Why Sports News Matters

In this edition of the Times, we're bringing our readers a special fall sports preview section. It's an outlook for the coming season during which we hope to cover as many of the Cardinals/Tigers' and Bull­dogs' football, volleyball, soccer and cross country events as our small staff can get to. We know we'll get cooperation from the coaches to report the results from the ones we can't attend.

We hope to use our new website - www.waitsburgtimes.com - to bring you the scores as soon as possible after the games or events, so you don't have to wait until the print edi­tion to get the highlights. In our preview section, we dedicate a page to the schools' cheerleading squads because we consider that activity a sport as well, given the intensive training, conditioning, discipline and organization it demands from the athletes.

Our hopes for this broader coverage are the same for win­ter and spring sports, which we expect to kick off with similar previews next calendar year.

In part, our special sections and our expanded coverage of high school sports in the Touchet Valley this year are made possible by the businesses, organizations and individuals in Waitsburg, Prescott, Dayton and Walla Walla who contribute to the booster ads with the sports schedules for the teams (see pages 8 and 9).

In the past, the Times' booster ads were limited to WP schedules. This year, we asked businesses in Dayton if they would help underwrite a similar booster ad for the Bulldogs and, encouragingly, many of them said yes despite challeng­ing economic times. Our outreach to sponsors in our communities for this year's booster ads continues, and we hope to add more sup­porters in the next several weeks. So why all this fuss about sports, you might ask? Some readers might feel we're going overboard. Believe it or not, the main reason for our focus on sports is a social one. Sure, we enjoy sports. We share the emotional ups and downs of the home teams. We welcome the excitement on the weekends. We like to track the athletes' personal growth as competitors and as students. But neither your publisher, who grew up where only a goalie picks up a "football," nor your managing editor has any particular background or expertise in sports coverage. Our philosophy is that good sports coverage gives pride to our community and helps encourage student athletes to engage in healthy, constructive pursuits. Sports and other ex­tracurricular activities that give meaning and shape to young lives are the antidote to trouble. The more we can support them by covering them in the paper the better. In the same vein, we hope to do a better job covering young people's fair projects, knowledge bowls, music, arts and community volunteering because we know sports are not for everybody. Sports in particular, however, do promote a well-rounded personal discipline. For one, athletes are required to keep up their grade-point averages. As a condition for participation, sports can help strengthen students' academic performance.

One head coach, Dean Bickelhaupt of the Bulldogs' foot­ball team, is taking that one step further this year by setting up desks in the shack at the football field where a volunteer will help struggling players with their homework within earshot of their practicing teammates. Also, the personal discipline and teamwork acquired in sports training transfers to other pursuits, including school­work and, later, more independent college attendance and professional careers. The other reason why our sports coverage is important is the connection to and pride among readers, including those who graduated from PHS, WHS or DHS and no longer live in the Touchet Valley but still like to keep up with their alma mater's sports teams.

So, we'd like to thank our schedule underwriters and wish all of this school year's coaches and athletes the best of luck in their competition, remembering the games themselves are only a part of the equation.

Thanks to you, we all win.