On Friday night, I clocked out at AT&T a little after 8:30 p.m. and very quickly made my way to Ki-Ro Gambrell Field. By the time I got there, the Vikings were down big and Center Point seemed poise to cruise to a season-opening win. Needless to say, it wasn’t the victory fans of the program had hoped for. But for me, I was back home.
No, I didn’t graduate from Walker/Jasper. In fact, I’m a proud Yellow Jacket of the Curry variety, Class of 2004. No, I was doing what I loved. For three weeks, I’ve been doing that. At every event, every council meeting, every sporting event, I have loved every sleep-deprived moment of being back in my element.
I’m honored to have once again produced content for Jasper’s jumbotron. (Yes, there is a hype video. After several days of technical issues, it think it will be played for Jasper’s next home game. Don’t quote me on that, though.) This year I also got to do the cheerleading squad’s introduction video. Coach Amber Wright sent me the video of her showing it to the young ladies for the first time and their reactions are exactly why I love this so much.
The “oohs” and “ahhs,” the smiles and pride, the joy that spreads across their faces. It’s the same looks I see when I shoot someone’s photo at an event. It’s the same look I see when a player sees their big-time performance played back on YouTube or social media. It’s the same look of when someone sees their photo or story showcased.
You see, this is more than a career aspiration for me. It’s a love and a passion. This, The Community Journal, affects people’s lives. Whether it is letting them know what happens with their local government or it’s telling the story of the lady down the street or it’s showcasing our student athletes, what we do makes a difference. For me, there is nothing more important that being able to positively impact your community and the people in it.
Now, the insider information you all stopped by to read. This week at the Journal:
• After setting the bar really, really high for what high school football coverage in a small community looks like, I am personally disappointed at how limited our coverage is here at The Community Journal. James had to remind me that we’re just starting out and can’t do everything that we want to do. I promise, I want so desperately to hit up every school, coach and player in Walker County and give the coverage that is expected of me. But there is only so much time in a day.
I suspect by week 10 we will be much better than week 1. Now, year two will be when I expect we will fully hit our stride with our sports coverage. As I have said multiple times, please be patient with me as we work through full-time work schedules and building this thing up.
• On Facebook this week, we announced the sharing of birthdays, anniversaries and celebrations on our social channels. There is some internal debate as to how we will implement this idea. What isn’t up for debate is that it is a great way to showcase our neighbors. As we move forward, those may be moved to the Journal’s Instagram feed. Whichever direction we decide to go, be sure to follow us on Instagram to make sure you’re getting the full Community Journal experience.
• I’m still ramming my head against a wall figuring out the push notifications thing. I may be about to move to a different platform to get that to work properly. I’ll provide an update next week on how that is coming along.
• James and I are continuing to work to secure advertisers for The Community Journal. We are committed to keeping the Journal free to use, but to do that requires advertisers to be bought in on what we are delivering. So, if you see someone advertising their business on any of our platforms, please go thank them for supporting free community news. We can’t do this without them and they can’t do that without you. We all support each other.
It’s a light week in terms of updates from me. As always, I continue to be blown away by the support of our community for what we are doing here. I’ve heard nothing but good things. So either we are doing something right or you all are just really, really polite!
I do want to give a massive shoutout to all of the people contributing to the Journal week in and week out. My wife, Margaret Winborne, who is getting better at this every day, my partner in all of this insanity, James Phillips, East Walker legend Rachel Davis, our sports contributors, our local leaders for keeping us in the loop when we get spread thin and everyone else who is playing a part.
This is truly a team effort and we have the best team in Walker County.
