•••
It's no secret that newspapers are in trouble as many publications have cut back on the number of pages that they print each day (and some have ceased printing altogether). This has in many cases affected the amount of space allotted to sports.

Even during good times, the professional ranks and college sports dominated the space in our regional paper. With cutbacks, high school coverage is almost non-existent now.

In an attempt to retain readers and maintain profitability, larger newspapers may now establish school athletic team pages on the Internet. With this approach, the paper offers its high school fan readers scores, rosters, summaries of games, box scores, and perhaps some photos--information that was once a staple of a newspaper's printed pages.

On the surface, this may seem like a good idea in order to keep coverage of the high school sports scene. But there is a drawback. Often, the newspaper approaches athletic directors to enlist their assistance in providing the scores and stats mentioned above. Though coverage for our teams is extremely important, it can be ethically troublesome for an athletic director to know that he or she is actually providing a service that allows a company to make a profit.

On the other hand, it is an arrangement that also affects the athletic director's bottom line when it comes to public opinion. For example, when parents don't see the scores, they may call the newspaper and be told, "Well, your school hasn't taken advantage of posting information on the page we provided them." Naturally, the papers don't bother to explain that they expect the athletic director to find the time to provide the needed materials.

The end result is that some parents may become upset with the athletic director and coaches for not providing the info. They blame the lack of coverage on school personnel and don't consider the reduced printed page space or limited staff supplied by the newspaper. It is a truly a no-win situation for the athletic director.

Is there a good solution out there? One that involves your coaches? You may think it would be easier for your coaches to handle this task, but they often teach or work during the day, and also have family responsibilities. Like athletic directors, coaches hardly have a lot of extra time.

The only real solution is to employ a team approach in which both the athletic director and coaches work together to post as much information as they can. In the end, we want to provide our athletes and successful programs the recognition they deserve.

Athletic directors already know that they are overloaded, overworked, and don't have enough time to do everything expected of them. Only another athletic administrator truly understands this dilemma. It all comes back to doing the best that you can, that's all that you can do.

David Hoch, CMAA, is Athletic Director at Loch Raven High School in Baltimore County, Md. He is a frequent contributor to Athletic Management.