Shawnee Dispatch should cover De Soto High School sports
A few weeks ago, it came to my attention that the Shawnee Dispatch does not cover De Soto High School sports.
At first, I figured it was all okay, because DHS is not located in Shawnee, but then I came across an article written by a past reporter from the Shawnee Dispatch titled Mill Valley and St. James are new focus published in December of last year.
In the article, it talked about one of the Shawnee Dispatch’s sports reporters covering Shawnee Mission North and Shawnee Mission Northwest, while the other covers Mill Valley High School and Saint James Academy.
MVHS is located in Shawnee and so is SMNW, but SJA is located in Lenexa and SMN is actually located in Overland Park.
With SJA being located outside of Shawnee, this disproves my previous thoughts of DHS not being covered because of the school’s location.
After discovering this, I had another question. Why is SJA covered and not DHS? Because the answer has nothing to do with location of the school’s campuses.
I then thought, maybe SJA had more students located in Shawnee than DHS does.
So, I, with the help of DHS journalism teacher Michael Sullivan, did a little research. We asked for the breakdown of what cities the students of DHS live in and asked the same of SJA.
DHS has students that live in seven different cities and SJA has students from over 30 different cities and two different states. When I compared the numbers, DHS has 282 students living in Shawnee and SJA has 212.
Having 60 more DHS students than SJA students that live in Shawnee, this invalidates my previous thought of DHS not being covered because of the number of students who live in Shawnee.
So why is DHS not covered? Your guess is as good as mine.
I contacted the sports reporter for the Shawnee Dispatch, Mike Lavieri, who covers MVHS and SJA, asking if he would comment about why DHS is not covered.
Lavieri did not comment stating, “Thanks for the email, but because of company policy this is an issue that I can’t discuss with other media.”
DHS students athletes are just as deserving as any other school’s student athletes for recognition. Our athletes work, play and practice equally as hard and do everything the athletes of schools being covered can do, yet still are not recieving recognition.
Right now, the only way to get any sports coverage, is by DHS’ own paper, The Green Pride.
So, what if any of our sports go to League, Regionals or State?
No one will know until The Green Pride publishes our teams’ success in either an issue or a web story.
DHS should be covered by the Shawnee Dispatch because our athletes deserve recognition. Our sports are equally as good as the schools who are covered and a high percentage of the DHS student body lives in Shawnee.
Wendy • May 23, 2016 at 10:09 am
That was a rude comment regarding Desoto not being relevant in sports as this is a false accusation. For their division they do well and I believe, will only get better. With that said…as a mother of MVHS students, I wonder if the Dispatch cover the teams outside of our district because we actually play against and are big rivals of many of the schools the Dispatch covers. With this said, I was also disheartened to know that Desoto didn’t want to be associated with MV when the cell phone issue came about. They only want to be associated when it’s for the good. This is a great reason as to why I’m so excited about the district name change. Then….There will be no confusion. I think the frustration should be with the Desoto paper. They need to do a better job of covering events perhaps. Even though students live in Shawnee, if they go to Desoto, they probably do not care what MV does. Maybe the Desoto paper should be delivered to those who want it in the Shawnee area.
Anon • May 12, 2016 at 11:16 am
DeSoto sports aren’t relevant enough to be covered. Your athletic programs require drastic reform to become interesting.
Anonymous • May 12, 2016 at 12:21 pm
Just for the record:
-Girls basketball went to State for the first time in 32 years
-Boys soccer took second at State
-Boys Cross Country won State
-Boys swim had a fifth place finisher in finals
-Boys baseball just won league
-Boys tennis just won regionals and qualified several for State
-Track has a girl going for a third consecutive State title in pole vault
-Girls swim won their first league title and qualified several for State
-Girls tennis sent three to State
-Boys bowling had a player that played a perfect game and won many tournaments
-Girls volleyball placed second at substate
-Football went to the playoffs
So next time you want to make a comment about how a school isn’t “relevant” enough, I recommend getting your facts straight first.
Jenni • May 11, 2016 at 6:56 pm
I agree with your logic and can understand why DHS should be covered by the shawnee dispatch. It was just last week I believe that numerous complaints were made when it was quoted the at a school in the desoto school district MVHS had an issue with a student and cell phone use. They were angry that the district name was used (which was used correctly) and didn’t want desoto in the same sentence with shawnee located school. You have to take the good with the bad and I was shocked by the divide media produced within the district.
Sue Wolf • May 12, 2016 at 10:52 pm
Alot of people don’t even realize Mill Valley is in the DeSoto School District!
Michele L Price • May 11, 2016 at 5:34 am
So…De soto doesn’t matter? Before moving here 8 years ago, we lived in SW MO. Carthage to be exact. We had our own paper even though we were very close to Joplin. It covered our sports as well as Webb City who were our arch rivals as well as Jasper, and Sarcoxie…and other small schools in the area. Sounds to me like the Shawnee Dispatch are elitist Johnson County snobs!!! Go figure!!!