Football: Oaks Christian concerned about media frenzy

After TV's "Access Hollywood" did a story on Oaks Christian's celebrity football players, with "Entertainment Tonight" to follow, Oaks Christian officials have decided to take action "to protect the privacy" of its athletes.

Tom Konjoyan, the director of development, said "nontraditional sports media" will not be allowed access to practices and students.

"We can't jeopardize the security of the students," he said.

There were parental complaints after a front page story in The Times last week focused on Oaks Christian's Nick Montana, Trevor Gretzky and Trey Smith -- sons of celebrity parents -- and the likely interest of paparazzi.

In a sign of what's to come, Coach Bill Redell handed me a visitor's pass Wednesday night to walk the sideline of a mere summer passing tournament.

"We're trying to make sure high school kids can be high school kids," Konjoyan said.

-- Eric Sondheimer

Comments

[Brian MacGregor]

These student athletes of star parents don't need TMZ and the papps capturing every move they make 24/7/365. Thank You Oaks Christian for taking this position.

[ccdbum]

I love the way YOU report this Eric, like you had nothing to do with it. You should never have written that story in the first place and exposed where those kids go to school to the public.

[James Gossett]

to ccdburn -

so what you are saying is newspapers should not be covering high school sports at all! Yet you are here reading high school sports blogs.

The Oaks Christian quarterback is going to have his name in the paper whether he is Jow Montana's son or not. The newspaper is reporting on them BECAUSE the public knows about it. Are people not supposed to go to the games now becuase they are kids of famous people?

I just don't see your point. Please explain. Thanks.

[ccdbum]

The focus of that article was not the kids' athletic abilities. It was all about them being the sons of famous people. I agree that in the course of normal sports reporting their names will likely be mentioned, but they should be referred to as "Nick Montana", not "Nick Montana, son of Joe Montana" etc.

"Are people not supposed to go to the games now because they are kids of famous people?" I would say, yes, if you're only going to the game to catch a glimpse of Joe, Wayne, Will or his pal Tom, then go stake out a Hollywood hotspot and leave the high school kids to play high school sports without the frenzy of groupies and paparazzi.

[oarsmanchief]

I love how you, a member of the media, interview Oaks Christian about their concerns with the media.

The problem with this post, is that it only mentions then word "football" once, does not include the word "team", or the school's nickname (the Lions)

This post should be about the affect that the media has on the team, otherwise, it is just as bad as the nontraditional sports media that Oaks Christian banned.