Spring sports, take two

Nearly one year ago, I saw a post on social media from a sports editor in a nearby county who touted their sports coverage. He even boasted about the content they created one day as he worked 13 hours on a Saturday.

I saw his post and thought it was nuts and unsustainable. Needless to say, that sports editor then posted a few weeks later that he was leaving the news industry to become a teacher at one of the schools he used to cover. He was burned out.

I too have burned out working in the industry at least three times. I could say that occurred for me twice in my first year at the Daily World alone. By the end of May last year, my body, my brain and even my car was close to the breaking point as it started overheating on a drive to South Knox.

For 2022, I knew I had to make adjustments and things are going smoother. It helps that I know who the coaches are around here this year. Last year, I learned by going to practices.

Not every team from every sport can get a full story from every match, meet or game. The multimedia tactics did seem to help fill in the gaps. It’s why I wanted to do a livestream and get content out that way. Hence, the “Low Budget Sports Show” was born. Monday, three events were going on at Linton. The livestream later that night allowed me to get information, video and images of those events by 10:30 p.m. Doing a story on all three would have been a trip and taken longer to do without additional manpower.

Spring sports is the most exhaustive time on the calendar for high school sports media folks but it can be the most rewarding. By the end of the season, Linton and Shakamak baseball players were waving at me when they saw me and my camera. This year, it was taken up to another notch as the Linton baseball players joked about wanting me to join their practice a few weeks ago. Trust me Miners, you want me far away from the plate.

These teams do not get the attention that basketball and football get so their appreciation for local coverage is always a motivation for me.

The next two months will be busy but I am constantly reminding myself to not be like the countless other sports writers who have faded away after wiping themselves out. I am not ready to do that quite yet.

Nathan Pace is the Sports Editor of the Greene County Daily World and can be reached at npacegcdw@gmail.com. His “Low Budget Sports Show” airs weekly on Facebook Live.