Media Savvy
Polished Diamonds
By Andrew Stockey

There's nothing I enjoy more at WTAE-TV than covering Western Pennsylvania's passion high school football. Maybe it's the atmosphere and excitement surrounding Friday nights. Maybe it's the thrill I get from finding that next star. It's like being a Major League Baseball scout searching for a diamond in the rough.

These days, though, that diamond in the rough is no longer rough. It's polished, glistening, and ready to be worn on the right hand of some lovely woman. What the hell am I talking about? I'm subtly alluding to today's high school athlete. More specifically, today's high school football player and an almost in-bred ability to handle the most difficult of obstacles in sports.

The media.

This column is called Media Savvy, and I have become more and more impressed with how media savvy today's high school football players are, especially the stars. Why do I say this? I get a front-row seat to the education of the high school athlete every week.

I've hosted Operation Football for nine years. Every year I interview dozens of student-athletes, and I'm always impressed with the maturity of these young competitors when talking to and dealing with interviewers. Maybe they aren't the most refined speakers on the planet, but their interview skills are evident when discussing the game of football with the media.

The confidence exuded by these public speakers in pads when a microphone is stuck in their face has grown over the years. Clichˇs are still a part of most interviews, but much less than when I first started covering high school sports over a decade ago. Nowadays, during interviews, most high school football players look at you and converse rather than staring into space. Superstars like Penn Hills' quarterback Anthony Morelli have mastered the sound-bite those 15-second answers we television folk are so fond of. Gone are the days when the head coach did all the talking for the team. Today's athletes not only speak for themselves, but also think for themselves.

Why are today's high school football players better at the sound bite than their predecessors? Easy growing up in the multimedia age. Face it, most of us have been on television in one form or another. These players have watched enough and been on television enough to know how the media game is played. Also, football coverage in Western Pennsylvania has boomed over the last five years. Pittsburgh has four network affiliates covering high school football. There is an all-sports cable channel, two major daily newspapers, several local and community papers and more radio coverage than Marconi could have imagined. All of which focus on local high school football.

Given the amount and intensity of media coverage, no wonder most of today's high school football players feel and act like professionals, making themselves available for pre- and post-game interviews and the occasional press conference. The exposure provides valuable experience. By the time your local star quarterback graduates and goes to the next level, he's already saying the right things and avoiding comments that will get him into trouble.

There are critics out there who say media coverage of high school football is excessive. I disagree. It would not be on television if people did not want to see it. Now I see an added benefit. Young men and the occasional young woman are learning to deal with the media. No, they are not experts in the field. Still, they are exercising a skill that will last a lifetime a skill that will help them many years after leaving the football field.

Andrew Stockey is sports anchor for WTAE-TV.