10 For 10

Here’s to a decade of covering high school sports online

Joe Marchilena

— 3 min read
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Here’s to a decade of covering high school sports online
Pinkerton’s Justin Poitras holds up the Division I championship plaque as his teammates celebrate after Saturday’s win.

There is one question that gets asked to everyone who puts words on paper (or the Internet) for a living, regardless of genre or style or subject.

Where do you get your ideas? I’ve asked it before, and I’ve had it asked of me, and the answer is different for everyone.

For me, a lot of my best ideas – including what you’re reading right now – come when I’m in the worst possible position to write them down. Sometimes that’s while I’m standing in line at the grocery store, or when I’m just about to drift off to sleep at night, or yes, even in the bathroom.

But there was one time I came up with a good idea while having lunch at a Panera Bread.

The exact date has slipped off into the file folder of forgotten things, but I know it was around the holidays because one of my best friends from high school was in town for a visit.

In the early stages of becoming bored with his chosen profession (as was I) he was teaching himself how to build websites. When I brought up how I’d been feeling about my full-time job at The Nashua Telegraph, he suggested we put together something for me to do on the side.

After about 10 minutes of brainstorming without coming up with a really good idea, something popped into my head. There had been rumors going around the newsroom that layoffs were coming after the first of the year, and while I had no reason yet to believe I’d be one of them, something in my gut said it was possible.

“So if that happens, why don’t we do a high school sports website instead,” my friend said.

To that point, I had been back in New Hampshire for over four years and had built up quite a few relationships with coaches in Greater Nashua that I felt like it was something I could easily transition to. And while I was getting frustrated with the job, being unable to cover games and write as much as I wanted, I was still passionate enough about the work.

We agreed that one way or another, I’d have a new website to work on by the end of January, we just had to wait to see what it would be.

Sure enough, I got let go by the paper a few weeks later (and was eventually recalled 14 months after that), and about two weeks later, on Jan. 22, 2010, the first post went up on this site.

A lot has happened in those 10 years, and I’ve decided to take the site in a “different direction” more times than I can count. The biggest change came in late September of 2015, when I left my full-time job to focus on continuing to build and expand the site.

Even with those changes, the basics have remained the same, and I still have plenty of drive to keep it going.

A big reason for that is the people who have been kind enough to support me and this adventure, whether its the coaches who have and continue to help out by providing information or their time, or the parents, athletes and fans who visit this site on a regular basis and sign up for memberships.

When I was in college, covering big time Division I athletics, I used to hope that didn’t end up being the best journalism job I’d ever have. I was lucky, as a college student, to have the opportunity to cover Pitt football and men’s basketball, including a Heisman Trophy ceremony and multiple NCAA Tournaments, along with a ton of other high-level athletes.

But as time passed, and I got see how much high school sports can mean to people, and how important covering them is. It’s a lot of fun getting to watch a college or professional sporting event from a press box, or take photos right on the sideline, but for me, getting to cover high school sports, especially in the city I grew up in, is much more rewarding.

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of this website, I wanted to do something special, so for the next few weeks, I’ll be looking back on some of the top athletes and teams that I’ve had the privilege of covering since the start of NH-HighSchoolSports.com.

Every Wednesday, starting Feb. 5, I’ll be posting top 10 lists of the best of the sports I’ve covered the most – football, lacrosse and basketball – followed by the top athletes and teams overall. There might even be a podcast or two added to that so we can debate further on the best of the best from the last decade.

As always, thank you for your continued support of this website and of high school athletics around the Granite State.

Here is a tentative schedule of when the lists from each sport will be posted.

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