Kudos to our Journal Review sports team for adapting to the changes in the sports department.
I would guess not many small town newspapers had a sports stringer sitting next to Tom Brady during the Super Bowl. We appreciate Jeff sharing his experiences as a Fox Sports guy.
Jared McMurry has been busy covering wrestling and swimming. He even covered a swim sectional for me when I was down with that wicked flu that has been attacking many in the county.
Heather Shirk, our rookie, has helped us tremendously with covering Mountie sports. We thank our “Mountie Mom” for working to give the Southmont athletes coverage.
Rob Hinckley continues to deliver and help us. The man works and lives in Lafayette but still is willing to travel to anywhere Montgomery County sports teams are playing. I appreciate his dedication.
And of course, our local sports historian Barry Lewis continues to share his knowledge of local sports and help us cover today’s teams.
We thank the many people who contribute the game photos for publication. This group includes Southmont senior Evelyn Zachary, Susan Ehrlich, Rob Clemence, and a few coaches’ wives. Their willingness to help is much appreciated.
I also want to thank our editor, Tina McGrady, for her above and beyond effort to place our results in the daily publications. No one outside the Journal Review can understand how much of a challenge operating a sports page without a sports editor has affected her daily duties. Tina is the real hero.
It has been a challenge to uphold the standards set by former sports editors such as Jared McMurry, Matt Wilson and old-timers like Lewis. We have a high bar at the Journal Review but times have dictated changes in how we cover local sports.
We have depended on coaches to send us results to be included in the daily sports roundup. Unfortunately, some coaches do not send us results. This has caused us to field a few complaints from parents and grandparents asking why their student athletes’ results are not in the paper.
The response is simple, we can only place contest results in the paper when we have them.
The practice of coaches reporting results is nothing new. In my 10 years coaching at Northridge Middle School I always hand-delivered results. The Journal Review had a drop box in front of the North Green Street location. This was of course before we had the convenience of sending results electronically.
Some of our coaches use other people to send us the information. We have received results from parents and assistant coaches. The only thing we ask is that the results are accurate.
Some sports, such as basketball, post results on apps. We get most basketball roundup results from Max Preps or Hudl. These two sports apps have been a key for me while trying to dig up results. I search daily on X and the sports apps to get information about our local teams.
I want to thank Wabash College for sending us results from their sports information department. Brett Harris great to work with and he insures we get results and sports news from our favorite D3 college.
Kudos to Jeff Nelson who has volunteered to cover some of the big Little Giant basketball games. Now, that is true dedication.
We appreciate those coaches who want to give their athletes exposure in the local newspaper. For those coaches who have managed to send us results we thank you very much.
There is still plenty to cover this winter and the spring season is right around the corner. The Journal Review Sports team will continue to strive to cover our athletes the best we can under the present parameters we are working with.
Bob Cox is the sports coordinator for the Journal Review.
