Marking 50 columns: I love writing about your young athletes
I’m celebrating an anniversary. This will be the 50th time my Youth Sports column has appeared in the Larchmont Chronicle. That’s over four years of interviewing coaches, athletes, communication directors and parents; attending athletic events; securing photographs; and meeting a monthly deadline applied by this newspaper’s enthusiastic (and understanding, especially when I request an extension) publisher, John Welborne.
2020
In the summer of 2020, I reached out to the Larchmont Chronicle about a writing position. I was offered the opportunity to begin a Youth Sports column. I accepted, but generating a monthly column that focused on local athletes in the middle of the COVID-19 shutdown posed an immediate challenge because athletic competitions were on hold. Summer baseball, soccer, swimming and volleyball leagues had been cancelled, so there were no championship events to cover. High school football practice traditionally got underway in August, but the CIF (California Interscholastic Federation) wasn’t allowing student athletes to do much more than weight train. The players were banned from physical contact, and no decision had been reached about if and when official competition might resume.
What a first assignment: Writing about what wasn’t there.
Thankfully, cross-country takes place outdoors and is not a contact sport. The pandemic restrictions limited the number of times a coach could meet with his or her team to three times per week, but the runners were still permitted to train independently as much as they wanted. I learned this when I encountered Loyola High’s Dylan Bissell and several of his cross-country teammates waiting to continue their run at a Melrose Avenue traffic light.
That brush with Bissell, who now competes for UC Berkeley, gave me my first column, and I realized there’s always a story out there. What followed during the next few months were features on skateboarding, equestrianism and snowboarding.
LARCHMONT CHRONICLE Youth Sports columnist Jim Kalin with his son, Kyd, in Venice, August 2020.
Change
Following the recent pandemic, a normalcy was gradually restored. But, in athletics, all things did not return to pre-2020.
The biggest change, and biggest news story, had to be the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) 2021 agreement allowing college athletes to earn NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) money. That, combined with the transfer portal (that facilitates college athletes transferring to new schools), is changing college athletics quickly. It’s understandable why so many dislike what’s happening, but there’s no way to stop it. The quality of high school and college athletes won’t diminish. In fact, NIL money likely will force them to become better and even more competitive. I’m happy to go along for the ride. Without change, performance doesn’t improve, and records don’t get broken.
DUO AGAIN in November of 2024.
Highlights
I’ve tried to give girls and boys equal space in my column. There is still more opportunity for males when it comes to sports, but it continues to improve for female athletes.
Two of my favorite columns featured girls. My wife and I ran across Andrew and Pamela Wright during a morning walk near Larchmont Village, and they told us about their daughter, Rita, at the time an eighth grader at Marlborough School. She played basketball and lacrosse, and she had just been named her grade’s Outstanding Athlete. I needed an assignment at the time, and they provided a great one. I welcome story ideas from coaches and parents.
The most unique and fun feature to write was about Mojo Mayhem, a jammer for the Los Angeles-based Junior Derby Dolls All-Star travel team. Mojo, or Harper Lawrence, attended CWC (Citizens of the World) with my son, and she had been competing in Roller Derby since she was 7. Lawrence now attends the University of Portland, though I doubt the Pilots have a roller derby team.
These first 50 features have been great because your athletes are extraordinary. And so, here’s to the next 50.
Category: People