Ashland's Daily Independent Sports Page

**DevilsWin** · 10-22-2007, 12:48 PM

I'm just curious as to what everyone thinks about the coverage or lack of coverage that the area teams have gotten this year.
Adam Vankirk is the new Sports Editor and since he took over I really think the Sports page has suffered.
No good stories leading into the games and some weeks all you get is a box score.
The Super 7 is a joke. I thought Mark Maynard always wrote compelling stories and when Rick Green took over he didn't do a bad job either but this new guy is IMO lack luster at best.

What are your thoughts?

**Midee1** · 10-22-2007, 12:55 PM

I agree with the super 7. Very few of those teams are even close to being super. Why is Fairview left out. They have a better record than Ashlnad, Greenup, Boyd and Lawrence if I am not totally mistaken.

Also why is it that the Ashland loss to Bryan Station deserved the biggest article in the center of the front sports page and Raceland, who won didn't even get a word spoken about them?

kyrifle · 10-22-2007, 01:11 PM

The Ashland Daily is a Boyd county paper. They mostly cover the Ashland teams. Boyd Co. gets some coverage. They don't send reporters this far east to cover anything in the sports field. They will however write articles on teams from eastern Ky if they can get CORRECT information on stats and who did what.
Sometimes schools don't call in anything but the scores. If the Daily has a contact person to follow up on a story, they will.

**DevilsWin** · 10-22-2007, 01:18 PM

kyrifle Wrote:The Ashland Daily is a Boyd county paper. They mostly cover the Ashland teams. Boyd Co. gets some coverage. They don't send reporters this far east to cover anything in the sports field. They will however write articles on teams from eatern Ky if they can get CORRECT information on stats and who did what.
Sometimes schools don't call in anything but the scores. If the Daily has a contact person to follow up on a story, they will.

I have to disagree here. The ADI wants circulation in all of Eastern Ky to make itself a "Regional Paper". And when it comes to news they do a fairly good job of covering the Eastern part of the state.
But when it comes to sports, this year, the coverage has been pathetic.
They have like 6 sports writers on staff. That should translate to 6 stories on 6 games every Saturday morning.

**Devilstory** · 10-22-2007, 02:55 PM

They are the BEST I have ever seen and they do still have Rocky who I believe is a phenomenal sports writer.
Something I have noticed is how lately they have made an obvious effort to give Equal coverage to about three different games on Sat. mornings.
Headliner
another front sports page article that takes up more of the first page
then another large article also on front sports page.

I agree not up to the old days, that's for sure, but still great.
If you don't think so, pick up a Huntington paper.

**DEVILOLOGIST** · 10-22-2007, 03:21 PM

If the ADI is the best you have seen,, then please step out of the back holler you apparently live in and see the world... It is wonderful to have the Greenup Times as a sports page in a addition to the ASHLAND daily independent.

**DevilsWin** · 10-22-2007, 03:28 PM

Devilstory Wrote:They are the BEST I have ever seen and they do still have Rocky who I believe is a phenomenal sports writer.
Something I have noticed is how lately they have made an obvious effort to give Equal coverage to about three different games on Sat. mornings.
Headliner
another front sports page article that takes up more of the first page
then another large article also on front sports page.

I agree not up to the old days, that's for sure, but still great.
If you don't think so, pick up a Huntington paper.

Rocky is a great sports writer and I had hoped he would have taken the job when Mark vacated that position. But it didn't happen that way.

The Huntington paper might not be the best, but I think they publish a much more accurate poll in the TriState Preps Elite 8. Or at least it is a "Poll" where people who actually get out to see games vote. '
Not just some guy at the paper with a title, ranking them as he sees fit.

**Tomcat68** · 10-22-2007, 03:51 PM

The sports coverage has been a total joke this week. I remember when I was sure to grab the paper Wednesday through Satruday because everyday there was so great coverage and stories about the upcoming games and results. Anymore, I don't get a paper any single day of the week.

As for The Daily Independent wanting to be a "regional paper", you are absolutely correct. That is why several years ago they officially dropped the "Ashland" in their title of the paper. Technically it is no longer the ADI, it is just the DI.

I remember emailing Mark and having great conversations on topics that he had spoke about in the paper or ones that had just been on my mind. I've tried to email some of the sports writers over the last couple years and I either don't get a response at all, or get a simple answer such as "I respect your insightful opinion" with nothing else. It's really pathetic.

While on the subject I'm fed up with the northeast local news channels out of WV not hardly covering any Kentucky games at all. Anymore I just flip to WLEX and atleast watch the central part of the state.

Dawg Family · 10-22-2007, 06:37 PM

kyrifle Wrote:The Ashland Daily is a Boyd county paper. They mostly cover the Ashland teams. Boyd Co. gets some coverage. They don't send reporters this far east to cover anything in the sports field. They will however write articles on teams from eatern Ky if they can get CORRECT information on stats and who did what.
Sometimes schools don't call in anything but the scores. If the Daily has a contact person to follow up on a story, they will.

If they don't send reporters this far east then why send the paper ? Just do like I do don't but the paper because it's a joke when it comes to sports . If they have six sports writers then they should be at least six storys because even when the teams are down it seems like we all live for Friday night football :Clap:

DEVIL89 · 10-22-2007, 07:34 PM

I agree with Tomcat68( I cannot believe I agree with someone from A......,lol) about the coverage. I to remember when you could pick up a paper on a Tues. or a Wed. and have precontest write-ups about up coming games and then on Sat. have all kinds of updates of all the games that were played on Fri. night. As for the Super 7 I like it but I to agree that some of the teams that are on it should not be there. I it would be cool if they would do an online poll for upcoming games instead of having the sports writers having their picks-of-the-week.

dundee · (This post was last modified: 10-22-2007, 11:25 PM by FBALL.)

I like it how the worst record teams get the most publicity

BlueOval97 · 10-22-2007, 11:59 PM

dundee Wrote:I like it how the worst record teams get the most publicity

Agreed I played for Ashland all through school and love the Tomcats, and ill admit that they do not deserve the big front page stories with the color pics and all. IMO Russell, Raceland, or any of the other successful teams should be on their. I mean you can only say so much in a story on how poor Ashland is this year.

~~Kayaker~~ · 10-23-2007, 01:38 AM

All of this complaining about the Super 7 is ridiculous. At least they are attempting to put together a poll that ranks the teams in our area. Outside of Johnson Central, Russell, and Raceland, they arent any good teams. Fairview has had a decent season but no solid wins, both Greenup and Boyd are 2-6, and Lawrence is 1-7. How can you make a poll Super is you dont have super teams. I personally like the Daily Independent. I feel they do a better job of covering Johnson Central football than our 2 local paper in The Paintsville Herald and Big Sandy News do. Plain and simple, this has been a bad year for football in our area, so in order to fill out a 7 team poll, you are going to have some bad teams in their otherwise you would have JC, Russell, Raceland and thats it.

Ref Devil · 10-23-2007, 07:20 AM

Midee1 Wrote:I agree with the super 7. Very few of those teams are even close to being super. Why is Fairview left out. They have a better record than Ashlnad, Greenup, Boyd and Lawrence if I am not totally mistaken.

Also why is it that the Ashland loss to Bryan Station deserved the biggest article in the center of the front sports page and Raceland, who won didn't even get a word spoken about them?

Raceland had a small article on it's game vs Nicholas County in today's paper. It was on page 3 of the Sports section and was only about 2 paragraphs long. I also agree that the coverage has taken a step back but just give hime a bit of time to get acclamated to his position. It takes time to get used to things in his situation. So, just give him some more time before we start bashing his work in th paper.

Cope · 10-25-2007, 10:01 PM

As much as I hate to say it, the Mark Maynard days at the ADI were far ahead of what it has been the past year. I graduated in 06 and went off to college, so the DI's online articles entirely make up the coverage of North East Kentucky Football that I get to see, and I have to say that i'm disappointed in the coverage these kids are getting. Whether the records show it or not, these kids go out there and give it everything they have, and AT LEAST deserve decent coverage by the Sportswriters.

I also understand that we can't expect a writer to travel 2 hours to cover a sure blow out, but if the best we can get is a full page article about a team that is having a dismal season, then I may as well not even pick up the saturday paper.

I have great respect for Rocky Stanley and enjoy reading his articles. I mean no disrespect to any of the ADI staff, but between 6 sporstwriters, surely we can get more than a recap of a box score.

The same thing goes here that goes for all of us saturday morning quarterbacks, it's easy to make the right call the day after Coach made the wrong one. But the subscribers to the paper, and more importantly, the student-athletes deserve credit for all of the hard work they put in, regardless of the outcome of the games.

**Midee1** · 10-25-2007, 10:08 PM

Cope Wrote:As much as I hate to say it, the Mark Maynard days at the ADI were far ahead of what it has been the past year. I graduated in 06 and went off to college, so the DI's online articles entirely make up the coverage of North East Kentucky Football that I get to see, and I have to say that i'm disappointed in the coverage these kids are getting. Whether the records show it or not, these kids go out there and give it everything they have, and AT LEAST deserve decent coverage by the Sportswriters.

I also understand that we can't expect a writer to travel 2 hours to cover a sure blow out, but if the best we can get is a full page article about a team that is having a dismal season, then I may as well not even pick up the saturday paper.

I have great respect for Rocky Stanley and enjoy reading his articles. I mean no disrespect to any of the ADI staff, but between 6 sporstwriters, surely we can get more than a recap of a box score.

The same thing goes here that goes for all of us saturday morning quarterbacks, it's easy to make the right call the day after Coach made the wrong one. But the subscribers to the paper, and more importantly, the student-athletes deserve credit for all of the hard work they put in, regardless of the outcome of the games.

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