Football: It’s time to put the press back in press box

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It seems about the only people you won’t find in high school press boxes these days are the press.

I can understand making room for the stadium P.A. announcer (and a trusty ‘spotter’), a scoreboard operator and assistant coaches from each team. But it rarely ends there.

There are boosters to coddle. Internet radio and TV personalities to indulge. Random hangers-on who seemingly have nothing else better to do than take up space in already tight quarters.

It doesn’t leave much room for reporters actually covering the game. Thus we are often forced to roam the sideline and place ourselves at risk of becoming the next Lloyd Engen.

Engen was covering a game in Colorado on Saturday when three players converged on him along the sideline, according to Associated Press.

Engen, sports editor of The Valley Courier in Alamosa, Colo., sustained a shattered pelvis and three cracked vertebrae when three players from Norwood and Sangre de Cristo highs collided with him. Engen, who was taking photographs at the time, told his colleagues at the newspaper that it is unknown whether he will be able to walk again.

Now the short-staffed Valley Courier is asking area high school coaches to call in scores and highlights while Engen recovers.

It’s true that some reporters prefer to cover games from the sideline because they feel it gives them a better feel for the game. And Engen probably had to be on the sideline to take pictures. But reporters should always have the right to watch from the press box should they so desire, provided there is room.

Otherwise stop calling it a press box.

--Ben Bolch