I've missed my blog the past couple of days. (Hopefully, you did, too.)
Like most of us in the newsroom, I've been just a little wrapped up in the extra work created by Monroe's girls basketball team reaching the state tournament this weekend.
You might have noticed that we lost a sports reporter in the past few days. John McNally, who'd been with us for just a little more than one year, started his new job as a sports copy editor at the Racine Journal Times. That's life at a small-town newspaper. Talented, young people come to work for you, learn and grow a lot very quickly, and then take their next career step. You hate to see them go, but are extremely happy and proud of them for doing so. And then you start the entire process all over again.
For now, our sports editor, Christopher Heimerman, is a one-man sports band. We're all pitching in to help him as best we can, but he's pretty much on his own as far as covering sports for the time being. Obviously, he's been busy keeping up with the Lady Cheesemakers. But he's also busy working on a spring sports preview section that will publish in a couple of weeks.
Yes, that's right, spring sports!
In the meantime, our interviews with potential new sports reporters will probably have to wait until Christopher's out of the clear of the current crush of work.
I'm quite pleased with our preview section for the Monroe girls basketball team. For the boys section last week, we played off the movie theme of "Glory Road." This week, to continue the theme, we went with "Young Guns." The movie idea actually was John's to begin with. We started out thinking sequel, since the boys basketball team was returning to state for the second consecutive season and had won a title last year. But usually when you think of sequel, you think "stinker." The Cheesemakers certainly aren't stinkers! So we tied Monroe's championship history in sports and their prolific recent run in basketball and thought of "Glory Road."
That cover worked out pretty well, except that I forgot one player's name and added one who no longer is on the team. That was my fault and, frankly, I've felt bad about it since.
But like in sports, we got a chance to redeem ourselves quickly, with the girls basketball section. Let me know what you think about it. You can get a paper copy of it in today's newspaper, or check it out here by clicking on the cover under "Special Sections" on the home page.
Like most of us in the newsroom, I've been just a little wrapped up in the extra work created by Monroe's girls basketball team reaching the state tournament this weekend.
You might have noticed that we lost a sports reporter in the past few days. John McNally, who'd been with us for just a little more than one year, started his new job as a sports copy editor at the Racine Journal Times. That's life at a small-town newspaper. Talented, young people come to work for you, learn and grow a lot very quickly, and then take their next career step. You hate to see them go, but are extremely happy and proud of them for doing so. And then you start the entire process all over again.
For now, our sports editor, Christopher Heimerman, is a one-man sports band. We're all pitching in to help him as best we can, but he's pretty much on his own as far as covering sports for the time being. Obviously, he's been busy keeping up with the Lady Cheesemakers. But he's also busy working on a spring sports preview section that will publish in a couple of weeks.
Yes, that's right, spring sports!
In the meantime, our interviews with potential new sports reporters will probably have to wait until Christopher's out of the clear of the current crush of work.
I'm quite pleased with our preview section for the Monroe girls basketball team. For the boys section last week, we played off the movie theme of "Glory Road." This week, to continue the theme, we went with "Young Guns." The movie idea actually was John's to begin with. We started out thinking sequel, since the boys basketball team was returning to state for the second consecutive season and had won a title last year. But usually when you think of sequel, you think "stinker." The Cheesemakers certainly aren't stinkers! So we tied Monroe's championship history in sports and their prolific recent run in basketball and thought of "Glory Road."
That cover worked out pretty well, except that I forgot one player's name and added one who no longer is on the team. That was my fault and, frankly, I've felt bad about it since.
But like in sports, we got a chance to redeem ourselves quickly, with the girls basketball section. Let me know what you think about it. You can get a paper copy of it in today's newspaper, or check it out here by clicking on the cover under "Special Sections" on the home page.
