Once I realized that my Love for writing ✍ wasn’t ever going to provide food for my growing Family, I turned my focus towards the other end of the Newspaper building. Circulation and Transportation is the back porch of the Newspaper 📰 world but it treated me well for a lifetime.
But the passion for telling a good story increased every time I would listen to a Jimmy Buffett song 🎵 and then reached another level when I discovered the work of Aaron Sorkin. From town to town, State to State, wherever I was working I would eventually gravitate towards the Sports Reporter who had the local beat.
One day I tried to stop and count how many times that I’ve had something printed in a Newspaper, Magazine or On-line. Once the count reached two dozen, it made me smile and think all the way back to when my second Editor told me that I would never be taken seriously in this business because I was incapable of writing ✍ MEAN.
Some newspaper articles were one and dones, other relationships lasted for years. I even managed to spend a year as the Sports Editor for a weekly paper in Shenandoah County ( Free Press ). Five years as a ” part timer ” for the Northern Virginia Daily up in Strasburg created north of 500 By Lines. Covering Indiana High School Basketball for the Greenfield Daily Reporter was beyond exciting.
The best part about the journey was the relationships that developed over the years at the various papers and no particular order, I will list a few.
Chris Graham, Bill Meade, Rob Sisk, Jim Sacco, Chuck McGill, Allen Worrell and his non-brother, Craig Worrell. Seven names, seven different people who all have played a role in the journey.
In regards to Craig Worrell, our paths crossed for the first time near the end of his time as the Sports Editor for the weekly newspaper in Galax. But he makes this list because while we didn’t work side by side, I have never met a Man who served one Community or in his case three, that managed to remain such a revered sole. The business doesn’t make that part of the Day 2 Day operation, so to not include someone who survived in that manner would be an oversight on my part.
Allen Worrell at the Carroll News has been a treat to work alongside the past five years and we have developed a friendship along the way. The word Friend is a sacred word to me so if I use it, please believe it matters. There have been a couple hundred By Lines in the newspaper and our ability to partner on things has been Amazing! One common denominator we share is that neither one of our Wives read our work but we would be lost without them.
Allen reached another level in my book with his coverage of the season finale of the recent Baseball season. That was a truly great story. Bonus points for Allen because he has a Plucky Sidekick in his office 🏢, Mr David Broyles.
Jim Sacco is no longer in the Business but our time working together at the daily Newspaper up in Waynesboro was a match made in heaven. Sacco would eventually land in Bristol and then up in Harrisonburg before switching gears ⚙ by moving into the Non-profit industry. Sacco wasn’t everyones Cup of Tea but I loved his creativity.
Chuck McGill is a great example of a OneofUs.Care communicator McGill wants to use his skill set for Good and in this day and age, that is in short supply. We first met at the Northern Virginia Daily and have stayed in touch over the years. McGill took over as the Sports Editor at the NVD before returning to his native West Virginia. It was during his time as Sports Information Director for Marshall University that Chuck arranged for me to meet with Sydney Nester.
Rob Sisk is much more like a fourth Son to me than a friend. If there was a Hall of Fame for Humanity, Sisk goes in on the First Ballot 🗳. The fact that Rob created our logo for OneofUs.Care means more to me then words can explain and it will bond us together, forever. Sisk now lives in the land of the Fighting Irish but the Liberty University graduate 🎓 still bleeds for his beloved Hokies..
Rob was also a part of what I still consider among the greatest weekend adventures that I ever created and that will be part of a separate Baseball stories.
Bill ” Pappy ” Meade, a graduate 🎓 of R.E. Lee High School in Staunton and William & Mary. If Sisk is a fourth Son, Meade is a third older Brother to me. Meade, like McGill wants to use his skill set to make the World 🌎 a better place. Pappy is in his seventies now but is still out there doing his best to serve our youth.
Meade is teaching at a Christian ✝️ school near his house and Coaching tennis 🎾 at the school formerly known at R.E. Lee but now goes by the name Staunton High School. Whenever Pappy is around some of my Grandchildren he will open up an App and start teaching them a foreign language.
That leaves us Chris Graham of the Augusta Free Press, an online Newspaper based in Augusta County. Chris and his wife Crystal will also have a separate Baseball ⚾️ story in the Book 📖 but for now I will share a few thoughts about the 20 year relationship with the University of Virginia graduate 🎓.
The ties 👔 between us start with UVA because Chris earned a diploma from there and I bought one, by way of the youngest of our five Children, Rebecca Carter McDowell.
To try and show the proper amount of respect for Chris Graham that I have I will revert back to the type of questions I would create during the stretch when we were recording three Podcasts a week.
Your life depends upon your winning of one game, any sport, who would you want Coaching it ?
Back then, my answer would have been Geno, all day long.
If an under educated Aaron Sorkin wannabe, that struggles with sentence structure among other things, life was hanging in the balance on how a story reads….. it is going to Chris Graham, everyday and twice on Sunday.
The seven people have one thing in common, well two if you add that they are all WAY smarter than me. The all have a passion that fuels their fire 🔥 and while they are spread out across the East Coast, they each left a sizable impression on me.
A.S.P.N on The Hill 