CALLER 1: (written) Dear Green Phone, I’m writing in regards to the bicycle races that were held on April 8th. There were hundreds of bicycles that started and ended at Gavilan College. I’m all for sports and exercise, but the conduct of these riders was unacceptable. They were talking LOUDLY through my whole neighborhood at 7am in the morning on a Saturday when MOST people try to sleep in. I live by Mesa Road and I was already awake, but many were woken by these RUDE riders. Also, they were riding four abreast in the middle of the street with NO consideration for passing cars. Please print this so the riders will get a CLUE to keep quiet early by houses. Thank you.
GREEN PHONE: Caller, well, Writer One, we’re glad you piped in. With the hours we keep, we completely understand why you’re concerned. A little shut-eye, especially on a Saturday, is one of our unalienable rights, isn’t it?! But at the same time, we’re glad so many people are out and about, riding up a storm in the South Valley. While the sports are very different, we hope bicycling doesn’t go the route of skateboarding. While skateboarding itself is a challenging sport that has the respect of many, the conduct of its participants has given the sport a black eye. Unruly riders ruin many of the wonderful things skateboarding brings to the table. We hope that participants in bicycling, skateboarding and all other sports continue their activities, but perhaps with a better awareness of how they are impacting others. Or, in the case of these bikers, at least wait ’til 10am – nah, better make it noon – to start the yapping in earnest.
CALLER TWO: Hi. My beef is, I wonder why you guys never print any information about the JV and freshmen baseball and softball teams? All we read is about the varsity teams, and the JV softball team plays right across the diamond every time the varsity does. It would be nice to get their scores in the paper as well as the freshmen scores. Thanks.
GREEN PHONE: Caller Two, we understand why you’re frustrated. The athletes on any team – freshmen, JV or varsity – are all playing their hearts out. No question. We would love to be able to give the freshmen and JV teams their due, but our first priority is to provide coverage of all the different sports. Believe us, that is no small task, especially with the overload of sports in the spring. Though you may prefer to read a story and check out photos of the JV baseball team, we would prefer to run a package on the varsity softball team in its place. But only because we have to choose. We simply don’t have the manpower to staff events outside the varsity ranks for the most part. As has been written in this space before, we highly encourage coaches of all sports to contact us with information about their teams. While we can’t often be there ourselves, we can still provide coverage with some help. You would be surprised how reluctant some coaches are to simply put in a phone call. Five minutes of their time can make a world of difference in the volume of coverage we can provide, so encourage them to pick up the phone!
