Sports coverage and this week

The Panthers ran away with their second consecutive 2A championship Saturday night; congratulations to them. You can expect to see broad front- and inside-page coverage of their wins last week from our sports freelancer, Peter Rourk, as well as photos from both Rourk and some shots kindly submitted by members of the wrestling staff.

On the note of sports coverage, we've had some questions about our coverage of late. Around the same time we re-started the Athlete of the Week feature, we lost the services of our long-time freelancer, who had provided us with great coverage and photos for several years. As a staff, Vanessa and I each week cover the happenings in town and county government, the schools and school board proceedings, upcoming and ongoing events, crime and several other issues as they arise. I had made it a mission during the time we were without a freelancer to at least print as many scores and results from games as we could get our hands on.

Recently, we've gotten back on track, so to speak. We have an excited freelancer going to events and snapping pictures, which will lead to more pictures and better overall sports coverage. I'm very excited about this, and I foresee a more complete local publication.

As a "community newspaper," we each cover many, many different things on a given week. Even with a solid freelancer relationship, we can't be everywhere, but we'll try. Some parents and coaches in the community have been great about sending photos of games that we couldn't get to, and we hope that continues.

This week, in addition to the championship coverage, look for photos from a faculty talent show and the annual agricultural summit, among others. The front page is still a work in progress; likely, we won't be able to narrow down our choices until later today or tomorrow morning.