The last few weeks have been reminiscent of my early newspaper career.
Over the course of the last two weeks, I’ve spent several nights covering teams from East and West on the hardwood, while at the same time trying to find a sports editor to replace Jon Stark who left The Journal Feb. 1.
But unlike my life at a daily paper, I didn’t come in at 3 p.m. and get home at 6 a.m., thankfully.
But I was reminded of my first love when it comes to the newspaper industry. I love covering sports; it’s second nature to me.
The only downside is the pay and the hours.
Community newspaper sports jobs are oftentimes thankless. While I cannot speak on a great deal of experience here, I do recall my days in Corbin where my two-person sports department was responsible for coverage of eight high schools in a tri-county area, along with Union College and the University of the Cumberlands (known simply as Cumberland College during my four years in Corbin).
My favorite games are the ones where the underdogs played above their heads and knocked off the heavily favored team.
On the flip side, the underdog versus Goliath games were also the games I dreaded the most because, unlike David from the Bible, the underdogs usually were hammered pretty good by the Goliaths.
The past few weeks also have hammered home something I already knew.
I have a diverse, talented and unselfish staff who are willing to chip in and pinch-hit when needed. Jonathan Kleppinger has spent several nights covering games and Kelly McKinney also has picked up a sports signing story.
In today’s world, especially when it comes to the newspaper world, there is no place for a one-trick pony. The key word is diversification. During the course of interviewing six people for the sports editor’s position, many eliminated themselves because of a lack of overall skills.
But I am happy to report that on Friday, Cody Porter will be joining The Journal as sports editor. We are looking forward to having him on board.
But still, the past few weeks working the Jessamine County high-school sports scene have been fun, and while I will probably never go back to covering sports full-time, I wouldn’t be opposed — with my wife and daughter’s blessing — to pinch hit every once in a while.
