Talking Sports - Turn the calendar as we re-embark on winter sports

I trust you’ve all had a pleasant and relaxing holiday break. If you settled down for a long winters nap with the children nestled all snug in their beds, get ready because the alarm clock is about to ring.

The blank spots on the sports schedule are few over the next couple of months. The action returns to the hardwood this afternoon with the opening of the abbreviated two-day Cabela’s Holiday Tournament at Sidney high and middle schools. Previews of the Sidney teams path to a hopeful championship appeared in Wednesday’s edition of the Sun-Telegraph.

I’ve missed the opening of the winter season, but I’ve had some opportunity to catch up the past few weeks. But reading a few stat pages doesn’t exactly bring one up to full speed. There’s nothing like being there to see how the teams are shaping up.

I’m looking forward to seeing as many Creek Valley, Leyton, Peetz, Potter-Dix and Sidney games and matches as possible. But as we are a small newspaper, we can’t cover all the events that happen on a given night.

After the Cabela’s tournament concludes, three other teams in our coverage area get back to the floor on Tuesday. Leyton travels to Haxtun, while Peetz will host Creek Valley. I’m sure the Potter-Dix Coyotes will be a little sick of guarding themselves in practice when they get back to action on Jan. 10, when they host South Platte.

The promising Sidney wrestlers return to the mat on Jan. 8, at Hemingford and again two days later at Ogallala. I’ve already discovered there a number of very promising Raider wrestlers with legitimate chances to reach state – which is not far off, by the way. The Century Link Center in Omaha hosts the three-day event beginning in just 48 days on Feb. 19.

Since the Sidney hoops teams have the stage to themselves this weekend, it’s not hard to figure out where I will be. But there are other times when knowing where to go will be more complicated. Saturday’s are especially busy with local sports. Ultimately, our goal is to have coverage of all the games and matches that are played. But we need help and luckily we’ve been rich in that during my time here.

Despite having just a one-person sports staff, the Sun-Telegraph has been fortunate enough to have a lot of help from the community. In Dalton, Patrick and Colleen McKay are at just about every Leyton High School sporting event. They carry with them their keen eyes for photography and have always been kind enough to share their work with us. Of course their twin children Cody and Dani are important keys to the success of the Warriors’ boys’ and girls’ teams there.

Anne Johnson at Potter-Dix has always been kind enough to share her photography with us also. Her son, Jake, is a big part of the Coyotes’ basketball, football and track teams.

Jachob Wiedeburg’s mother, Donna, has been a lifesaver on many occasions with her photo coverage of just about every Red Raiders’ event – sports or otherwise.

We are also fortunate that most coaches are very helpful by posting their stats and comments online or returning my phone calls. It may be somewhat of an annoyance at times to have the local press hounding for details – especially after a tough loss. But everyone around here gets it. It’s about the student-athletes – not about us.

Tuesday next, I’m looking forward to getting out of Sidney to visit Peetz. The Bulldogs’ basketball teams will host the Creek Valley Storm in their cross-state rivalry games. Seeing that contest on the schedule reminds me that in my previous tenure here, I didn’t make enough of an effort to find a shooter from Chappell or Peetz.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t pay very well. In fact, monetarily speaking, it pays nothing. But some people, like me, just love photography and are excited by the pursuit of getting that perfect shot. It’s a great contribution to the community as well.

This long preamble is finally getting around to its point. I’m hoping to find someone in Peetz and Chappell who enjoys photography that would be willing to submit their work to the Sun-Telegraph. We would love to print more photos from Peetz and Creek Valley when we can’t get to the game ourselves.

Maybe you’re a student or a parent or just like the idea of shooting action photography. Even if you’ve never done it before, it’s not hard to learn. All you really need is access to a digital camera and you qualify. Even if you’ve never done it before, taking a decent action photo is not hard to learn – and we would be happy to teach you.

Not to sound too much like a military recruitment poster, but if the above sounds like you, we’d love to hear from you. Give us a call or tap me on the shoulder at the Carlile Gymnasium on Tuesday.