THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: The art —and the danger — of keeping stats at high school football games

I was reading a column the other day by my friend Joel Donofrio, former Press copy editor/page designer. 

When he worked here, on occasion he helped us out by covering a high school football game, and he does the same now in his new gig at the Yakima Herald-Republic.  

At high school games around here, we usually keep our own stats. Most teams compile their stats "off the film," usually the next day, but obviously too late for our deadline. 

At college and pro games, stats are provided for you by staffers. That eliminates some of the headache — but also some of the challenge. 

Anyway, Joel was explaining the method to his madness of keeping stats, so they can quickly be deciphered as he wrote his story afterward. That got me to thinking about what I've been doing to keep track of football games on the sidelines for the past 44 years. 

IF I remember correctly, my first experience with keeping my own stats took place during my freshman year at Spokane Falls Community Colleges. The Spartans were playing Olympic College in Bremerton, Wash. As I wandered through the tiny press box, I noticed one of the sports writers had a legal pad in front of him, where he had written down the down and distance, whatever happened on the play, and anything else he needed to jot down for later. 

Hmmm, I thought, as I filed that away. 

Fast forward to 1982, my first year at the Daily Bee in Sandpoint, covering Bulldog football on Friday nights at what is now Barlow Stadium at War Memorial Field. 

Since I took my own pictures at the time, planting myself in the press box with a legal pad wasn't an option. 

I had to be able to shoot the play, chronicle the play and have everything written down before the next snap. 

So I bought a bunch of little Mead notebooks (I graduated from Mead High), ones that would fit in my back pocket.  

I would shoot the play, grab the little Mead notebook out of my back pocket, quickly scribble down what happened, write the down and distance for the next play, and hopefully have the notebook shoved back onto my pocket before the next play. 

Lather. Rinse. Repeat. 

Thankfully, most teams huddled in those days. 

I would add up all the first-half individual stats at halftime, then do the same with the second-half stats after the game, then write the story. 

WHEN I started at The Press, we had the "luxury" of staff photographers to shoot the games. 

And someone in the sports department had designed a grid to help keep track of stats. 

Not having to shoot my own games, I transitioned from the small Mead notebooks to legal pads, like the guy I noticed in the press box in Bremerton all those years ago. 

So now the drill was, write down what happened on the play on one sheet on the clipboard (thanks, Sandpoint Rec!), update the stats of the individuals involved on another sheet, and hopefully be ready for the next play. 

And, if the play happened on the other side of the field, and/or the uniform numbers were hard to read, if we missed the yardage, or who carried the ball or who had the interception, bless their hearts if the P.A. announcers told us all that. 

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the last of our staff photographers went away. 

So it was back to taking pictures, writing down what happened on the play, hopefully updating the individual stats, then on to the next play. 

And now, a lot of teams don't huddle. 

Plus now, with social media, followers want to know what's going on as the game is going on. 

So in addition to taking the pictures and getting the play written down and getting the players right and getting the stats updated, then doing it all over again on the next play ... 

Now we try to tweet out score updates as well, hopefully after every touchdown, lest we get a message from one of our followers wondering if we're even at that game. 

SO THERE you have it. 

Pretty simple. Especially when teams run a no-huddle or hurry-up offense. 

Take pictures of the play, write down what happened on the play, make sure you get the yardage right, update the individual statistics, then do it all again. 

Plus, send out a tweet after all the scoring plays, if possible. 

And, most importantly, GET OUT OF THE WAY WHEN THE KICKOFF RETURN COMES YOUR WAY! 

If you noticed a gap in our coverage of the Coeur d'Alene-Eagle state semifinal game two years ago, a few details missing during the time I was being loaded into an ambulance with a broken leg midway through the second quarter, to the time it took Jason to hustle out from the office to take over ... well, now you know why. 

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 1205, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @CdAPressSports.