Last Sunday was a milestone of sorts for me. It marked my 10-year anniversary here at the newspaper. In an age where you see a lot of shifting by sports guys who look for the next big job, I have stayed and provided consistency that you see in our sports section each week. Coaches know me and our paper and know that we are a product worth putting their stories in.
The Tipton Conservative offers probably the most inches of sports news in a weekly paper in Iowa I would guess. Yes, there are bi-weekly papers that come out more than once a week, but of those papers that come out once a week, we are near the top of the list.
Coming to Tipton almost didn’t happen though. Twice.
I had interviewed at the Perry Chief and the Charles City Press in the spring of 2005 and was offered both jobs, but in the end, neither seemed right and I turned them down. I was content to stay on as the sports editor at the Knoxville Journal Express and the Pella Chronicle and live with my family in Oskaloosa. Being the sports editor for two weekly newspapers, covering seven high schools (Pella, Pella Christian, Knoxville, Melcher-Dallas, Twin Cedars, Pleasantville and PCM) and a college (Central College) was fine and I was having fun. And Zoe, my oldest daughter, was two at the time.
Then I got a phone call. It was Stuart Clark, editor/publisher/owner of the Tipton Conservative. They were looking to fill their sports editor opening. I forgot to mention earlier that I had applied for the open Conservative job during the time I interviewed at Charles City and Perry, I had forgotten about that as a call didn’t come and this call came out of the blue.
I drove to Tipton and it felt like I was driving home when I turned off the interstate. I loved driving over the final hill by the transfer station and seeing Tipton waiting. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was looking at my family’s new home. The interview went well and I decided to accept the offer Stuart put out there and come to Tipton to be the sports guy.
Days after I accepted the job here, my wife’s dad was diagnosed with terminal cancer. My wife and I had the talk about not coming to Tipton. Asking her to move here, farther away from her dad who was dying was tough to consider and even tougher to ask her to do. We decided to stay in south central Iowa and not come here to Tipton.
I was ready to call Stuart and give the ‘thank you, but the timing is not right’ cliche, only this time it was very true. However, when we shared our decision with my wife’s dad, we got a response we didn’t expect. “Go.” he said. You have to live your life, I’ve lived mine, now, you have to live yours. Wow. So...we moved and though he lost his fight, and we miss him, we did the right thing in coming here. Tipton has been very kind to my family and you can not beat the small town way of life. A lot of what I have in life is due to this crazy, long-houred, little recognition job.
I am from Brooklyn, Iowa, population 1,446 and my wife is from Eddyville, Iowa, population 1,011. We are small town people and probably will always be.
There have been highs, like covering state championships at Tipton and Durant to name a couple of the too many highlights to mention and lows like seeing coaches you respect lose cancer battles or leave their sport altogether. But that’s life. Things happen and you move on, there is another story coming or another battle to fight and you have to be ready to go. Put me in Coach as the old John Fogerty song says. It still doesn’t take away the sting when teams lose or having to fight up the tears of joy welling up at a big win or a last game for a senior.
There are things that I am proud of accomplishing during my time here so far. We have expanded our coverage to Wilton and have really been rewarded with a fan base that can’t get enough sports. With Bennett closing its high school in the summer of 2005, and traditionally having four schools in our coverage area, we decided to add Wilton to the lineup.
Ironically, I chose to wait until the 2005-06 school year to start covering the Beavers as I didn’t want to give the impression that I or the paper were jumping on the Wilton baseball bandwagon as they marched to the 2005 class 2A state title in an undefeated season. I would have loved to cover a state baseball champion, but, I don’t regret that decision.
I have won two awards here, two that I am proud of and didn’t think that I would get. In 2011, I was awarded the Iowa Baseball Coaches Association’s Media award winner for the Eastern side of the state of Iowa for my contributions to Iowa High School baseball. Besides offering up comprehensive coverage of the sport, I also organize the annual senior baseball and softball games held in Wilton after the season. Similar to the senior basketball games I organized for 10 years, this event has grown to an annual tradition and chance for a send-off of our conferences seniors.
I also won an Iowa Newspaper Association award last spring. This award was more about our paper than me. It gave our newspaper statewide recognition and to an extent Tipton as well and I am proud of that. Hopefully, we will be fortunate to win more awards in future years. But, if we don’t, that is ok.
I have a saying. “I’m not from here, but I got here as soon as I could.” I think that sums up my feelings for Tipton. I am not from here. I am from Brooklyn, Iowa and am a proud graduate from BGM High School, but, I am a Tiger, Knight, Wildcat and Beaver now.
Thank you for reading the sports section, listening to the podcast and reading my blog these years. I appreciate the support and the critics alike, and I look forward to telling your stories that are just around the corner for more years to come.
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