By Rich Palzewic
Sports Editor
Hello. My name is Rich Palzewic and I would like to introduce myself as the new sports editor of The Press.
We have predominately covered the school districts of Ashwaubenon and Howard-Suamico in recent times, but I’m happy to say we are moving into De Pere starting with the fall sports season. This will include De Pere, West De Pere and St. Norbert College.
I grew up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in a very small town with my parents and six sisters on 162 acres, so a love of the outdoors and sports was instilled in me from a very young age. I feel there isn’t a sport that I haven’t gotten involved in at one time or another, so my range is broad.
I graduated from Stephenson High School in 1990 and eventually received a B.S. degree in elementary education from Northern Michigan University in 1995. I also received a master’s degree in education from UW-Stevens Point in 2004.
I taught English to sixth graders in Rhinelander for 11 years before moving to Green Bay in 2007 and getting married to my wife Melinda. We have an 8-year-old daughter named Francesca.
My sports reporting goes back to 1996 when I was a freelancer for the Marinette/Menominee Eagle Herald, covering high-school football when needed.
In 2007, I became the main sports freelancer for the Green Bay Gamblers and St. Norbert College. My claim to fame in that era was becoming personal friends with then Gamblers head coach Jon Cooper, who has now gone on to bigger and better things in the NHL with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
I have been with The Press since August of 2015 under the leadership of Mike and Annette Aubinger. At that time, I covered both Ashwaubenon and Bay Port athletics. I did this for two years until moving over to just Bay Port in the fall of 2017.
When Multi Media Channels (MMC) bought the paper from Annette after Mike passed away, we immediately launched our website in August of last year.
Last October, I was also offered the editor jobs of Packerland Pride and Silent Sports.
Packerland is a fan-related magazine that comes out nine times a year.
Silent Sports is a monthly publication that focuses on the “silent sports” of bicycling, running, canoeing, hiking, triathlon, cross-country skiing and snowshoeing.
Moving forward, I will be covering Bay Port and De Pere, while Murray Gleffe, our sports correspondent, will be handling the Ashwaubenon and West De Pere side of things.
We plan on getting to as many games as possible, so if you see one of us on the sidelines or in the stands, feel free to say hello.
Game stories and coverage are great, but features are even better. If you ever have an idea for a story that you’d like us to take a look at, feel free to drop us a note.
Another highlight is the senior spotlight interviews that we conduct. We will be hitting all the sports for that, but we also want to include other seniors as well. The spotlight interviews are my favorite thing to do. Murray and I will be alternating on a weekly basis between De Pere and West De Pere, while Bay Port and Ashwaubenon will continue to have one in each week.
Football player Jacob Proulx was the very first spotlight for the paper from De Pere – check out his spotlight in last week’s edition or search online.
Game stories are always posted on the web the night of or the morning after. We usually include a few pics and maybe some video, too.
There are times when stories don’t make it into print, so please check out our website on a regular basis. You can also like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
Thanks for listening and I look forward to meeting as many of you as I can.
Sincerely,
Rich Palzewic
Thepress.media
[email protected]
Twitter: @richpalzewic
Twitter: @myvillagepress