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Reindeer Games provide weekend fun
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| Whitfield |
Last Saturday afternoon, while most of you dear readers were out shopping for holiday gifts, I was watching middle school kids play lacrosse.
Sure, I had never seen a lacrosse match in my life and even now I don’t think I could tell you the rules of the game. But still I was out there, standing amongst the throngs who braved the windy conditions to watch the biggest youth lacrosse tournament in the greater Houston area.
Two months ago, as I was beginning my term as sports editor of the Observer, I received an e-mail from someone who wanted me to come out and cover the Reindeer Games, Kingwood Youth Lacrosse’s annual winter tournament.
Now, in most cases, I would turn a story like that into a community sports brief. With nine high schools to cover and five papers to fill, there is never enough time to get to everything.
But for some reason, I thought this would be a great event to cover just before the holiday season went into its stretch run. And so I agreed to go out and spend a Saturday afternoon covering lacrosse.
I pulled into the dirt lot outside of the Kingwood Football League fields to find parents huddling in their cars, getting their kids ready for a day of games.
I walked along muddy fields behind rows of spectators in nice folding lawn chairs. I smelled burgers and hot dogs firing on the grill. I talked to people from Kingwood Youth Lacrosse - formerly known as HAKLAX - about the history of the event. What started as a fill-in date for Humble-area club lacrosse teams had grown into a city-wide spectacle.
And most important of all, I saw loads and loads of kids playing lacrosse. Everyone was into the games, going full speed like they were playing for a state championship. It was competition on the purest level, and I loved it.
In this line of work, there is a tendency to focus solely on the three major sports: football, basketball and baseball.
But I’ve been extremely fortunate here at the Observer to have people in the community who really care about their teams and want to see them covered in our paper. My e-mail inbox is flooded with team photos from little league coaches and requests for articles on everything from senior team tennis to local Ironman competitors.
These stories may not have the same cache as the state football playoffs or a college basketball signing, but I think they are just as interesting to me and, perhaps, just as interesting to you.
So please, keep sending me your stories. If you have a team or an athlete that you feel merits coverage, shoot me an e-mail or give me a call.
I can’t promise you that I’ll be able to cover everything that comes my way, but I am always looking for different stories that will best represent your community. Whether its Humble, Atascocita, Kingwood, Spring, New Caney or Splendora, I am here to serve you.
Sure, I had never seen a lacrosse match in my life and even now I don’t think I could tell you the rules of the game. But still I was out there, standing amongst the throngs who braved the windy conditions to watch the biggest youth lacrosse tournament in the greater Houston area.
Two months ago, as I was beginning my term as sports editor of the Observer, I received an e-mail from someone who wanted me to come out and cover the Reindeer Games, Kingwood Youth Lacrosse’s annual winter tournament.
Now, in most cases, I would turn a story like that into a community sports brief. With nine high schools to cover and five papers to fill, there is never enough time to get to everything.
But for some reason, I thought this would be a great event to cover just before the holiday season went into its stretch run. And so I agreed to go out and spend a Saturday afternoon covering lacrosse.
I pulled into the dirt lot outside of the Kingwood Football League fields to find parents huddling in their cars, getting their kids ready for a day of games.
I walked along muddy fields behind rows of spectators in nice folding lawn chairs. I smelled burgers and hot dogs firing on the grill. I talked to people from Kingwood Youth Lacrosse - formerly known as HAKLAX - about the history of the event. What started as a fill-in date for Humble-area club lacrosse teams had grown into a city-wide spectacle.
And most important of all, I saw loads and loads of kids playing lacrosse. Everyone was into the games, going full speed like they were playing for a state championship. It was competition on the purest level, and I loved it.
In this line of work, there is a tendency to focus solely on the three major sports: football, basketball and baseball.
But I’ve been extremely fortunate here at the Observer to have people in the community who really care about their teams and want to see them covered in our paper. My e-mail inbox is flooded with team photos from little league coaches and requests for articles on everything from senior team tennis to local Ironman competitors.
These stories may not have the same cache as the state football playoffs or a college basketball signing, but I think they are just as interesting to me and, perhaps, just as interesting to you.
So please, keep sending me your stories. If you have a team or an athlete that you feel merits coverage, shoot me an e-mail or give me a call.
I can’t promise you that I’ll be able to cover everything that comes my way, but I am always looking for different stories that will best represent your community. Whether its Humble, Atascocita, Kingwood, Spring, New Caney or Splendora, I am here to serve you.
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