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Some people will never be satisfied dave konopki opinion

Friday April 16, 2010 | 01:00 AM

When it comes to sports, we’re very fortunate.

We live in an area where our professional teams are among the best in their respective sports. Our colleges have gained national attention for their success. And our high school athletes and teams take a backseat to no one in the state.

We also live in an area where those who play sports are given a significant amount of media exposure.

Three daily newspapers provide coverage to sports in Luzerne County, not to mention a handful of weekly community newspapers. Both local television news stations set aside valuable time for local sports and there’s even a weekly television show dedicated solely to high school sports. And don’t forget about the several local sports talk radio shows.

But instead of being humbled by – or thankful for – all of the publicity, an increasingly large number of athletes, parents, coaches and members of sports administration have become spoiled.

And getting more spoiled by the minute.

The latest example took place this past weekend, when the father of a local athlete, as well as a friend of the family, decided to call the home of our sports editor’s 80-year-old mother on Sunday morning.

Why?

To complain about the athlete’s photo not appearing in that morning’s paper.

Hey, I can understand about the father being upset, especially if he believed it was incompetence that kept his son’s photo out of the paper. But there are mature, responsible ways to voice your complaint.

Picking up the phone and randomly calling people with the same name as our sports editor isn’t one of them.

Unfortunately, the recent examples don’t end there.

A week ago, the parent of a local athlete called to complain about the coverage – or lack thereof – for her daughter. The young lady – a very gifted athlete – plays on a number of different teams in her sport and is frequently recognized for her accomplishments. Her name has appeared more than 30 times in our newspaper during the past 12 months.

Apparently that’s not good enough.

When we didn’t publish the athlete’s most recent achievement – something we would have needed a crystal ball to know about – the phone rang.

“What do you have against (name of school) athletes?” the parent demanded, before launching into a tirade about our paper’s discrimination of that school’s athletes and athletic teams.

Since I never got a chance to get a word in during the conversation, allow me to answer the woman’s question.

We don’t have anything against any school. To be honest, we don’t care which teams win and which teams lose. Most of the time, we cover the best games and it doesn’t matter if it’s Berwick vs. Valley West or Lake-Lehman vs. Pittston Area.

When we write feature stories, we don’t care if the athletes come from Hazleton Area, Dallas, Crestwood or Nanticoke Area. And the same thing goes when we select our all-star teams.

But as hard as we try to be fair, we can’t be everywhere. And we don’t have the manpower to cover every sporting event.

I’m on the record – many, many times – for how I feel about local sports. It’s the lifeblood of our sports section. Local newspapers should write about local athletes and local teams.

But I draw the line when a parent or coach tells me their son, daughter or team “deserves” recognition for doing something noteworthy on the athletic field.

The kids deserve an education. They deserve to be treated fairly. They don’t deserve to have their name in the paper.

It’s a privilege to be recognized for accomplishing something special in sports.

Not a right.