Lettermen Report is an independent publication covering high school athletics. Our reporting is centered on the CIF Southern Section, where our staff attends contests and covers schools, teams, coaches and student-athletes directly, and our coverage area expands as our reporting capacity grows.

We operate as journalists. We report what happened, we attribute what we are told, and we correct what we get wrong.

Editorial decisions are made solely by the Lettermen Report editorial staff. No advertiser, sponsor, school, coach, athletic department, booster organization, or outside party has any right of review, approval, or influence over story selection, content, tone, or timing. Advertising and sponsorship relationships are handled separately from newsgathering and confer no editorial consideration of any kind.

• —Scores, statistics and results are verified by a Lettermen Report staff member present at the contest before publication. Where a staff member was not present, the result is confirmed with the participating school's athletic department or the game's official scorebook, and the source of the result is stated.
• —Statements of fact attributed to a person are drawn from a recorded interview, a direct written statement, or a staff member's contemporaneous notes.
• —Information obtained from social media, message boards, or third-party aggregators is independently confirmed before it is published as fact.
• —We do not publish rumor, unverified reports of transfers or commitments, or speculation about a student-athlete's future presented as fact.

Accuracy matters more to us than appearing to have been right. Any reader, coach, administrator, parent or student-athlete may report an error to the Editor-in-Chief at hammer@colosarena.com.

• —Verified errors of fact are corrected promptly, and in no case later than 48 hours after verification.
• —Corrections are appended to the article in a clearly labeled note stating what was wrong and what is correct. We do not silently edit the record.
• —Published articles are not removed from the site. We do not unpublish coverage in response to a request from a subject, a school, a coach, a parent, an advertiser, or any other party. A disputed article is corrected, updated, or annotated — never deleted. This standard applies without exception and is not subject to negotiation.

We hold this position deliberately. An outlet that will delete its own coverage on request cannot credibly claim to report independently, and the permanence of the record is what makes a correction meaningful.

Lettermen Report publishes three kinds of content, and each is clearly identified to the reader:

• —Reporting — factual coverage of contests, teams, and programs. Reporting states what happened and attributes what was said. It does not contain the writer's judgment about who should have won, who is better, or what a program ought to do.
• —Editorial — clearly labeled opinion published under a byline and marked "Editorial" or "Commentary." Editorial content is visually and structurally distinct from reporting and is never presented as a news story.
• —First-person coverage — a staff member's firsthand account of an event they attended, written in the first person and labeled as such. First-person work is bound by the same accuracy standards as reporting: everything asserted as fact in a first-person piece must be true and verifiable.

In all three forms: any individual or institution that is the subject of significant criticism is given a reasonable opportunity to respond before publication, and that response — or the fact that it was declined — is included. We do not take sides between competing schools, programs, or officials. Game coverage reports results and performance, not partisanship.

The great majority of the athletes we cover are minors. We hold ourselves to additional standards accordingly.

• —Coverage of student-athletes is limited to their participation in interscholastic athletics and matters directly related to it.
• —We do not publish the home addresses, personal phone numbers, personal social accounts, class schedules, or academic records of student-athletes.
• —We do not publish criticism of the personal character of a minor. Reporting on a minor's athletic performance is fair; personal attack is not.
• —Interviews with student-athletes are conducted in accordance with the policies of the host school and its athletic department, and we honor a school's or parent's request to decline an interview.
• —We do not report allegations of misconduct involving a minor absent official confirmation from the school, the CIF, or law enforcement.
• —Photographs and video are taken in public areas of the venue during athletic competition. We do not photograph in locker rooms, training rooms, or medical areas under any circumstances.

Credentialed Lettermen Report staff will:

• —Comply with all CIF-SS and host-site media policies, including designated media areas, sideline restrictions, and interview procedures;
• —Follow the instructions of event management, game officials, and host administrators without argument;
• —Display credentials visibly at all times;
• —Refrain from cheering, partisan reaction, or any conduct suggesting an interest in the outcome;
• —Not interfere with the contest, the participants, or the working conditions of other media.

A credentialed staff member who violates these standards is subject to removal from assignment by the Editor-in-Chief.

Plagiarism and fabrication are grounds for immediate termination. Reporting first obtained by another outlet is credited to that outlet by name. We do not republish another outlet's work in substantial part.

Staff members disclose to the Editor-in-Chief any relationship — familial, financial, employment, coaching, or booster — with a school, program, or student-athlete they cover. Where a material conflict exists, the assignment is reassigned or the relationship is disclosed within the story. No current member of the Lettermen Report staff holds a coaching, employment, booster, or family relationship with a school or program in our coverage area.

Lettermen Report is a staff-written publication. All content appearing on the site is written, reported, and edited by identified members of the Lettermen Report staff and appears under a byline naming its author. The site does not host open message boards, chat rooms, or public forums, and does not accept unreviewed public submissions.

Consistent with our mission and with CIF-SS standards, Lettermen Report does not publish:

• —Recruiting-prospect rankings, ratings, star systems, or ordered lists of individual student-athletes. We report on recruiting and name, image and likeness matters as news; we do not evaluate or rank prospects. (Team-level power rankings, which assess programs rather than individuals, are published as clearly labeled analysis.)
• —Wagering odds, point spreads, betting analysis, or gambling content of any kind.
• —Content promoting alcohol, tobacco, or controlled substances.

Questions, complaints and correction requests regarding any Lettermen Report content may be directed to: Hamilton Hauck, Editor-in-Chief — hammer@colosarena.com.