Eric Sorenson
Last week we brought you the first installment of our in-depth sit down with outgoing AIA Executive Director, David Hines.
Let’s dive back into the conversation.
We, the media who cover high school sports here in Arizona have, somehow, made our way into the news cycle and the AIA has pivoted in their credential distribution process moving forward [background checks now required for all media members]. How did this all come about? “We had Jim [Dean] get some media people together and had an open, honest conversation about media covering high school.
“Obviously, media has evolved over time. It’s changed. We’ve had to adapt. I think, over time, we’ve sat down with some collegiate media relations people and asked them how they handle all the media now. It was interesting because they have the same problems, the same issues that we do.
“What do you define as media, and what are they actually covering? Are they more of an agent, just covering individuals? Is their focus just social media? We still have our visual media with out tv stations.
“I think we really try to define, ‘Ok, what is it that we need to look at that really says, these people are in it for high school kids?’
“There are some things that are really good ideas but nearly impossible to do.”
Like what? “Like trying to monitor who all is coming and going. Now, I think over time, we were giving out all kinds of media credentials, and I think the challenge is, we really didn’t know who they all are. We may go through a media company, but if they have 10 people working for them, we don’t really know who those people are, or what they are doing.
“The other thing we talked about is, in this day and age, people need to be background checked because if they come and cover a game, and something goes south, it’s going to be on us.
“We also need to know what did you produce? What kind of stories are you doing? Show us what you do, and if you can’t show that you’re a positive influence, or doing something good for kids, you’re probably not getting a credential.”
It’s become ‘hip’ to cover high school sports in Arizona, especially football. You just talked about some of the roadblocks the AIA has had regulating this. Do you feel this is somewhat of a double-edged sword, because we will likely never have enough media to cover and spotlight all the players and schools here? “I think one of the things we talked about, the biggest thing, Eric, is as you grew up in the media, you learned the do’s and don’ts covering games – whether it’s the high school level, the college level or whatever. There are certain things you can do and there are certain things you can’t.
“We need to educate some of these people because they have not had the training of mentors. Some of these people don’t have any experience or anything and they think they deserve to cover the Super Bowl.”
With Jim taking over, have you sat down and gave him some advice, or has been working closely alongside of you where he has a good handle on the job of Executive Director? “I think the fortunate thing for us is he’s been with us for two years. He was a superintendent. He was a district AD. I think the biggest thing about working [for AIA], is everything that takes place behind the scenes. People see you at games, they see you at tournaments. You have officials. You have an arena. Anybody can do that. What they don’t see is the six months, nine months, year in advance work to put all that stuff together.
“There are things [coaches] have to follow. If we are going to play at ASU, there are certain guidelines that we have to follow because we are on tv, or we are working within a framework with ASU.
“There are a lot of things behind the scenes that go on that people who are not working with that, have no idea. They just don’t.
“He’ll have his own ideas. We’re not the same. There are a lot of things that we do that are the same. We’re workers. No job is too small for us to do. We’ll take out the garbage and sweep up.”
Earlier, you talked about you being the face of the AIA, despite many decisions being made by the board and/or a group of co-workers. Has some of the backlash you’ve received over the years made you more thick-skinned? Has this job grown you in ways you didn’t expect it would? “I knew coming in, you’re not going to please everybody. If that’s going to really bother you, then this is not the job to have.
“I think I had some really good mentors in the world of administration that I was able to work with before I got this job.
“I certainly have thicker skin. I know it’s not necessarily personal at me, and I shouldn’t take it personal.”
I feel some of this ramped up competition in our state is, in some ways, poison. Coaches want to win. Players want to win. Parents want their kids to play. Expectations across the board in heightened. When you start throwing gas on that fire, and you’re the one that must stand over those flames, I assume that got pretty hot at times. It’s a hard job. “It is. But I really relied on working closely with people who had a good feel for what’s going on.
“One of the best things for me Eric, there are 51 of us across the country. That’s it. The 50 states and District of Columbia. There’s only 51 and we’re all dealing with the same thing…it’s like a family outside of your family. It feels good to have people like that.
“When we’re getting ripped in the paper, or ripped by the media, it’s good to be able to call and say, ‘Hey, what did you do? How did you handle that?’”
So, you guys are just therapists for one another? “[laughing]. Exactly, yes! You can kind of blow off steam to them.”
Will you miss being the AIA Executive Director, or when you walk out of your office for the last time, you’ll say, “Good luck and goodbye?” “What we do for kids, I will miss the kids, themselves. It doesn’t get any better than giving a trophy to a team, or kids at the end of the year who succeeded and done really well. I’ll miss that part of it. I won’t miss going to court.
“But I’m not going anywhere. I’ll go to games. I’ll see all you guys around.”
