By Marty Gordon
We have received the calls, comments and emails from parents and others who would like to see more coverage by our newspapers of local sports at the five high schools. I would to do that, but things have changed over the years and gotten harder and harder to cover everything.
First, I am a part-time sports editor and writer with part-time photographers. We have other jobs, and there is no way we can cover everything from varsity, jayvee and middle school sports. This spring, we are talking about 29 different sports at 10 different high schools and middle schools.
It just is not feasible.
Now, let’s look at the second piece of this pie. Since I am not able to cover every game and event, we have to depend on coaches to call in results, especially home contests.
Well, that has not happened over the past few months. In many cases, I have even wondered if schools are even playing certain sports.
Parents have tried to supplement those results, but it needs to be from the official source—a coach.
I have pleaded with athletic directors for their help in getting coaches to call in results, but they have not. So, this makes it a little bit tougher to report the results.
As a small newspaper, deadlines also affect what we do try to photograph. We only come out twice a week, but deadline for Wednesday’s paper is Monday morning. Deadline for Saturday is Thursday morning.
Thus, we are behind the eight-ball in so much that we do have the opportunity to cover. We have tried to make sure we provide some up-to-date information on different student-athletes at different times, and we will continue to do so.
There is just so much we can do in the current environment of a small-town newspaper. I appreciate your understanding and support.
I also am open to any sports tips and interesting stories you might send our way.
I am still watching the transfer portal and how it could affect both the basketball programs at Virginia Tech and Radford University.
The Hokies received notice late this past weekend that Wofford’s big man, Keve Aluma, is headed to Blacksburg. He follows his former head coach, Mike Young.
Aluma is the son of Peter Aluma, the former NBA and Harlem Globetrotter.
As a sophomore, the 6-10 forward started 34 games for Wofford, averaging 26.6 minutes, 6.9 points and 6.8 rebounds per game. He totaled 239 rebounds during the 2018-19 season. He was second on the team in blocks with 31.
