A plan for sports coverage in an unpredictable landscape

If you had asked me back in February, what I’d be working on this week, my guess would have been finishing up some football previews, and maybe getting some feature ideas together.

This weekend was supposed to be first for high school football in New Hampshire, and pretty much every other sport in the state was supposed to be underway by now.

The number of times I’ve uttered that phrase – supposed to be – this year, I could fill a whole post just with that. It is not business as usual this fall, for obvious reasons, and likewise, it has not been that way around here.

But one thing is certain: there will still be sports coverage so long as there are sports to be covered – and heck, there will be coverage even if there aren’t sports. There are, however, going to be some changes.

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to talk with Jeff Collins, the executive director of the NHIAA, and he said something during that phone call that’s stuck with me since.

Many school districts were still making decisions on whether or not to participate in fall sports this year, and about that, Collins said “the discussion is really about what school-based athletics are … the social and emotional benefits outweigh any run-for-a-championship stuff.”

Games will be played, postseasons will be held, and there will be winners and losers, but that’s not the most important part of this fall sports season. Returning to the sports we love, getting to be around friends and teammates and coaches, learning life-long lessons are the things that should be at the top of everyone’s list of goals for this fall.

Now is a time to return to the essence of sports, and remember the reasons why we play or we coach or we watch them.

When I started this site 10 years ago, I had just been laid off from the business that I thought was going to be my career for the rest of my working life. But my time as a high school sports reporter wasn’t ending, it was just changing format.

My initial focus, and one of I’ve tried to keep over the last decade, is to provide the things that other media outlets around the state are unable or unwilling to do. Too many times, I got away from that and fell into a rut of going to game after game after game …

In some ways, this pandemic has forced me to return to that focus. I’m in a position in my personal life where I need to be extra careful so that I don’t put those around me who are more vulnerable at risk of getting COVID-19. That means if you see me out this fall, and all I do is wave from a distance, don’t take it personally.

It also means, in order to get back to that initial focus, I’ll be doing more feature stories and interest pieces, and conducting many of those interviews by phone whenever possible. A lot of high school sports coverage is looking at scores and stats, talking about who is going to win and who isn’t. While those things are important, I want to get beyond that.

So although I’ll be cutting back on the day-to-day game coverage, I plan to replace it with something exciting – game film.

I was fortunate enough this summer to invest in some new equipment that will allow me to do more video from games this season. I’ll still be putting together highlight packages from games, but now, for those who sign up for the Fanatic PLUS or All-State PLUS memberships, you’ll have access to full-length game videos, along with everything else on the site.

How often I’ll be doing videos, and of which sports, depends a lot on how the fall season plays out, but it also depends on those of you who sign up for memberships. Initially, the focus will be on football and field hockey, but if there’s enough interest/signups in other sports, those will be on the table, too.

There are a few other things I’m trying to plan out right now that, hopefully, I will be able to announce next week, and as practices get started, I’ll be working on stories on some of the top returning football and field hockey seniors, and some new head coaches around the state.

Until then, I’m grateful to still be doing this, and can’t wait to get back on a sideline, albeit at a socially-safe distance.