I can’t lie. Spring is not my favorite time of the year for high school sports. It is a crazy time with a ton of games and events and the weather playing such a big part of the season early on.
The only good part about the spring season is that after that comes summer and that means hot weather, swimming and vacations.
Enough about that the spring has always and will most certainly remain the hardest season for prep writers to cover. Instead of one football game a week to cover you could easily have six or more softball games in a week (all with the same pitcher).
Track season is always a challenge because you have both boys’ and girls’ teams with several events and points are given in the top three individual events and the first place in relays. The action is non-stop there is always something to write about.
It makes it very hard to write any features because there is so much going on with the actual teams.
There is baseball, softball, track, soccer, golf, lacrosse, tennis and maybe a sport or two that I am forgetting right now. The athletes that are seniors are just waiting to graduate and sometimes they are hit by a case of “senioritis” which can have no good effect on any of the teams they play sports on.
The early part of the season can be exciting as teams adjust to the bitter cold outside weather in the spring in Michigan. There has been many a time I have watched my first baseball or softball game of the season with my winter coat on and my gloves.
I remember one game watching it and freezing so much that after the game the coach saw I was blue and said he would keep his comments quick and to the point. I appreciated that but it was colder and windier than a football game in October.
I have run track and can remember practicing or actually have a meet in a snowstorm. That isn’t the funniest experience I have ever had especially when you consider I ran the hurdles.
Ok, maybe running them was not the best reference but I did do them. I was not very quick and not very good but I had fun.
I really want to do the best job I can of covering all the spring sports. It is going to be hard to put them all in the paper each week but please keep with me and help me get as much stuff in the paper as possible.
These kids work hard in this are and I want to recognize them as much as I can in the paper. They deserve it. Some of them may got to college and play sports and high school will not be that big of a deal to them.
There are always those who are done after this season and can only look back at their scrapbooks or remember the good times they had with their friends.
Who knows maybe they will show their children or grandchildren articles I have written about them several years from now.
A journalist is an historian. We write in active tenses but it is a record for people to keep and remember. We may write about the things as they happen but believe it or not it is a record for the past as well.
So help me capture the magic so all can read and enjoy it for generations to come.
Dave Merchant is a staff writer for the View and Courier newspapers and can be reached at dmerchant@heritage.com or 734-697-8255.
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Thank goodness for you dedicated sports writers. My dad has a scrap book with articles from when he was a football player at Wyandotte. They may be worn and yellow but it is a great keepsake for myself and now my children, who are also keeping a scrap book of their schools sports stories. Some of which they are named in.
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