Now that Independence Day celebrations have come to a close and family vacations under way it's hard to believe that the summer break from school is about over. Soon volleyball players and football players along with the cheerleaders will begin training for the upcoming season. Between now and then coaches will begin preparing for midnight practice. Once two-a-days are over the school year will be upon us.
With that being said the Adrian News Leader will begin it's second year of existence. It's been a learning process for me. When Michele was at the Adrian Journal I took mainly sports pictures. I wrote the football and basketball stories along with a few random ones here and there. I will forever be grateful to Steve and Linda Oldfield for allowing me to have that opportunity.
When I decided to start this blog it was due to my concern with the diminished coverage of the events going on in Adrian. In most small communities the largest employer is the school district. The school district is also the biggest source of news to be covered. I was none too pleased to see Adrian news being treated with the same, or less, regard than the surrounding communities.
I did not want for the upcoming school year to start and the student athletes lose out on their main source of coverage. For all of Adrian history there has been a paper dedicated to the town. It was evident that stories and pictures for the local teams would be relegated to back page news with no more regard for them than the Drexel, Butler or even the Rich Hill teams.
Now, there is nothing wrong with the business model that involves appealing to the masses. It's what the new owners felt they needed to do to compete with the other county-wide newspaper. It's what needed to be done for any paper to survive. I don't fault them for that and I understand their motivation.
Michele and I were approached by several people in the community to start a blog dedicated to the community of Adrian. Michele wasn't too sure about it. Neither was I but when football season rolled around I knew I would miss what I had a chance to do for for the previous six years. That led me to get onto blogger.com and play around with the idea. I put together a name and a layout and wrote some "pretend stories". It felt good. With that the "Adrian News Leader" was born.
My plan was to write the football stories to start with and branch out to other sports that I could attend. At the time I planned on expanding coverage to non-sports related school activities and events going on in town. It's still a goal I have but life tends to get in the way. Work responsibilities along with family activities such as coaching Drew's baseball team, leaves me a bit tired of an evening.
I look forward to getting back into the swing of things. I am pretty active on Facebook and look to expand my coverage by doing some "Facebook Live" features. Facebook Live will allow me to bring some live footage of the games complete with game summary and other tidbits. Some of you appreciated the live footage of this year's baseball post season footage of the game at West Platte. It was something I did on my personal page. I will see if it can be done from "Adrian News Leader's" page. So don't just read our stories but also follow us on Facebook. I may even get a Twitter account to expand our social media footprint.
This year I want to reiterate my desire to have readers submit pictures, stories or story ideas. The topic does not have to surround the school. It can expand to the local community or other items of interest. I will give those that submit stories or pictures full credit. I can leave it as "submitted" if you prefer to not have your name mentioned.
I also want to thank you all very much for being a part of this with me. I welcome any phone calls to discuss stories that I have written and pictures I have taken. I welcome any suggestions for future stories. Last year some of the best feedback I received was phone calls from people who have read my blog and liked the pictures we posted on Facebook. It made me feel really good that people cared enough to talk to me about it. It reinforced that I was providing a service to the community I am proud to call Home. I can be reached at blackhawkpryd@gmail.com
GO BLACKHAWKS!
With that being said the Adrian News Leader will begin it's second year of existence. It's been a learning process for me. When Michele was at the Adrian Journal I took mainly sports pictures. I wrote the football and basketball stories along with a few random ones here and there. I will forever be grateful to Steve and Linda Oldfield for allowing me to have that opportunity.
When I decided to start this blog it was due to my concern with the diminished coverage of the events going on in Adrian. In most small communities the largest employer is the school district. The school district is also the biggest source of news to be covered. I was none too pleased to see Adrian news being treated with the same, or less, regard than the surrounding communities.
I did not want for the upcoming school year to start and the student athletes lose out on their main source of coverage. For all of Adrian history there has been a paper dedicated to the town. It was evident that stories and pictures for the local teams would be relegated to back page news with no more regard for them than the Drexel, Butler or even the Rich Hill teams.
Now, there is nothing wrong with the business model that involves appealing to the masses. It's what the new owners felt they needed to do to compete with the other county-wide newspaper. It's what needed to be done for any paper to survive. I don't fault them for that and I understand their motivation.
Michele and I were approached by several people in the community to start a blog dedicated to the community of Adrian. Michele wasn't too sure about it. Neither was I but when football season rolled around I knew I would miss what I had a chance to do for for the previous six years. That led me to get onto blogger.com and play around with the idea. I put together a name and a layout and wrote some "pretend stories". It felt good. With that the "Adrian News Leader" was born.
My plan was to write the football stories to start with and branch out to other sports that I could attend. At the time I planned on expanding coverage to non-sports related school activities and events going on in town. It's still a goal I have but life tends to get in the way. Work responsibilities along with family activities such as coaching Drew's baseball team, leaves me a bit tired of an evening.
I look forward to getting back into the swing of things. I am pretty active on Facebook and look to expand my coverage by doing some "Facebook Live" features. Facebook Live will allow me to bring some live footage of the games complete with game summary and other tidbits. Some of you appreciated the live footage of this year's baseball post season footage of the game at West Platte. It was something I did on my personal page. I will see if it can be done from "Adrian News Leader's" page. So don't just read our stories but also follow us on Facebook. I may even get a Twitter account to expand our social media footprint.
This year I want to reiterate my desire to have readers submit pictures, stories or story ideas. The topic does not have to surround the school. It can expand to the local community or other items of interest. I will give those that submit stories or pictures full credit. I can leave it as "submitted" if you prefer to not have your name mentioned.
I also want to thank you all very much for being a part of this with me. I welcome any phone calls to discuss stories that I have written and pictures I have taken. I welcome any suggestions for future stories. Last year some of the best feedback I received was phone calls from people who have read my blog and liked the pictures we posted on Facebook. It made me feel really good that people cared enough to talk to me about it. It reinforced that I was providing a service to the community I am proud to call Home. I can be reached at blackhawkpryd@gmail.com
GO BLACKHAWKS!
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