Collegiate Check-up to return Thursday

Let me take this opportunity to offer my sincerest apologies.

It took a rare spring college football game on March 6 for me to realize a mistake I made.

Slightly more than a year ago, when the ongoing coronavirus pandemic brought the world to a screeching halt and forever changed the sports landscape, something that had been a staple of The Commercial Review’s Thursday sports section was put on the back burner.

As college athletics were canceled in spring 2020 and then the fall season altered — on Sept. 16 the NCAA Division I council announced moving a number of fall championships to the spring — I lost track of area athletes who had gone on to pursue athletics in college.

I was under the impression after the NCAA, which states it has nearly a half million athletes in its three divisions, decided to make changes to its seasons that the rest, such as NAIA, had followed suit.

Therefore, the Collegiate Check-up, which appeared each Thursday edition of The CR and highlighted the accomplishments of those area kids competing at the next level, went by the wayside.

It’s one thing for area kids to get coverage when they’re amidst their prep careers, but the chosen few whose athletic endeavors extend beyond high school warrant coverage as well.

Prior to March 2020, those athletes got to be in the limelight.

It’s why I’ve attended Indiana Tech men’s basketball games, gone to University of Saint Francis football and volleyball games, or gone in the depths of the tunnels at Ball State University’s Lewellen Pool.

It’s also why I’ve gone to Fort Wayne TinCaps games to cover a former Jay County High School athlete playing professional baseball.

Since the pandemic began, however, current college athletes have inadvertently been neglected in The CR sports section.

It took randomly stumbling upon news the USF football team was set to begin its season on March 6 which reminded me what has been missing recently.

For that, I am sorry.

Beginning Thursday, Collegiate Check-up will again appear in the pages of The Commercial Review and on our website, thecr.com.

It’s when readers will discover two Jay County graduates have reunited as members, and leaders of, the IU-South Bend men’s golf team; a former South Adams Starfire posted one of the fastest times in Purdue history; a former JCHS standout put herself among the best Ball State swimmers of all time; and another Patriot swimmer set a Bethel University record, was a runner-up in her conference and qualified for the national championships.

And with spring sports underway at the collegiate level, those athletes will get their due recognition as well.

Again, let me apologize for the mishap of excluding these athletes during this 2020-21 season.