Sports
Over the years, I've worked as assistant sports editor and outdoor columnist for The (Petersburg, Va.) Progress-Index; and as a full-time or freelance sports correspondent for The (Shreveport, La.) Times, The (Charlottesville, Va.) Daily Progress, the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch and other publications. Below are some samples from my sportswriting career.
NOTE: The outdoor columns from The Progress-Index are included on the Opinion page. Some of the more newsy items appear on the News page.
In my first sports gig in Shreveport, I had the privilege of covering minor league baseball. I've been able to do it again for The Progress-Index, both with the Petersburg Generals of the Coastal Plain League, and with the Richmond Braves, the Class AAA affiliate of the Major League's Atlanta Braves. This June 18, 2004, story is of a doubleheader between the R-Braves and a team with one of best names in baseball, the Toledo Mud Hens.
Thomas Dale's Mike Morris was a pioneer -- a member of the first generation of girls soccer coaches in the Central District. He retired after the 2004 season. This June 10, 2004, story in The Progress-Index looks back on his career.
My biggest athletic disasters were my attempts to pole vault. Some people, however, like Regina Sharp of Hopewell High School, happen to be good at it, as you can read in this feature from the May 21, 2004 edition of The Progress-Index.
Emily Michalek, goalkeeper for Lloyd C. Bird High School's girls soccer team, proved that you don't have to play for a winner to do well. Her team, the Skyhawks, struggled all four years of her high school soccer career, but she won a soccer scholarship to University of Michigan. This story appeared in the May 6, 2004 edition of The Progress-Index:
The high school basketball was in full swing when I began working for The Progress-Index. I covered an excellent series between two teams, Lloyd C. Bird and George Wythe, battling for control of the Dominion District. The first story appeared on February 21, 2004. Both Wythe and Bird qualified for the state tournament. The second story, which appeared on February 29, is on the game in which Bird clinched its state berth.
One of the first stories I covered for The Progress-Index was a high school basketball game between Central District rivals Prince George and Thomas Dale. The story appeared in the February 4, 2004 edition:
On March 7, 2003, I did double duty (with permission), filing one story about a high school girls basketball playoff for the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch, and another version for the (Woodbridge, Va.) Potomac News and the Manassas (Va.) Journal-Messenger. The game had one of the most exciting, and stunning, endings I have ever seen. I hope the stories did justice to it.
A retrospective look at the career of Bill Neel, who stepped down after 30 years of coaching 7- to 9-year-old football players in Chesterfield County, Va., which appeared in the December 8, 2000, edition of the Richmond Times-Dispatch:
A profile of Al Rinaldi, a legendary central Virginia football coach who refuses to slow down in retirement, which appeared in the November 8, 2000, edition of the Richmond Times-Dispatch:
No. 1 Blue Devils cruise to victory: Win special for Varina Assistant
An on-deadline story about a basketball game between Charlottesville High School and Broadway High School, which appeared in the February 8, 1994, edition of The Daily Progress:
No psychos, Knights dispose of Broadway: Harrowing as ever, Charlottesville wins 69-56
An on-deadline story about a softball playoff game between Madison High School and Powhatan High School, which appeared in the June 2, 1992, edition of The Daily Progress:
An on-deadline story about a Texas League baseball game between the Shreveport Captains and the Midland Angels, which appeared in the July 28, 1987, edition of The Times:
Dixon's speed kills Angels: Shreveport outfielder scores winning run on Midland error
A sidebar -- about a man running a marathon for the first time -- to accompany a series of stories on the Red River Marathon, which appeared in the February 23, 1987, edition of The Times:
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