Humble Observer - Sports
Years’ end offers chance to reflect
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| Whitfield |
I’ll never forget what my editor in chief, Corey Turner, told me when we first discussed the year-ending “best of” edition a week ago: “This will be the hardest week you’ll have here.”
I was puzzled by that statement. How could searching through archives for some articles possibly be that difficult? I thought I could get it all done in a couple of hours and then enjoy a nice Christmas break.
Boy, was I wrong. For the record, it took two days, not a ton of work but still far more than I had anticipated.
Three things made the task of compiling this issue more difficult. First, I have only been on the Observer staff since June 9, and I possess only a rudimentary knowledge of what happened in our five communities in the six months before my arrival.
Second, we had so many wonderful and interesting stories to choose from, and narrowing down the story list to something that can fit in two or three pages was a daunting task.
But the last thing, and perhaps the most important thing, was that I was given a clean slate on this issue. I was not held to any kind of precedent, which meant that I could shape the section however I saw fit.
On the surface, that doesn’t sound like a big deal. It’s hardly different from any other week where I have to come up with a section. But this week was different. This issue is our chance to sum up the year in sports as adequately as we can. How does one do that? There is no proper answer to that question.
In the past, our “best of” issues consisted of a series of pictures accompanied by a brief paragraph summing up the story that once ran with the picture.
Now, while I love a good photograph as much as the next person, I’ve always been a man of the printed word. So this year, as you’ll notice, we have the full articles available for your disposal.
And no, these aren’t five-inch summaries either. Here in the sports section, we have a luxury that the news people don’t have - all of our high school athletic teams took the week off, so with virtually nothing to cover, we can devote the whole section to featuring our best work.
Over the next three days, we will take a look back at the best of 2008 by posting a few articles on this website.
In Kingwood, you will find a story on Jennifer Schuble, the Kingwood native who competed in the Paralympic Games in cycling.
I was always fond of this story, but it had the misfortune of running the same week that Hurricane Ike devastated the greater Houston area. So even if you managed to get a hold of that issue, reading the sports section was probably the last thing from your mind and understandably so.
In Atascocita, there’s a story on local racer Stephan McCurley written by our recently-departed sports editor Joseph Musarra.
Our East Montgomery County readers will see a story on New Caney baseball coach Donnie Randell’s 400th win written by our reporter, Carmen Colunga. In Spring, there’s an article about Julia Swyden, the 15-year-old girl who’s making a name in the world of walking horse.
These articles may not be about the glamour sports like football, but I think they will provide an interesting read.
Have fun celebrating the New Year, and I’ll be back ready to cover your teams next week.
I was puzzled by that statement. How could searching through archives for some articles possibly be that difficult? I thought I could get it all done in a couple of hours and then enjoy a nice Christmas break.
Boy, was I wrong. For the record, it took two days, not a ton of work but still far more than I had anticipated.
Three things made the task of compiling this issue more difficult. First, I have only been on the Observer staff since June 9, and I possess only a rudimentary knowledge of what happened in our five communities in the six months before my arrival.
Second, we had so many wonderful and interesting stories to choose from, and narrowing down the story list to something that can fit in two or three pages was a daunting task.
But the last thing, and perhaps the most important thing, was that I was given a clean slate on this issue. I was not held to any kind of precedent, which meant that I could shape the section however I saw fit.
On the surface, that doesn’t sound like a big deal. It’s hardly different from any other week where I have to come up with a section. But this week was different. This issue is our chance to sum up the year in sports as adequately as we can. How does one do that? There is no proper answer to that question.
In the past, our “best of” issues consisted of a series of pictures accompanied by a brief paragraph summing up the story that once ran with the picture.
Now, while I love a good photograph as much as the next person, I’ve always been a man of the printed word. So this year, as you’ll notice, we have the full articles available for your disposal.
And no, these aren’t five-inch summaries either. Here in the sports section, we have a luxury that the news people don’t have - all of our high school athletic teams took the week off, so with virtually nothing to cover, we can devote the whole section to featuring our best work.
Over the next three days, we will take a look back at the best of 2008 by posting a few articles on this website.
In Kingwood, you will find a story on Jennifer Schuble, the Kingwood native who competed in the Paralympic Games in cycling.
I was always fond of this story, but it had the misfortune of running the same week that Hurricane Ike devastated the greater Houston area. So even if you managed to get a hold of that issue, reading the sports section was probably the last thing from your mind and understandably so.
In Atascocita, there’s a story on local racer Stephan McCurley written by our recently-departed sports editor Joseph Musarra.
Our East Montgomery County readers will see a story on New Caney baseball coach Donnie Randell’s 400th win written by our reporter, Carmen Colunga. In Spring, there’s an article about Julia Swyden, the 15-year-old girl who’s making a name in the world of walking horse.
These articles may not be about the glamour sports like football, but I think they will provide an interesting read.
Have fun celebrating the New Year, and I’ll be back ready to cover your teams next week.
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