Break lasted entirely too long

Often, a little break is a good thing.

But there’s such a thing as too much time off.

As I strolled toward Don E. Selvey Field on Friday evening to cover the Jay County High School baseball team, the game already underway as I had previously been taking photos of Indiana Run for the Fallen, I realized it had been quite a while since I had written about a high school sporting event.

How long?

Off the top of my head, I couldn’t remember. I had to take some time to think about it.

Finally, it came to me. It had been since the gymnastics state finals, when I freelanced for the Courier Times (New Castle) covering senior Kierstyn Cochran. That was March 11.

Friday was May 12.

My “break” lasted a full two months.

The only high school sporting event I had attended in between was a JCHS softball game April 17 against St. Henry.

But that was only to snap a few quick photos before I had to depart for another assignment.

So, why was there such a gap between my sports writing assignments?

Well, several circumstances conspired to extend my absence.

•Early exits: Unfortunately, most of the basketball teams we cover made an early exit from the tournament. So, there were no extended runs or conflicting game dates that required me to cover Fort Recovery or South Adams while sports editor Chris Schanz followed Jay County, or vice versa.

•Lack of a full staff: The CR’s newsroom has been short-staffed since Nathan Rubbelke’s departure in early January. Rose Skelly, who interned for us last summer, filled in part-time during the spring, but that still left a lot of meetings that needed to be covered. While publisher Jack Ronald handled Jay County Commissioners and reporter Caleb Bauer took care of Geneva Town Council, I was left with Jay County Council, Jay County Hospital Board and Fort Recovery Village Council in the evenings in addition to my regular South Adams and Fort Recovery school board assignments.

•Benevolent merfolk: As some of you may know, I decided to try something new this spring and got involved in Jay County Civic Theatre’s production of Disney’s “The Little Mermaid.” During the first six weeks of rehearsals, the schedule was flexible. But once it got close to show time, my home away from home was Arts Place. (It was well worth it. I had a blast, and will definitely be involved in future shows.)

•Rain: We’ve all dealt with this one. Mother Nature is at times the bane of an athletics director’s existence. Springs seasons tend to be full of postponements, reschedulings and outright cancellations. There were a few days that I was slated to cover sporting events only to have thunder and lightning strike those plans.

So I found myself walking up to the baseball diamond Friday realizing I was quite out of practice and might have some rust to shake off.

After some time away, it didn’t take long to be reminded why high school athletics are so much fun to cover.

First, there are just the sports themselves, which I have loved for as long as I can remember. Really, just about anything competitive is right up my alley.

Then there are the athletes. At the high school level, they’re just fun to be around as they constantly joke around with each other. For instance, heading into the sixth inning Friday Jay County senior Jacob Geesaman was urging his teammates to visit Farm Bureau … for some insurance runs.

And there is the joy of seeing amateur athletes strive for, and reach, goals. With their win Friday, the Patriots secured their first conference championship since 2007. (Yes, there were a few years there when JCHS was independent, but it was still quite a large gap.)

Those are some of the key reasons — the games, the athletes, the accomplishments — that sports writing became, has been and remains my passion.

So while a break every once in a while is nice, I don’t plan on ever taking one so long — intentionally or unintentionally — as I did over the last few months any time soon.

Two months was just too much.