Our Commitment to Accurate and Responsible High School Sports Coverage
Varsity NC is committed to accurate, fair, independent, and transparent coverage of North Carolina high school sports.
Our editorial standards guide how we report, publish, update, and preserve information about student-athletes, coaches, teams, schools, athletic departments, governing organizations, and communities across North Carolina.
Because much of our coverage involves students and minors, we approach every story with care. We consider not only whether information is newsworthy, but also whether publishing it is responsible, fair, and in the public interest.
Accuracy is the foundation of Varsity NC's journalism. We make reasonable efforts to verify:
We rely on firsthand reporting, direct interviews, official records, school and district communications, governing-body documents, public records, and other reliable sources whenever possible.
Information published by Varsity NC may be updated as additional facts become available.
Varsity NC strives to present information fairly, accurately, and in proper context.
When a story includes significant criticism, allegations, disputes, or potentially damaging claims, we will generally attempt to contact the person, school, district, organization, or other party involved and provide a reasonable opportunity to respond.
Fairness does not require treating every claim as equally credible. It requires accurately representing the available facts, avoiding misleading omissions, and making a good-faith effort to include relevant perspectives.
Varsity NC makes editorial decisions independently.
Advertisers, sponsors, schools, athletic departments, media partners, governing bodies, and other outside organizations do not receive control over Varsity NC's independent news coverage.
A financial or business relationship does not guarantee positive coverage and does not prevent Varsity NC from reporting legitimate news.
Sponsored content, advertising, branded content, and paid partnerships will be clearly identified so readers can distinguish them from independent editorial content.
Varsity NC regularly reports on people under the age of 18. We recognize the additional responsibility that comes with covering minors. We will consider:
Varsity NC generally will not publish private home addresses, personal phone numbers, private email addresses, academic records, or confidential medical information about minors.
We may withhold the identity of a minor involved in sensitive allegations, discipline, abuse, hazing, criminal matters, mental health emergencies, or other private circumstances.
Varsity NC may report publicly available information about injuries that affect games, seasons, team participation, recruiting, or other matters of legitimate public interest.
We will attribute injury information to an appropriate source and will not attempt to diagnose a medical condition.
Private medical details generally will not be published unless they have been authorized or made public by the athlete, family, school, team, or another appropriate source.
Stories involving deaths, serious injuries, abuse, violence, hazing, mental health, criminal allegations, or traumatic events require additional care.
We will avoid unnecessary graphic details, sensational language, and speculation.
A death or serious medical emergency will not be reported based solely on rumor or unverified social media posts. Varsity NC will seek confirmation from a family representative, school, district, law enforcement agency, governing body, or another authoritative source.
Headlines, social media posts, newsletters, alerts, captions, and promotional language must accurately reflect the underlying reporting.
Varsity NC will not knowingly use misleading headlines, exaggerated claims, or missing context simply to attract traffic.
Breaking-news labels will be reserved for significant and time-sensitive developments.
Direct quotations should accurately represent what a source said.
Varsity NC may remove repeated words, verbal pauses, or minor grammatical errors when doing so does not change the speaker's meaning or tone.
We will not alter quotations in a way that changes their substance. Separate statements will not be combined in a way that creates a misleading quote.
Varsity NC may publish news reporting, analysis, commentary, rankings, predictions, reviews, and opinion.
Opinion and analysis should be clearly distinguishable from straight news reporting.
Writers may express opinions in appropriately labeled content, but factual statements within opinion and analysis pieces remain subject to Varsity NC's accuracy and sourcing standards.
Varsity NC publishes scores, schedules, standings, rosters, statistics, records, rankings, playoff projections, historical information, and other sports data.
We work to verify this information, but sports data may change because of reporting errors, official reviews, forfeits, corrections, schedule changes, or decisions by schools and governing organizations.
Varsity NC may update scores, schedules, statistics, and database records as new information becomes available.
Computer rankings and playoff projections are estimates unless specifically identified as official. Official decisions made by schools, conferences, districts, or governing bodies take precedence over Varsity NC projections.
Varsity NC will not alter editorial photographs, video, or audio in a way that materially misrepresents what occurred.
Normal editing practices such as cropping, resizing, color correction, lighting adjustments, and audio cleanup may be used when they do not mislead the audience.
Illustrations, reenactments, and composite images will be labeled when readers could reasonably mistake them for documentary images. Artificial intelligence-generated visuals will always be clearly labeled as AI-generated.
People who submit photos, videos, audio, or graphics to Varsity NC are responsible for having the legal right and necessary permission to provide that material.
Varsity NC may use artificial intelligence tools to assist with transcription, research organization, data processing, editing, formatting, summaries, headline development, or other newsroom tasks.
AI-generated material that contributes to editorial content must be reviewed before publication.
Varsity NC will not knowingly publish fabricated quotes, invented sources, false facts, manipulated evidence, or misleading AI-generated images.
Stories drafted with AI assistance from our data tools are labeled with the "Varsity NC AI Data Studio" byline and carry a published disclaimer noting that the story was written by AI, reviewed by a human before publishing, and directing readers how to report errors.
Varsity NC uses AI on certain data-driven stories — such as RPI analysis, playoff projections, and previews of high-stakes games — to analyze thousands of data points that change on a daily basis. AI allows us to keep this coverage current and reliable, turning constantly updating scores, ratings, and records into text-based analysis that helps readers better understand the RPI ratings, projected playoff fields, and other relevant data. These stories are generated only from Varsity NC's verified data, reviewed by a human before publication, and clearly labeled.
About the Varsity NC AI Data Studio:
We want to hear from you. Readers can tell us how they feel about our use of AI directly on AI Data Studio stories using the feedback prompt at the end of each story, or through the contact information on our website. We review this feedback as we decide how AI fits into Varsity NC\u2019s coverage.
The use of artificial intelligence does not change our responsibility for the accuracy and fairness of the content we publish.
Varsity NC writers, editors, photographers, and contributors should avoid financial, personal, family, or professional relationships that could improperly influence coverage.
Relevant conflicts may be disclosed to readers, assigned to another contributor, or handled in another appropriate manner.
Varsity NC personnel may not accept payment, valuable gifts, or special benefits in exchange for favorable coverage.
Normal media access, credentials, event materials, press meals, and similar accommodations may be accepted when they do not compromise editorial independence.
Varsity NC does not permit plagiarism, fabrication, invented quotations, falsified statistics, manipulated records, or deceptive reporting practices.
Information and reporting obtained from another publication, photographer, school, organization, database, or creator should be appropriately credited.
Varsity NC representatives must identify themselves honestly and may not misrepresent their identity to obtain information or access.
Varsity NC may accept scores, schedules, photos, videos, historical records, story ideas, corrections, and other information from readers, schools, coaches, athletes, families, historians, and media partners.
Submission does not guarantee publication. Varsity NC may review, verify, edit, shorten, label, decline, update, or remove submitted material.
User-submitted information should not be considered independently verified unless Varsity NC has reviewed and confirmed it.
Varsity NC may update developing stories as new information becomes available.
Routine updates may include adding quotes, updating scores, correcting formatting, adding context, or including newly available information.
Material factual errors will be addressed under the Varsity NC Corrections Policy.
Questions, concerns, or complaints about Varsity NC coverage may be submitted through the contact information published on our website.
We review good-faith concerns and correction requests, but we do not guarantee that accurate and lawfully published information will be removed solely because a person or organization would prefer that it no longer appear online.