liked this jewel from Stellman

 

We're playing Highlands the next two years at the bowl game at Beechwood. And we're going to try to play them two weeks in a row next year. We're going to have a bowl game the following week, and we're trying to schedule them for that also. We'll see how it works, because Highlands is having trouble getting games.

As a person who has interviewed many coaches, you tend to develop relationships over the seasons and years, if you have treated a coach with respect even on the tough topics he will usually give an honest answer, and then go farther "off the record" You can dig and he will give you honest answers, but if you have not developed some type of relationship with the guy chances are you are going to get Bupkis....