I love my job. Really, I do. Despite the fact that I submitted my letter of resignation yesterday for the position which I've held for a little more than two years, being the sports/outdoors reporter for a small weekly newspaper in Big Sky country has been rewarding. I love talking to the kids and coaches and seeing photos like the one I posted on here turn out and highlight an athlete's hard work.
I've lived and worked in a community which celebrates the arts, the environment and runs amuck with volunteers who give of their time generously for numerous events. I see beauty in so many things here.
At the same time, and this of course comes with the job of course and life for that matter, there have been people during my two years at the newspaper who haven't appreciated my efforts to try and be in six places at once on weekends and cover multitudes of athletes sometimes ranging from elementary-school age to high school and older.
I encountered one of these people the other day for the first time in months, maybe even a year. A mother of a female track athlete (high school team) left an anonymous voicemail message for me. She complained that I seemed only interested in covering two female track athletes, who of course were not her daughter. The two athletes that I have mentioned in each of the three articles are both freshmen and have placed well. One even broke the meet record in the 100-meter dash at the first home meet and she also qualified for the Top 10 meet in another town. That meet invites only the top 10 in each event from the western half of the state. Quite an accomplishment for a freshman. There were two more female athletes invited to that meet from the high school and three male athletes. The other two females were another freshman and a sophomore. The boys were juniors and a senior.
In looking back through my files, I counted a total of 11 female athletes mentioned in my three articles about the girls track team. Whether or not one of them was the mystery woman's daughter, I don't know because she was coward enough not to leave her name in the voicemail.
That's what really bothers me about people. They have an opinion, they believe in something and want things to change but they do nothing but bitch in a voicemail without leaving a name, or answer questions from a reporter but then ask that their answers be off the record and not put into the paper or they don't register to vote or speak up at public meetings. If you're going to open your mouths make sure it's something meaningful and something that's going to make a difference, not just take up time and be a waste.
I'm sure the mystery woman's daughter is a dedicated athlete, probably young and probably hasn't placed in the top six like many other athletes have that I've mentioned in my articles. I'd love to mention every athlete and recognize them for their work, but sometimes even the coaches don't want to mention how little Davey Smith finished 18th and scratched on two of his three throws in the shot put. And five bucks says that little Davey or Sally Smith don't mind that their name isn't in the paper week after week or at all because they aren't finishing in the top six or recording personal bests (the coaches are sure to tell me about those 99 percent of the time). Some weeks I don't have room to list all 50 or so track team members' results, especially since it would take forever to type and write down via a phone conversation with the coaches and a lot of the kids compete in multiple events.
I ran into the same situation my first spring at the newspaper. The high school had a standout distance runner who won state championships in three events two years in a row. That of course meant a lot of coverage for her. The other state competitors were mentioned, but the emphasis of my articles were on her and her accomplishments. I scanned the state results three or four times to make sure I hadn't missed anyone's results and made sure to ask the coaches for everyone's results as well, but I still had one anonymous, angry track mom pissed off at me because the two-time, three-event state champ was getting more press than her daughter.
I'll be looking over my shoulder for the next couple of weekends as I finish up my work at the newspaper and cover the final track meets of the season. I'm sure to keep an eye open for mothers with scowls on their faces who are giving me the look of death.
On a happier note, I have just 28 days remaining to be bitched out by angry moms and patted on the back by happy fathers (that's usually how it works, honestly . . . you've heard of stage moms, well there are sports moms too, whereas the dads well they just want to recreate their high school days through their children and live vicariously). I'll be moving on to the wild world of politics at the end of the month and I'm excited at all the possibilities it has for me. It will be hard work, long hours and new adventures that may or may not make me want to continue on in the field of politics. Here's to hoping that through it all I keep growing and learning and being me.
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