When I accepted the job as sports editor of the Journal Tribune, I was excited to get started and really learn the high school sports scene here in York County.
I have learned quite a bit in my first two months ”“ some good and some bad.
The good definitely outweighs the bad and the biggest thing I have come to understand is that there is a plethora of talent in our coverage area.
Each of the school districts we cover have talented athletes, who work hard on a daily basis to represent their schools and their communities.
This area is also lucky to have coaches, who are willing to volunteer their time to work with young athletes. I know that head coaches and some assistants are paid, but when you break down how much time they put in compared to what they are paid, they are still volunteers in my eyes.
Now, let me get to basically the only disappointing thing I have faced in my short time here ”“ communication.
The communication I am talking about is between the school district and this newspaper. You see, we here at the Journal Tribune want to provide the most extensive high school sports coverage possible to our loyal readers.
Unfortunately, unless we get some cooperation from the school districts, our coverage will be subpar.
I’m not throwing all of the blame on the school districts or the coaches. The Journal Tribune has to fess up to the fact that we haven’t been pushing hard enough to get results from every team.
Our goal here is to have something ”“ whether it be a full game story or a brief summary ”“ on every game played by our local teams.
Unfortunately, with just a two-person sports staff, it’s impossible for us to get to every game, meet or match. That means we need coaches to either call us with information or simply send results in through email.
In my first two months here, we have been hitting under .500 when it comes to getting results from our coaches ”“ and that needs to change.
I have contacted the athletic directors at each of our school districts and I am confident that they will help me improve the communication between our sports department and local coaches.
The reason I am writing this column is because it’s important for us to provide great local sports coverage. It’s important because our local athletes deserve the recognition. It’s important because media coverage can help athletes get noticed by college coaches or scouts.
It would be easy for me to just sit back and keep the status quo, but I was brought here to do a job ”“ and I feel it needs to be done right.
— Sports Editor Pat McDonald can be contacted at pmcdonald@journaltribune.com or by phone at 207-282-1535 ext. 322. Please feel free to contact him with any questions, comments or ideas of how to improve the Journal Tribune sports section. Coaches can send results to sports@journaltribune.com.
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