WWW arkcity.net

By JOEY SPRINKLE
Traveler Sports Editor
sports@arkcity.net

Know how I could tell it was the first day of the high school football season?

I looked out the office window this morning and it was cold and rainy.

Yep, it's football season.

* * *

It's tough being the "new guy".

I arrived at The Traveler during the summer, normally a great time to start at another newspaper. But having to move me from Parsons and the rest of the family from Garden City, I didn't make it into the office in time to create a real fall sports preview section.

Fortunately, I have some great coaches and a quality photographer to work with, and I was able to bang out the four-page "special" section that arrived in Tuesday's paper.

Not to say it came error-free.

As I perused the finished product later that night, I began to feel like a baseball umpire. You know, umpires are expected to be "perfect" and never blow a call. Well, I guess the same can be said for sports editors, because I have made my fair share of mistakes over the years.

As an editor, the majority of my mistakes occur because of one thing: Time. Trying to do too much too soon while trying to beat deadlines can make you go crazy in this business, and it's magnified when you pick up the finished product and find mistakes.

Fortunately, I believe I managed to get all the athletes' names spelled correctly. Being new to the area, team nicknames are a work in progress.

I feel bad for the football programs at Dexter and Cedar Vale because I messed up on both previews, complete with the wrong nickname. There are just too many Cardinals around here.

* * *

I'm entering my seventh year of covering high school sports in Kansas, but ironically, Friday night's football opener at Arkansas City will be the first time I've actually covered a Class 5A school.

The 2 1/2 years I spent in Emporia were covering 16 high schools, ranging from 8-man to 6A Emporia -- which is now a 5A school. When I moved to Garden City, the high school count reached 19, from 6A Garden City down to 8-man, but again, no 5A schools.

So while I might know more about little Montezuma-South Gray in southwest Kansas, or even smaller Hamilton south of Emporia, than I do Ark City, Dexter Cedar Vale and South Haven, I will do my best to get the nicknames right and spell the kids' names correctly.

* * *

I didn't realize how journalistic "out of shape" I was until covering Thursday night's volleyball triangular at Ark City High School.

It always takes a few games to work the kinks out when going from summer to fall, fall to winter or winter to spring. You have to program your mind to tally a whole different set of statistics.

Turns out I was just as physically out of shape as I was mentally. I underwent spinal-fusion surgery in June, 2007, and I haven't watched much other than baseball and football since covering the KSHSAA All-Classes State Track and Field Championships the week prior to my surgery.

Watching three volleyball matches involving Ark City, Dodge City and Derby was probably the most exertion I've put on my back since foolishly trying to out-jump my 11-year-old son a few weeks ago on a competitive dare.

How easy we forget.

I was told I likely would never be able to play softball or volleyball again, and I am still trying to come to grips with that. I really didn't need Father Time telling me my jumping days were over, too.

Oh well, there's still tennis -- I hope.