Rychwalski | At last, summer is upon us
Jun. 11—Ah, at last, summer is upon us.
As much as I love covering high school sporting events, writing up the day's games, finding scores and getting home at 1 a.m., I was coming dangerously close to being burnt out.
Despite my best efforts, it hasn't happened yet.
Not even when I made a same-day trip to Charleston, West Virginia, a 450-mile plus trek in total, to cover the Petersburg girls basketball team in the state semifinals before doing an Alhambra Catholic Invitational Tournament game at 9 p.m.
That isn't a pathetic attempt to earn brownie points, I'm merely characterizing my insanity.
So, it should come as no surprise that in the absence of things to do, I've decided to embark on a new challenge this summer — writing a column every print edition until either it's football season, or I run out of things to talk about.
There is one caveat. Because the exercise derives from boredom more than anything else, I probably won't do a column when I cover a game or write a feature story.
For record-keeping purposes, this is entry No. 4 in the series.
And that brings me to another point of interest. If anyone has a sports story worth telling, be it from yesterday or 50 years ago, I implore you to email me at arychwalski@times-news.com or call and leave a message at the paper's sports line.
I don't care if it's one game, one play or a lifetime of achievement — I will write about it if it piques my interest, and it's a story that hasn't been told in print before (or not in a long while).
We spend so much time playing catch-up throughout the school year that I have little time to write for enjoyment.
It could be like the profile I did of legendary Allegany football player Rod Breedlove, who passed away last year at 83, or something as simple as a tale of a hawk trapped in a high school gymnasium in South Cumberland.
If there is little interest, then that's perfectly fine, but don't complain when you read the 10th installment of my series critiquing every unwritten rule of baseball (yes, that's a real thing that will happen).
Not too long after that, I'll be delivering gems like, "Top 10 worst receiving corps in Ravens history" (which would be a difficult list to compile with so many worthy candidates).
The easiest way to stop the madness, other than using the sports section as a fire starter, is to give me story ideas. This may open up a Pandora's box of emails, but I'm all for it.
We also have a full slate of summer baseball ahead of us, and Monday's edition will contain rosters and schedules for Fort Cumberland Post 13, Garrett County Post 71/214, the Cumberland Orioles and the Oakland Oaks.
The spring season isn't quite wrapped up yet. We still need to complete the All-Area and Player of the Year selection process for baseball and softball.
I assure you, significant progress has been made.
I'd estimate those teams will be completed and published in the paper by the end of June
In the meantime, we're on to summertime. I'll enjoy it while it lasts.
Football previews are right around the corner.
