Corsicana —
Just like riding a bike? Not exactly. Maybe more like jumping into a pool of cold water. Very cold water.
In 1992, when I broke into this business, I did so on a Friday night after covering an out-manned Coolidge team playing football at Hubbard. My 20-year-old son Taylor was six months old, my wife typed the story I dictated to her, and the thing I remember most about the game was that Coolidge had one kid on the sideline when it came time for the kickoff.
Within a few short years, with Todd Wills and Rick Kretzschmar and Dale Gosser, I became a bigger part of the Friday night process. When I came back in 1998, I led that process. I organized it. I enjoyed it. I lived for it. In the years afterward, my role diminished but I kept covering a team.
The life of a Friday night reporter is quite fun when your only responsibility is filing a game story and box score.
In 2009, after losing our Saturday paper, the adrenaline of Friday nights tapered off. The routine has been Todd and I uploading stories to the Web, hardly the rush of Friday nights past. Most of the time, I’d handle whatever I needed to sitting in my recliner, in my house, which sits less than a half-mile from Mildred’s Asby Field.
That changed last week.
With the move to weekend mail, we took on a project former Daily Sun publisher Gary Connor and I have discussed off and on for three years: a Saturday morning football project that includes the papers in Corsicana, Athens, Jacksonville and Palestine, where Gary is now.
It’s almost something out of “The Expendables” playbook. You have Todd and myself, the two of us having worked together on Friday nights almost 20 years ago, and many years since. And we’ve brought in Rob Ludwig, the editor here from 1993-2000 and no stranger to Friday nights, to help us out. Rob always helped when I was the sports editor when he was here. (If there is a young man in “The Expendables,” which I haven’t seen, Michael Kormos fills that role admirably.)
Fortunately for us, we had a really solid plan for Friday night. If we hadn’t, a meltdown likely would have ensued.
In the mid-to-late 2000s, when guys like Jake Shaw and Chris Smith and Joel Weckerly were making Friday nights look easy, I proclaimed I was too old for this … well, you know. After one Friday night, I don’t think I have changed my mind.
But amidst the chaos, something about the challenge became, well, somewhat fun again. The adrenaline flowed.
Friday nights with an aggressive deadline can be similar to jumping 18 buses on a Huffy. Covering the game represents the easy part. Getting them onto paper becomes a whole other story.
Technology should make things easier, but in fact, it’s what led to most of the chaos Friday night. It’s was the ice in the very cold water.
Outside of that, it was 1994 all over again.
Once again, Friday Night Flashback has the adrenaline flowing into the early morning hours on Saturdays.
Now that we’ve jumped into the water, and recognized the pitfalls, it’s time to swim.
I always enjoyed swimming. Riding bikes, too.
——————
Raymond Linex II is publisher of the Corsicana Daily Sun. His column appears on Thursdays. Want to “Soundoff” on his column? Email: soundoff@corsicanadailysun.com
Opinion
Related Photos
-
Raymond Linex II is publisher of the Daily Sun.
Discussion
Splashing in on Friday nights again
- Opinion
-
-
Baby Watch
If you’ve not been concerned about the things happening of late, then I certainly can’t relate to you.
-
Letters to the Editor 5/25/13
Save the Garden
To the Editor: For almost 25 years I have been working on saving and beautifying my building at the corner of Third Avenue and Beaton Street, not only for myself but for all of the community to enjoy. -
Memorial Day thoughts
Next Monday we will fly our flag outside our house to honor Memorial Day. It is a tradition my wife brought into our marriage from her father who served in the Pacific during World War II.
-
I am so cynical
Cynical: “...believing that people are motivated in all their actions only by selfishness; denying the sincerity of people’s motives and actions, or the value of living...sarcastic, sneering, etc...pessimistic implies an attitude, often habitual, of expecting the worst to happen...”
-
Dumb people in the news
In the news this week was an on-line press release from the Department of Environmental Protection for the state of Pennsylvania that they’ve lost a nuclear device off the back of a truck somewhere between Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The Troxler Model 3430 is a radioactive gauge that takes measurements in the ground. The press release from the DEP states that anyone finding the box should not “tamper” with it.
-
Editorial: Seizure of AP phone records insult to independent press
Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a foiled terrorist plot.
This amounts to spying on an American news organization — common practice in dictatorships but scary conduct in a democratic system that prizes the public value of an independent watchdog press. -
Flying the “Delta Connector”
I had an unfortunate fall earlier this week and wrecked my back to the point where I cannot spend much time sitting up at my desk to write. Therefore, I am recycling a piece I wrote many years ago about our first trip from Corsicana back to Denver.
-
It's my job
A couple of weeks ago, some chowderheads released a study saying that the worst job in America is that of newspaper reporters because of the low pay, long, odd hours and stress.
Number two on the list was lumberjack, which makes sense because trees kill.
-
Message from the Mayor: Safety first
The tragic incident that recently occurred in West serves as a stark reminder that disasters can occur at any time or place.
-
Angels among us
The winds have dispersed the mushroom cloud that hovered over the small town of West. The dust has settled. The President of the United States, the Governor of Texas and other dignitaries have come to join in the memorial for those who lost their lives.
- More Opinion Headlines
-
Raw: Trucker Bumps I-5 Bridge Before Collapse
Raw: Texas Deputy Shot by Colo. Suspect Honored
Major Detours Following Wash. Bridge Collapse
American Held in Grisly Czech Murders
Raw: Jersey Shore Reopens for Summer
UK-bound Pakistan Plane Diverted, 2 Men Arrested
Officials: Tsarnaev Friend Linked to Slaying
Obama:Sexual Assault Threatens Trust in Military
Bridge Collapse Survivor: 'Rough Day'
Jersey Shore Open for Business
Raw: Memorial Day Flags Placed at Arlington
New Wheelchair Lift Promises More Access
First Person: Mom Discusses Famous Tornado Photo
Raw Video: Washington State Bridge Collapse
Boy Scouts Approve Plan to Accept Gay Boys
