A few days ago I was hit with an urge to do some spring-cleaning. I waited but the urge didn’t leave so I started cleaning out some drawers. As I was going through old newspapers, I found the first article I had written for the Bitterroot Star. It was a story on the ‘new’ Victor Baseball Park. And, it was written 20 years ago! Where has the time gone?
When I think back to those first couple of years, I realize just how green I was. Yes, I loved the idea of covering high school sports. I still love that. But actually knowing how to write about it was something else. I eventually settled upon my own storytelling style and although it’s not conventional, I think it works for me.
When I started at the Star, my son was in junior high. I figured this job would be a good way to follow his sports career and not feel guilty about missing work or his games. I did follow him but the interesting thing was that I found many other athletes to follow too. Through the years, there have always been those athletes who have stood out and gotten their share of ink. But there are also those athletes who maybe had one photo in the paper, not a superstar but one who worked for their team’s success, who have come up and thanked me. But it hasn’t just been the kids; I have become friends with the parents, too. And now, I’m seeing the children of the athletes I first covered 20 years ago being involved in sports.
As you all know, I’m a huge fan of basketball and rodeo and even football. But when I started this job, I didn’t know too much about the rest of the sports, such as tennis, volleyball and yes, soccer. But you know what, I have learned the rules, and by following kids whose passion may be on the soccer pitch, I now see why they are taken with a sport. It’s good to stretch and learn something new, even if at the time, you don’t want to.
One of the other jobs I have here at the Star started just a few months after I began writing for the paper. I became an advertising rep, aka salesman. In my previous life, I had done some livestock feed sales and then did limited ad sales for a bit for another local company so I had the basics, sort of. I had to learn the economics of the Bitterroot Valley, the newspaper, and the business community, because it was a combination of these that brought in ads to the paper.
Around 2000 or 2001, I was sitting in the office of the athletic director at Victor School and noticed a large poster with all of the schedules of the sports on it. Surrounding the schedules were ads. I asked him where it came from, and when he said someplace in Utah or Idaho did them, I had an ‘aha’ moment.
“Why couldn’t we do them,” I asked. “We’re local, the money stays here, and I think we can do a better job.”
So, our Bitterroot Star sports calendars program was born. At first we did just the north valley teams but now we do all six schools. The community support for these calendars continues to grow and grow. It is a nice boost for our independently owned, local newspaper. In fact, these posters are how I am able, as a sports reporter, to bring you the sports in the paper. The proceeds from the ad sales on these posters indirectly pay my salary as a sports reporter.
The last couple of years there have once again been a couple of out-of-state companies coming into the valley to sell posters for the schools. It recently came out that some of these proposals were actually a scam.
Well, I’m here to tell you that the posters that the Bitterroot Star produces for each of the schools in the valley are not a scam. My co-worker Liz Cook and I are out there, talking to businesses, calling and informing our customers about our posters. We are happy to answer any questions or work an ad in for you on one, or more, of the posters. We want our customers to be happy.
And, I hope you want me to keep writing about sports in the Bitterroot Valley. I’d kind of like to continue doing this a while longer. After all, I now have grandkids getting ready to play sports.
Thank you for 20 years.