The Sportin' Life
It�s already been a season. More jarring than the fact it�s been more than a month already since the anniversary of 9/11 is the idea we�ve completed our first sports season.
We being the new guys. The season being the completion of the fall seasons in high school. Tennis and golf are well through. Football wraps Friday. Volleyball also ends this week. Soccer Sectionals
are ready to roll.
When I was given this opportunity, one of the many facets was the idea we had to start a whole new sports staff. Ron Haramia was hired the same time as was I; so we started this journey together. I have always considered my life a work-in-progress; my artform is the same. No newspaper is still. If we don�t improve a little each day, we aren�t paying attention and the world will look elsewhere.
So a bigger change is not as unsettling as you might think. Ron and I saw opportunity.
We already knew each from another association. In fact, I think I sat next to him in a press box for his first-ever assignment. He writes so well. He is from Oregon or some other strange land and definitely has the Left Coast Cool.
That�s a balance to my popoffishness. He also directs traffic well. Never have I seen him upset, even at 2:15 in the morning against a 2:30 deadline.
Still, that first week, with sports football previews due and the high school seasons about to start, it was a delicious sort of scary; like ratcheting up the first hill of the rollercoaster. I told him we�d look back and laugh at the start. We�re already smiling.
That first week, Ron covered a game, I covered a game and the seasons had begun. Deadlines don�t wait until we�re ready. They come and zip past. So we started our adventure.
Next on board was Ken Peterson, coming to us from another daily a little to the West. He has a wonderful sense of self, a great dedication to what we do and can write as well. You may have noticed, when a semi rear-ended another several days ago near Wal Mart, that Ken ran out of the office to get the picture. I mean ran.
Total dedication.
We added recent Bethel graduate Paul Dendiu to complete the triumvirate, Both Ron and I knew his work ethic from a previous association. Anthony Gadson is a news guy who wants to write sports once a week. He enjoys the heck out of it. He�s a native of the greater Bremen Metro area and finished at Ball State this year.
Once already, I caught him down in the ad department helping type in ad copy because they were short-handed that day. He also type din the first honor roll of the season, unasked Dedication to the craft
Jamie Martin can plain shoot pictures. Any pictures. Any time.
Plus we use part-timers to help us fill the gaps when there are too many good games and too few of us. Dianna Westphal, another Plymouth resident, can shoot swell pictures, for instance. And Ron�s wife, Bev, has jumped in to help.
I�m telling you their names because I want you to know them; don�t be shy when you see us at your events. We�re a new staff. We want to meet you.
Anthony and Paul fit the template of good writers, like Ron and Ken.
That�s a compliment. I know I have been given the gift. When other folks ask me how do I write, I tell them it is truly a blessing. A long time ago, I was privileged to know Benita Fitzgerald, a world-class hurdler who medaled at the Summer Games in Los Angeles.
I asked Benita how the heck did she know she could hurdle.
She said, growing up in Philly, a Boys & Girls Club coach had introduced the little kids on the track with hurdles in front of them. He said run. They ran. She and one other ran well. He told her, she was a hurdler. And, she told me, you are a writer.
Same deal.
You either do it or you don�t. Anyone can report, turn on tape recorder and hit playback and transcribe those deadly dull play-by-play reports which passed as sports coverage in another time and place.
We write. We tell you what the coach said and maybe snag a player�s thoughts as well.
We listen. Happy moms and dads (OK, so not all are so happy) call us all the time with ideas and directions as to how we can become better. Most of the ideas are right on. The unsigned ones are just a distraction.
Coaches call as well. But Athletic Directors in particular are our allies. I�d say every Athletic Director (and I don�t usually accept absolutes like every) in the county is dedicated to getting the athletes� names in the paper.
That�s what this is all about. Validating the achievements of a lifetime using the daily diary we record each day for you.
And to think we get paid for this.
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