Being a sportswriter since March has been one of the most difficult tasks that I have experienced in my 20 years of working for the newspaper. Covid-19 has had a huge impact on the world that I am accustomed to.
The difficulty began on the second day of the girl’s state basketball tournament. The Huntingdon Fillies lost their first game in that state tournament, but four teams remained that had hopes of winning a state title before the cancellation of all sports for the remainder of the school year.
First of all, I wish to commend my fellows in arms, Jim Steele and Buddy Smothers, who also have the task of writing for this paper, along with our sports editor Ron Park. I am usually taking care of Huntingdon, Jim has McKenzie, Buddy is the Bruceton guy, and Ron does West Carroll. We all have faced the same situation this spring in the fact there have been no games to cover.
Jim, Buddy and myself write our own columns, and usually it’s not hard to find something to write about because each of our schools are involved in something and there is always an athlete or a game to talk about. But Covid-19 has slapped that normal way of life right in the head. So, with no sports that are currently taking place, it has left each of us to be creative.
This week I am giving a big shout out to my comrades because I think at least on their part they have done an excellent job to write interesting and relevant stuff. It’s also been amazing that each of us have not been running into each other as far as our work is concerned. In other words, we have not been all writing about the same thing and that can be easy to do at times.
The upcoming football season, in my opinion, is still in doubt, and I’m not sure if we can keep the pace we if football season is cancelled. Let’s hope that this all comes to an end soon and we can get on with our lives. I can honestly say that I miss being at a game and watching great young men and women play at sport, and I can’t wait to get back at it.
