During my 45 years as a professional sports writer I have been blessed to cover, attend, and muse about nearly any sporting event you can think about.
Whether it be the NFL, The Masters, youth league soccer and baseball, running, auto racing, tennis, NCAA tournaments, the College World Series, ping pong, powerlifting, gymnastics, horse racing, bowling, t-ball, or hockey — I’ve just about seen it all. But to be honest, these last few weeks have taken it to an entirely different level. Since the Coronavirus pandemic has upended the way we think and do things I’ve learned to cover sports for the six different weeklies I provide copy for in what some might think is the hardest way possible — without any games.
But, you see, that’s where people are mistaken. At its very core sports isn’t really about games, it’s about people and their passions. Sure, the passion for sports leads them to competition, which leads to many, many games. But it’s still about the people.
This last month has been a challenge for myself and the talented writers and photographers who come along side me to produce the sports coverage for the Choctaw Plaindealer, Webster Progress Times, Winston County Journal, Kosciusko Star-Herald,Winona Times and Carroll Conservative each week. But, it’s also caused us to look at things a little differently and to take a slightly different approach to how we go about our business each week.
After you read this column, we have seven more issues ahead of us before the end of May and the conclusion of the 2019-20 school sports year.
So what do we do now?
Not to worry, we have a plan.
We have a few more stories up our sleeves for each of the 17 schools we cover that will lead us through the end of April, then we are going to depend on you to help determine what we write about in May.
Beginning with the paper you are reading now’s first edition in May, we will count down the top 5 stories — beginning with No. 5 — for each school over the final four weeks of May. There is obviously no doubt what the No. 1 sports story of the year is for every school and that’s the Coronavirus pandemic. So on the fourth week of May we will have the No. 2 stories for each of the schools as well as an overall Coronavirus sports report, which will be the top story for each school.
Here is where you come in. You can help us determine what the other top four stories are for each of your schools.
It can be a particular win, such as a state championship; it can be an occurrence, such as the emergence of volleyball as a sport, coaching changes, or the athletes from your school that have signed to play on the next level; or it can be an amazing individual performance. Or perhaps it's something completely out of the box.
Here is how you participate. Send an e-mail to starsportsboss@yahoo.com with your nominations for the top stories for your school. Make sure to make it clear what school you are sending the list for and also give as much detail about your nominations as you can. All coaches, athletes, parents, fans, and readers are welcome to take part. There won’t be an actual vote taken. All nominations will be considered, as well as some of our own, then myself and the beat writer for your school will make the final selections.
Then, just sit back and enjoy each week’s sports section for the month of May as we count down the top 5 sports stories for your school for the 2019-20 school year.
It has certainly been a year to remember
Austin Bishop is a multi-award winning columnist/writer and has been covering high school, college, youth and professional sports since 1975 and has been sports editor for multiple newspapers in the state of Mississippi. He can be reached by email at starsportsboss.com.
