Thoughts about NISB

Cutter's Log - Stardate 9002.72.90
Current Song - Steppin Out (Joe Jackson)

There was only one time in NISB's history when I had my full concentration on it. That was from when I graduated high school in June 2005 until starting work at the BP station in August 2006; the entire 2005-06 school year.

Sauk was on the schedule too, but it didn't turn out to be as bad as I thought it would.

When I look at on the 2005-06 school year (and you can too by viewing the NISB story archive), I saw some real good teams, some real good games (Erie 80-West Carroll 78 in 2 OTs) documented the rise of some programs (Polo and Lemont football come to mind), and did Q&As on several good athletes. The next year, having squeezed work time in the mix, the stuff I wrote didn't turn out that well.

I then wrote a column, sometime after the 2007 RF Shootout, about being through with game articles. I accomplished what I could with game articles, but decided to stick to columns and feature pieces. These kind of pieces involve less travel and more time communicating via e-mail or phone.

That was January 2007. Since then I've written a bunch of non-gamer stories: Kewanee's Conference drama, "The Trial of Steve Sandholm," the IPA situation, NCIC expansion, PA prayer, and the basketball coaching wins record all come to mind. I did stick a few gamers in there when I could.

"When I can." That's the story of how I'm running NISB right now. I run it when I can. The amount of things released on the site has decreased considerably since getting a job. I left that BP station in April of 2008 and three months later found myself at the Shell station I currently work at. I was able to write the Five-part NCIC series and expand the MLB draft coverage in that small amount of time.

When I started at Shell I was named the main clerk for nights. That meant working the busy Friday and Saturday evening shifts. There went most of everything, except for writing columns on statistics on nights off. At the same time, it did help my column-writing. I feel I can crank out a column whenever I feel like it.

However, just writing columns isn't going to get me anywhere. I had a serious hours reduction at work that allowed me to fit in a few things for the site. I started writing football game articles once more. I actually got the new version of the site off the ground. The extra time was devoted toward finding out things for the Friday 5, and other bits and pieces.

One day, just this past week, I wanted to go down to Princeton to do research for a story I had in mind. The end result was the history of the Kewanee-Princeton football rivalry. I've received more kind words about that particular piece than any other one I've written for NISB. I covered the particular football game - which is kind of odd because I usually cover the top-notch games - and covering it was an interesting experience. I got to witness something historic ending, met some people that liked the site, and drove back in a thick fog.

The football game this past Friday was a tough one to cover. But it is games like these that have to be taken seriously in order to write a good gamer. I cried many tears after seeing Boylan-Guilford in last year's opener. I cried after Friday's game. I kept on thinking, this is what I want to do. This is what I want to do.

I have thought about doing this for The Review, a weekly newspaper covering SW Whiteside and Northern RI counties. I e-mailed a former editor for their parent company, and he mentioned that it won't stuff the wallet very much. I'd have to write 6-7 stories in order to make as much money as I do, on average, at Shell. That's easy, right? E-P Football, Riverdale Football, Erie VB, Riverdale VB, Erie Golf, Riverdale Golf, E-P XC, Riverdale XC, and Riverdale soccer - nothing real top notch. That's nine. However, it will take up too much space in the tiny paper, which would probably have to raise its newsstand price in order to accomodate me. I don't want that to happen.

It's going to be a backup plan, just in case something bad happens.

All of that, and the Kewanee experience, is making me lean toward coming back to writing gamers. The column well seems to have run dry. Now if I can make time for something. A non-football event would have to be on Wednesday or Thursday.

Enter in that MASH episode where everyone is dreaming. This is where the excitement ends.

Things at work have not been going so smoothly. Being down to two nights a week bites. I'm going to ask Route 30 if there's something for Wednesday and Thursday night.