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Hot Corner: Thoughts on the alternate fall season

By Rich Palzewic
Sports Editor


BROWN COUNTY – The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) alternate fall season is coming to an end.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic last fall, the WIAA gave schools the option to move their fall sports to this spring.

Most of the Green Bay area schools did so, except for Seymour and West De Pere.

Alternate
Rich Palzewic

From a players’ standpoint, it was good to be given an option to not miss an entire season like the 2020 spring sports athletes were forced to do.

From a newspaper coverage standpoint, it was tough to have so many options and sports to cover during the alternate fall season.

When the pandemic hit in March 2020, my boss and editor of The Press Times sat down with me and said they were worried I’d have enough sports to cover for the short term.

I assured them I’d dig up enough to have at least two sports pages each week, and that I did.

I resorted to covering government meetings to help out as well.

I never thought I’d say this, but I learned lots covering meetings, became a better writer and learned a new sense of how municipalities run things.

Fast forward a year to this spring, and there were too many things to cover.

We mainly covered football, but that meant missing out on many cross country, girls’ tennis, girls’ swimming, volleyball, girls’ golf and boys’ soccer events.

Sure, we tried to cover as many of the non-traditional sports as we could, but it wasn’t enough in my mind.

I’d like to apologize for that, but under the circumstances, we did the best we could as a staff and publication.

Then, before the alternate fall season was even completed, the “real” spring sports of softball, baseball, girls’ soccer, track and field, boys’ tennis and boys’ golf started.

It’s safe to say, I could have covered a game almost every night, and I could say the same for my three sports correspondents – Greg Bates, Murray Gleffe and Josh Staloch.

Greg writes for many national publications, so I feel honored to have him on staff.

He’s always pitching me story ideas, and I can’t remember the last time I said to him, “I don’t like that idea.”

Murray coaches the boys’ and girls’ tennis teams at Ashwaubenon, so oftentimes, he’d have practice and go to a game afterward.

That’s what I call dedication.

Josh used to be a sports editor in Hollister, California, at one point during his career, so he knows the business.

I’m not offending anyone on our staff when I say this, because I know everyone has gotten better at taking photos, but Josh takes phenomenal photos.

I often look and stare at them for 30 seconds, admiring.

Here’s to hoping we have a normal spring with sports and next fall is back to normal so we can cover more of the events equally.

Thanks for listening.

Editor’s note: To read a past Hot Corner by Sports Editor Rich Palzewic, CLICK HERE.

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