How do I get sports pics?

How do I get sports pics?

Away games in different countries or states. Middle school or underclassmen who cannot drive to away games. “Official” team photographers who do not play nice in the sandbox share snaps. Schedule changes… and no one tells the yearbook staff. Matches sometimes begin while school is in session. You cannot be everywhere. If any of these are why your sports coverage isn’t your ideal, try crowdsourcing sports photos. 

We have some actionable advice on how to get sports pics and the email copy a Treering adviser uses each season to successfully obtain photos from coaches.

Crowdsourcing increases equity

Diverse perspectives improve storytelling. 

Confession: the idea of non-journalism students having photos in the book was “cringe” to me initially. A junior named Victoria challenged me when we adopted a storybook theme. She wanted to add six Instagram photos to each spread to show all the stories on campus. We created a submission hashtag. From an opossum who raided the football team’s bags before a two-hour commute to the dance company’s trip being rained out at Disneyland, the yearbook team acquired stories that normally wouldn’t be in the book. 

Fast forward a few years, and a friend drops this truth: “If you want your book to look like your school, your school needs to help you build your book.”

Set up a submission system

If necessary, provide a checklist for photo submissions, including preferred formats, resolution requirements, and what types of moments to capture. Most newer cell phones—aka the ones everyone but my kid has—take good enough photos for including in your yearbook. Communicate your asks using social media, newsletters, and direct communication to inform the school community about how and where to submit photos. 

[Image: shared photo folders with dropdown menu]

Caption: Editors can create shared photo folders so teachers, parents, and students can email photographs from their devices directly to the yearbook folders.

What does your school use to share files and folders? Tap into that existing system with Treering’s crowdsourcing tools. In addition to shared folders, Treering also has DropBox, Facebook, Instagram, and Google Drive integrations.

Before each sport season:

Connect with the athletic director to outline your plan. Ask for schedules, rosters, and coaches’ contact information. If you do a picture day for all the teams (I highly recommend it), use this time to coordinate dates and times.

Introduce yourself to the coaches individually. Make sure they each know any deadlines you have or scheduled team photo dates. Give them direct access to submit photographs for the yearbook. If relevant, introduce the students who will cover that team.

Reach out to parents. Parents want to know if their child will be in the yearbook. Give parents the info to submit photos and give them a few ideas of what you want. Chances are there is a parent in the stands with a DSLR snapping away. 

During each sport season

Communicate Often. Please do not wait until the end of a season to send a “We have no photos of the X team” message. If you have no coverage two weeks into the season, it’s time to b-e-a-g-g-r-e-s-s-i-v-e!

• Have your photographers pass out info to parents with cameras at the game (Bonus: if your photogs are present, you will have coverage. Phew!)
• Resend links to shared photo folders the night of a game to parents
• Try the email strategy below

The email to coaches

Yearbook adviser Kristie M. communicates regularly to the boosters and team parents to get the photos she needs. At the beginning of the season, she sends info on shared folders to each.

She also works with the athletic director at her school to connect with team parents. The AD sends the email below mid-season to the parents of players. 

[Image: mock up]

Four reasons it works

With the right amount of positive peer pressure, Kristie creates FOMO while giving parents a pathway to participate. It ticks all the marketing boxes.

• It’s an easy ask: there’s only one “deliverable,” a team photo.
• It’s a timely ask: all the basketball teams have weekend games and students will be in uniform.
• It’s a specific ask: Kristie identifies which teams are missing and provides a link for parents to submit photos.
• It’s a targeted ask: only basketball parents received this email.

To read Kristie’s full email and adapt it to your school community, click here.

It’s more than sports

Groups such as the marching band, poms, cheer team, and spirit squad, among others, are also at these sporting events. (Heck, sometimes the band is bigger than the team!) Include them in your sports coverage by doing a Friday night timeline that begins with ASB and the facilities team setting up and ends with post-game traditions. Create opportunities for parents, sponsors, directors, and group members to contribute the same way you did for sports teams. Incorporate a way for fans to add crowd photos.

Again, multiple perspectives improve our storytelling.