Have you seen the West Plains Daily Quill article about the Zizzers who earned All-Ozark Conference Honors in Soccer? How about the Quill article on the Zizzer Soccer Players that were named All-Region? Did you catch the Quill article about the 4 All-State players from West Plains? No you didn’t, because there haven’t been any articles. The All-Ozark Conference information was sent to the Quill on November 16th, yet no mention of it in the newspaper. They came to take pictures, but nothing in the newspaper. The All-Region info was sent to them (It was sent to them November 27th), but hasn’t appeared anywhere in the newspaper that I can find.
In talking with Coach Simpkins about the lack of coverage by our local newspaper, I was informed that the Quill said they only have so much space to put things in the sports section. The Grizzlies will be in there, you can bet on that (Nothing against the Grizzlies, my family enjoys going out and watching them and they should be covered by the newspaper). High school athletic coverage isn’t guaranteed. There was a nice write up and pictures of the WPHS softball players that earned honors. A few days later the football honors barely got mentioned, and there were no pictures. Soccer? They mentioned the All-District honors at the very end of the article on our 3rd place finish in the November 13th edition, but haven’t mentioned any other awards.
Since the November 13th issue, they have included at least 10 pictures of people who have killed Deer (I didn’t count the ones from Friday, although there were several), one of someone catching a big fish, and another of someone shooting a goose. Those are all fine things to include in the newspaper, but if they can include those, can’t they recognize the achievements of those athletes that excel at their sport?
The only way this is going to change is for the parents and people in the community to express their opinions and push for change. This is the same newspaper that failed to have anyone come and take pictures when we hosted Districts for the boys last Fall. They have been at only about 3 Home Soccer Games in the last 2 years and they failed to send anyone to cover our State Quarterfinal game or the Final Four. The only reason there were pictures from those games is because they came from Randy Hunt.
These are your kids that are earning these honors. They deserve to be recognized by the newspaper and the community. Only you can get this changed.
The radio stations have been great about getting the information out over the radio and we appreciate that. We would like to see the local newspaper to do the same.
If you’ve been wondering why those things haven’t been in the newspaper, it isn’t because the information hasn’t been provided to them.
BRAVO!!! Very well put. I applaud you.
Yeah, the Quill has got to be the worst newspaper in the world. Nearly every article I read that I know something about contains some disinformation, so I can pretty much assume they are all inaccurate.
Children hunters get more recognition than we. Heaven forbid a 7 year old does not get his picture put in the Quill for ensnaring a turtle.