Sports coverage will have team approach

Are you the new Rick Reed?

That’s a question Andrew Balko and I have heard from folks multiple times while covering Randolph County sporting events over the last few weeks.

The answer is yes, and no.

Before explaining that contradictory notion further, let’s offer some background.

For most of their history, The Commercial Review (Portland), The News-Gazette (Winchester) and The News Times (Hartford City) were under separate ownership, each employing a sports editor. For more than 40 years, Rick held that role for The News-Gazette. For 20-plus years, it was me or Chris Schanz at The Commercial Review.

Under previous ownership, Rick was also put in charge of The News Times sports section.

There has been even more change recently. First, The Graphic Printing Company, longtime publisher of The Commercial Review, bought The News-Gazette and The News Times from Community Media Group in May 2023. Then, early this spring, Rick let me know he was planning to retire. He finished up his duties at the end of June.

Since Rick shared his plans, we have been looking for a new sports writer. In Rick’s absence, Andrew and I have been filling in as best we can.

We recently hired Will Cash, who is expected to begin his new role with us within the next few weeks.

That brings me back to the question.

Am I the new Rick Reed?

Is Andrew?

Is Will?

The answer is more complicated than a simple yes or no.

When the newspapers were all separate entities, each had their own one-man sports department. Even after we consolidated the papers under a single umbrella last May, it made sense for Rick to continue to focus on Randolph County athletics as he had for more than four decades, though coaches and athletes started to see myself and Andrew around here and there.

Following Rick’s retirement, our process is changing. No longer will we have one sports writer who focuses on The Commercial Review, one who focuses on The News-Gazette and one who focuses on The News Times.

Instead, Andrew, Will and I, and some freelancers, will act as a single sports team covering athletics throughout our coverage area. This change in strategy is designed to allow us to provide the best sports coverage we can across the board. (It also is nice for our young writers to get experience with a wider variety of athletes and coaches and to have their stories read by a wider audience.)

We will look at all 10 of the high schools we cover — for the record, that is now Blackford, Delta, Fort Recovery, Jay County, Monroe Central, Randolph Southern, Union (Modoc), Union City, Wapahani and Winchester — as a whole. There will be a focus on what I’ve referred to as our “crossover” schedule — games, meets and matches that include two or more of the schools on our list. By attending those events, we’ll be able to reach more local athletes and provide more extensive coverage across the board. (As we’ve begun to employ this method, there have been times when a single event resulted in stories and photos for all three newspapers.)

The new system also allows us to take advantage of oddities in scheduling.

Wednesday, Aug. 28, was an example. Wednesdays are generally quiet on the sports calendar. On that particular day, Jay County, Delta, Blackford and Fort Recovery had no events scheduled. But there were events happening in Randolph County.

So on that night, Andrew headed to Winchester to see the host Golden Falcons take on Union City in boys tennis while I went to Modoc to watch Union and Monroe Central play volleyball.

Under the previous system, only one of those events could have received coverage. By working together as a single unit, we were able to write about and take photos of more teams.

So, as we move forward, you’ll see me, Will, Andrew and some freelancers at sporting events across The Graphic Printing Company’s territory.

The ultimate goal is to provide you, our readers, the best overall sports coverage we can.

We feel the best way to do that, as with most goals, is together, as a team.