Community lucky to have Cooney, CR (7/19/05)

When my family moved to this area in the early 1970s, I recall my father (who had taken the Bryant High School boys basketball job) being extremely impressed with the sports writing coverage of The Commercial Review. The sports writer at the time was Russ Carson. Russ enjoyed his work and truly appreciated the culture of youth sports that we enjoy in this part of the world and it showed in his reporting.

A decade ago, my decision to come back to Indiana permanently was based on the culture of community I enjoyed as a child.

As I traveled the country as a college basketball recruiter I quickly realized that sense of community is often strongly identified through support of youth sports and the local school system.

This is somewhat a relic of a bygone era, when your local basketball team wore the name of your community right on its jersey. The conduct and the success of your team was a direct reflection of your community. I found that this phenomenon is most prevalent, for whatever reason, in the Midwest and in Texas.

We share a certain brand of community pride that translates into school structures that we are extremely proud of, that define us.

We also place emphasis on youth sports and, especially in this community, other summer youth activities such as band and cheerleading. This interest demands coverage in the local newspapers.

As a small market newspaper, The Commercial Review finds itself often hiring young, fresh out of school reporters. I’m sure that is a challenge but could often be a rewarding experience for employer, employee and community.

This weekend, after being gone for a week, I decided to catch up on local news and was shocked to see criticism of the local sports reporting done by Ray Cooney in the CR.

I have gotten to know Ray personally and have observed him frequently at countless youth sports activities in our community.

I’ll often stop and talk to him regarding local sports and have found the level of knowledge he has regarding our local athletes, their stats, seasons and often about our competition incredible.

I had to double-take a couple of weeks ago when, walking my daughter to the Little League games, I saw Ray right there on the fence, pad in hand, taking notes.

This particular game’s outcome was probably as much news as the fact that the players often had to be coached on what base to run to next. But that’s not the point.

The point is we value this news as a community. We read the articles to see who’s involved. Maybe we went to school, or even played Little League with their parents or grandparents. I often find myself reading this coverage and wondering if I’m really that old! Regardless, this kind of experience is what makes living in a community such as ours so appealing.

We are lucky to have The Commercial Review as a locally owned and interested community partner and we are especially blessed to have a sports reporter like Ray Cooney.

Bryan Alexander

Portland

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