COLUMN - From the Cheap Seats - How to go from good to great

By Ryan Stonebraker

Sports Editor

I was hesitant to pen this column this week, however, it is something that I have to say.  It’s in regards to last week’s crazy Thursday night where two marquee River Valley Conference events were held in two different towns, an hour and 45 minutes apart.  This column is not about an injustice, or me complaining last week.  It’s not me throwing the conference and athletes that are in it, and that I love to cover under the bus either.  It’s me suggesting how to make something good, great.

This year, the River Valley Conference cross-country meet was hosted by North Cedar at a course in Iowa City in a big sports complex.  The same night, the championship, 8-team bracket to determine a volleyball champion, was held in Camanche.  To be fair, the RVC consolation bracket teams played in West Branch at the same time.  All of the events nearly started at the same 5:00 time.  

To many, this isn’t a problem, you pick which want you want to go to and go.  For me, a newspaper guy in the RVC, it is a big problem.  At cross-country, we (Tipton Conservative), had a boy’s team competing for the team title and a couple individuals who had a shot at top-5 finishes.  Two of the eight cross-country teams are ranked (Tipton boys and North Cedar girls).  At volleyball, all four of the teams we cover - Tipton, North Cedar, Wilton and Durant, advanced out of pool play last Tuesday to play in the 8-team single elimination championship bracket in Camanche.

I can’t be in two places at once and neither can many of my peers, despite me trying many, many times over my 13 years here as the sports editor.  So I did what every sports guys does at one time or another.  I made a trade.  I went to the meet in Iowa City and took photos for other papers while another sports guy from a different paper, went to volleyball in Camanche.  Add the generosity of photos from a parent that also took photos in Camanche and passed them to me, and for the Tipton Conservative, we had things covered that night, albeit creatively.

Here is a look at conference weekly and daily papers:

Weekly Newspapers/Schools Covered: In addition in (X) the number of full time ‘sports’ guys at the paper

River Valley Conference South Division

Tipton Conservative - Tipton, North Cedar, Wilton and Durant (1)

Iowa City Regina - No Weekly Newspaper (0)

West Liberty Index - West Liberty (1)

West Branch Times - West Branch (1)

Kalona News - Mid-Prairie (1)

Wilton-Durant Advocate - Wilton, Durant (1)

River Valley Conference North Division

Sun-News - North Cedar (1)

Bellevue Herald-Leader  - Bellevue (1)

Cascade Pioneer - Cascade (1)

Monticello Express - Monticello (1)

Camanche - No Weekly Newspaper (0)

DeWitt Observer - NE Goose Lake (1)

Here is a look at the daily newspapers that cover the River Valley Conference.  In the following, I use quotes loosely, as the coverage from daily newspapers is not like the weekly newspaper coverage.  I think you can lump the tv stations in here too.  Stations like KCRG and KGAN out of Cedar Rapids and KWQC out of Davenport.  

Their resources are different and their space or time is different from the weekly newspapers in the RVC.  Where you may see between 4 and 6 pages a week the above papers, daily papers have dozens of high schools to cover and college stuff and, pro stuff.  The RVC doesn’t get into their pages week in and week out coverage as consistent unless it’s the postseason or profiles of outstanding athletes.  I would imagine that you will see an uptick of stories in the Times and Gazette for the Tipton volleyball team for example.  

I couldn’t find my copy of Friday’s QC Times sports section, however, the Gazette had a few paragraphs Thursday previewing the tournament and the scores in Friday after having scores in Wednesday from Tuesday’s matches.  The Times did not have scores or stories from Tuesday’s pool play.  I don’t get the other papers however, I did sed brief coverage of both RVC events on the Muscatine Journal website.  It’s a difference from what you see in our paper and the other RVC ones.

Daily Newspapers in the River Valley Conference Footprint/Schools ‘Covered’:

Quad City Times - Wilton, Durant, West Liberty, Tipton, North Cedar, Bellevue, Camanche, NE Goose Lake.

Muscatine Journal - Wilton, Durant, West Liberty.

Cedar Rapids Gazette - North Cedar, Tipton, Monticello, Cascade, Iowa City Regina, West Branch, Mid-Prairie.

Clinton Herald - NE Goose Lake, Bellevue, Camanche.

Iowa City Press-Citizen - West Branch, Mid-Prairie, Iowa City Regina, West Liberty.

Dubuque Telegraph Herald - Bellevue, Cascade.

This column however, is not to bash daily news outlets.  It’s to do things better, which I think the Conference can, and build on what they are already doing well.  I think that the RVC can do better to maximize coverage of their marquee events in the fall and open up the newspapers that cover this great conference a chance to take part in giving even more coverage to the conference as we wouldn’t have to make ‘deals’ or choose what to cover or what not to cover because of distance and time.  All of the weekly papers have one guy covering sports.  To continue to have these two events on the same night will result in tough chioces.  I saw only one other sports guy at the RVC cross-country meet.  Granted, I could have missed someone and if I did and you are reading this, I am sorry, but I only saw one other person than myself there.

Here is my solution, take it as you may.  Every RVC volleyball team has a ‘bye’ week where they have a rotated off night often times creating at times a week off for teams.  Tipton for example was off for eight days (August 23-30).  Wilton was off six days (August 20-25) North Cedar was off from September 24-October 2 and Durant had two, four-day off stretches this season.

My solution is to tighten up the regular season schedule.  I would take out the bye week for volleyball season and brand the week of the conference events at Championship Week.  

First, to do this, they should keep cross-country on Thursday as it is slotted in a perfect time for training for the state qualifying meets and state meet.  Move the pool-play night back.  Second, make the last regular season matches on a Tuesday, and the pool play night two nights later.  The last change then is to start championship week, by having the 8-team bracket night on the Tuesday after the regular season finales, followed by cross-country on Thursday.

It also could be a marketing dream.  You could have the slogan, “Our conference, our week”.  You could have a hashtag on twitter and all of the RVC media could send updates on pool night and updates on championship nights for each sport.

The RIver Valley Conference is a powerhouse in team sports and media members no matter what season and what year.  Let’s showecase it better.  The people that make the decisions on scheduling are doing the best they can and maybe last week was a perfect storm with the two locations.  I am just offering up a way, that seems logical and consistent to make it better.  After all, there is a lot of RVC pride among the 13-member schools and why not have the best for one of the best conference’s in the state.