Five years of life in a newspaper
Published 4:49 pm Tuesday, October 6, 2009
August was my fifth year with the Suffolk News-Herald. Although most of those five years has gone by quickly — that’s how time usually goes — occasionally (mostly on Mondays and Tuesdays, I think) the five years do seem like a long time.
I started out covering sports, and then was in the news part of the newsroom for a little bit. That’s what I thought I really wanted to do, and I could well find myself doing that again down the road. Then I was asked to be the sports editor and said, why fight it?
If I had another job, I’d still go to as many games as I could. I might as well call it “work”. This way I get into the games, even if they’re sold out.
Writing, shooting photos and getting to talk with the players and coaches couldn’t be more interesting to a geek like me who has always been interested in sports, but not good at playing most of them.
There’s a lot of running around, a lot of trying to be in two places at once, a lot of six-day work weeks, some stress trying to meet deadlines, but in the end, it’s a pretty easy and fortunate gig to go to a football game on a Friday night and call it “work.”
Like I said, though, there are things and good stories I miss. There are a lot of games I can’t get to.
For the most part, coaches and a few loyal e-mailers around town do a good job of sending in scores, photos, rankings, stats and more.
If you look at the sports page and know of something I’m missing, please let me know. We’re interested in anything from high school games, Pop Warner and Little League games, golf, tennis and AAU tournaments, or just about interesting people who deserve a little publicity for their efforts.
As a community newspaper, we get a lot of submitted e-mails, photos and information, but we’re always happy to get more, especially when it comes to stuff like sports that’s just for fun anyway.