What we publish, how we publish it, and the rules we work under
AZ Finest Mixtape covers Arizona Interscholastic Association member school basketball as education-based athletics. This page states our editorial standards in full and accounts, article by article, for how this outlet complies with the AIA Media Policies. It is written to be checked.
Our editorial premise
High school sports are not the college or professional ranks. Approximately five percent of high school athletes go on to compete at the next level; the value of the season for everyone else is teamwork, skill building, participation as an extension of the classroom, and playing a game they love alongside their friends.
We build our coverage on that premise. We are as interested in the last player off the bench as in the team's most recruited player — and we do not publish content that evaluates, ranks, or markets teenagers as prospects.
What we cover — and what we deliberately do not
This scope is a standing editorial policy, not a seasonal preference. It defines what our editors will and will not commission or publish.
We publish
- Game stories from AIA member school contests, filed the night of the game.
- Scores, box scores and statistics on a timely basis, across all conferences and both boys' and girls' competition.
- Feature stories about member school teams, coaches and student-athletes.
- Video interviews and podcasts with coaches, athletic directors and school representatives.
- On-the-record quotes from participants and administrators in written coverage.
- Team previews and season wrap-ups built around rosters, schedules and coaching staff.
- The academic and community side of athletic programs — team GPAs, service work, student sections.
- Live or same-day audio/video of contests where rights have been properly secured.
We do not publish
- Recruiting rankings, star ratings or prospect grades. We do not rank or rate high school athletes against one another.
- Recruiting prospect profiles or college-interest tracking.
- Transfer news, player-movement reporting or commitment coverage.
- Club, AAU, showcase or out-of-state circuit events. Our beat is AIA member school competition.
- Chat rooms, message boards, open forums or fan blogs. There is no user-generated content on this site.
- Criticism of game officials or of officiating decisions, in any format.
- Advertising for alcohol, tobacco, drugs of any kind, gambling of any kind, or political parties or candidates.
- Paid content of any kind. No paywall, no subscription, no metered access.
Compliance, article by article
Each row states a requirement from the AIA Media Policies and the specific practice by which this outlet meets it. Article numbers refer to the AIA's published policy document.
| Article | Requirement | How we comply | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.1 | Regular season broadcast rights are held by the home/host school. | We contact the home school's athletic director or designee and secure written permission before any broadcast, telecast or webcast of a regular season contest. | Met |
| 1.2 | Member schools may refuse a broadcast request. | A school's refusal is final and is never appealed, publicly discussed, or worked around. We simply do not broadcast. | Met |
| 2.1 / 2.1.3 | Postseason broadcasts require AIA-granted rights, filed per contest — no blanket requests. | We submit a separate AIA Media Rights Agreement for each individual postseason contest, after the event is scheduled and participants are known. We never request blanket rights to follow a school through a bracket. | Met |
| 2.1.2 | The AIA may grant exclusive postseason rights to partners and NFHS Network affiliates. | We check exclusivity before requesting. Where the NFHS Network or a partner holds visual exclusivity, we do not request or produce video, and limit ourselves to permitted audio or written coverage. | Met |
| 2.2 | Outlets must hold the AIA and member schools harmless and carry responsibility for damages. | We carry general liability insurance and accept the hold-harmless and indemnification terms in full as a condition of every rights agreement we sign. | Met |
| 2.4 / 2.5 | Approved footage is limited to complete playback or newscast excerpts; it may not be sold, loaned or given away. | Footage is used only for full-contest playback or excerpts in regularly scheduled news segments. We do not sell, license, loan, gift or syndicate any footage of a contest to any third party, and we do not repackage it into highlight products. | Met |
| 2.7.2 | No interviews during an awards ceremony or official post-contest action. | Our staff wait until the ceremony or official action has fully concluded and participants have been moved to a designated media area before requesting any interview. | Met |
| 2.7.3 | Student-athlete interviews must occur within eyesight of the competition area. | All interviews are conducted in view of the competition area. We never interview a student-athlete in a locker or dressing room, a hallway outside the competition area, under bleachers or seating, inside team or school buildings, or anywhere out of sight of the competition space. | Met |
| 2.7 (athlete consent) | Athlete participation in interviews is voluntary and at the head coach's discretion. | We request interviews through the head coach or athletic department and accept any decline without follow-up pressure. We never approach a student-athlete directly for an interview. | Met |
| 2.7.4 | No filming in team huddles, boxes or any location considered "in play." | Cameras stay outside the competition area at all times. We do not film huddles, benches, team boxes or dugouts. | Met |
| 3 (A) | Social media platforms are not credentialed. | This website is our primary and editorially controlled publishing vehicle. Social accounts are used only to link back to work published here — never as the vehicle for the coverage itself. | Met |
| 3 (B) | Independent or commercial photographers/videographers, freelancers and stringers are not credentialed. | Credentials are requested only for named staff of this outlet, working on assignment from an editor. We do not credential freelancers or stringers, and no credentialed member of our staff shoots commercially at AIA events. | Met |
| 3 (C) | Sites that are mostly personal content — diary, blog or fan-based — rather than edited news content are not credentialed. | Every item we publish is reported and edited news content: game stories, results, features and interviews. There are no diary entries, opinion blogs, fan posts or user-generated submissions anywhere on this site. | Met |
| 3 (D) | No association with alcohol, tobacco, drugs, gambling, political parties or candidates, or advertising in poor taste. | Our advertising policy permanently excludes all of these categories, as well as sportsbooks, daily-fantasy operators and any advertiser inconsistent with the mission of interscholastic athletics. | Met |
| 3 (E) | Sites developed to list, profile or rank recruiting prospects or teams, or to host chat rooms, forums or blogs, are not credentialed. | We publish no rankings, no star ratings, no prospect profiles, no recruiting boards and no transfer or commitment coverage. There are no forums, comment sections or chat features on this site. See our editorial scope. | Met |
| 3 (F) | Sites that charge for content, in whole or in majority, are not credentialed. | One hundred percent of our content is free to read and watch. There is no paywall, no metered access, no subscription tier and no members-only content. | Met |
| 3 (G) | No for-profit venture that directly charges student-athletes or their families for content, coverage or products. | We never charge student-athletes, parents, guardians or families anything, for any reason. No coverage fees, no photo or video sales to families, no highlight packages, no paid placement. Absolute policy, no exceptions. | Met |
| 3 (coverage record) | Demonstrated record of regular, sustained coverage: timely scores/stories/statistics, real-time streaming, feature stories, video interviews and podcasts, and quotes from participants or administrators. | Our public coverage archive is dated and organized by type so this record can be audited at any time. Every written game story carries at least one on-the-record quote from a coach or administrator. | Met |
| 3.1 / 3.1.1 | All members of the organization must be properly credentialed while on assignment; credentials required at postseason events. | No staff member attends an AIA event on assignment without an AIA credential. Credentials are worn and visible at regular season events and at all postseason events. Where a credential is not in hand, our staff buy a ticket or do not attend. | Met |
| 3.2 | The outlet must ensure all credentialed individuals are lawful to work in Arizona and in close proximity to schools and students. | Work authorization is verified and documented for every staff member before any credential is requested on their behalf. | Met |
| 3.2.1 | New and non-traditional media outlets may be required to attend an in-person informational session at the AIA office. | We accept this requirement and will send every prospective credential holder to an in-person AIA session on request, at the AIA's convenience. | Accepted |
| 3.3 | All credentialed individuals must hold an Arizona DPS Fingerprint Clearance Card or a reputable third-party background check, with number and expiration entered in the AIA dashboard. | Every credential holder carries a valid IVP Fingerprint Clearance Card or equivalent third-party background check. Numbers and expiration dates are entered in the AIA dashboard and tracked internally so no credential is ever held against an expired clearance. See our masthead. | Met |
| 3.3.1 | Student contributors aged 18 or under are exempt from clearance but require a letter from their principal or athletic director. | If we request a credential for a high school student contributor, our outlet manager obtains the principal's or AD's letter of good standing and uploads it into the AIA credential system before the credential is issued. | Met |
| 3.4 | Outlets that do not order credentials for two consecutive years are removed from the system. | We order credentials every season and maintain continuous active status. | Met |
| 3.5 | All outlets are subject to annual audits for proof of sustained coverage. | Our archive is public, dated and permanently available for audit at any time without notice. We will supply a coverage summary on request. | Open to audit |
| 4.1 | Media are not permitted in the competition area until the event has concluded and winners determined. | Our staff remain out of the field of play, playing court, team boxes, benches, huddles and dugouts until competition has ended and winners are determined, and observe any additional post-event restrictions the AIA sets. | Met |
| 4.1.1 | Media are recommended to contact the host school administrator before on-site coverage. | We contact the host school administrator or athletic director in advance of every on-site visit, for practices as well as games. We treat this as mandatory rather than recommended. | Exceeded |
| 5.1 | Closed locker room policy at all events year-round; access requires written principal permission on letterhead three days prior. | We do not enter locker rooms, dressing rooms, warm-up areas or team meeting areas at any time. As a standing editorial policy we do not request locker room access at all, so the exception never arises. | Exceeded |
| 6.1 | Media may not contact contest officials at any time during a regular season or postseason event. | Our staff make no contact with officials at any point — not in dressing areas, not within the area of play, not in any passageway they use, and not as they leave. We do not seek officiating comment and do not publish criticism of officials. | Met |
| Conduct (intro) | Media must cover events from a non-biased standpoint. School colors and logos, cheering, and criticism of game play or officials are not tolerated. | Our staff wear neutral professional attire with outlet identification only — never school colors or logos. No cheering or visible reaction. Local school rules and the instructions of the site administrator are followed without argument at all times. | Met |
Requirement language is summarized from the Arizona Interscholastic Association Media Policies for reference. The AIA's published document governs in all cases.
Who edits this, and how
The AIA lists "lack of editorial oversight" as a stated ground for denying a credential. Here is ours, in plain terms.
Every story has a named editor
No item publishes without review by an editor who is not the author. The editor is responsible for verifying scores and statistics against the official scorer's record, confirming that every quote was accurately transcribed, checking name spellings and class years against the school's roster, and confirming the piece falls inside our editorial scope.
Sourcing rules
- Scores and statistics come from the official scorer's record or the school's athletic department — never from a third-party aggregator.
- Quotes are recorded and retained. We do not paraphrase inside quotation marks.
- Interview requests for student-athletes go through the head coach or athletic department, never directly to the student.
- We identify ourselves as AZ Finest Mixtape, in person and in writing, before every interview.
- We do not use anonymous sources in high school coverage.
Minors
Every athlete we cover is a minor or a young adult in a school setting, and we treat that as the governing fact of the beat. We do not publish a student's home address, personal phone number, personal social handles, class schedule or academic records. We do not report on student discipline, eligibility disputes or family circumstances. Where a coach, parent or administrator asks us not to name a student in a sensitive context, we honor it.
Corrections
We correct the record promptly and in public. A correction is appended to the bottom of the affected story, states plainly what was wrong and what is now right, and is dated. We do not silently edit a published story to make an error disappear. Corrections can be requested by any coach, athletic director, school administrator, athlete or parent by writing to our newsroom, and we respond to every request within one business day.
Complaints
Any member school administrator or AIA staff member who believes our conduct at an event or our published coverage fell short of these standards can contact us directly. We will investigate, respond in writing, and — where we were wrong — say so publicly and change the practice that allowed it.
Everyone who carries our credential is cleared to be around students
AIA Article 3.3 requires a background check for every credential holder. We treat it as the floor, not the ceiling.
Clearance before assignment
No staff member is sent to a member school event until a valid Arizona DPS IVP Fingerprint Clearance Card or an equivalent third-party background check is on file with us and entered in the AIA dashboard.
Expiration tracking
We track every clearance expiration internally and pull a staff member from assignment before a card lapses — so an expired clearance can never put the outlet's credentials at risk.
Work authorization verified
Per Article 3.2, we verify and document that every credentialed individual is lawful to work in Arizona and in proximity to schools and students before requesting a credential.
Questions about this outlet?
AIA staff, athletic directors, principals and coaches are welcome to contact us directly with any question about our standards, our staff, our clearances or our coverage. We will answer anything, in writing, on the record.