Good-bye for now

This is my final Crunch Time column.

Originally, the column was established by myself and former Cheney Free Press sports reporter Neil Pierson back in the fall of 2003 mainly as a vehicle with which to comment on issues taking place in sports, with the occasional somewhat-free-form personality feature or local feel-good story thrown in. After over 12-and-a-half years, maybe you run out of things to say, or you just get tired of saying things.

Whatever, it’s time to step aside. Cheney Free Press staff reporters Paul Delaney and Al Stover will keep the column going, at least for now. We may decide to do something different, you never know.

I don’t come to this decision easily or recently. It’s been fun writing about sports, expressing my opinion on issues and receiving the occasional email or personal comment in agreement or questioning my sanity.

But, you can’t keep doing one thing forever, especially when you’re trying to do more than one thing. And, I have begun to get less enjoyment out of sports, especially covering them, and I don’t want that to happen.

Sports should be about many things. For players, camaraderie, the excitement of competing, the pride in representing your school and community.

For coaches, it should be about the honor of mentoring and guiding young men and women, instilling responsibility, teamwork and love for the game they are playing. I think sports officials fall into this description as well.

For fans, it should be about celebrating the accomplishments of these young men and women. It should be about acknowledging their successes, no matter who they are, and supporting them in their failures.

Unfortunately, we’re moving away from this, especially fans. It’s becoming more personal, where success is demanded and failure admonished, criticized and taken as an affront. When things happen we don’t like or agree with, we are quick to denigrate and denounce instead of understand and accept.

In ancient Greece and other cultures sports were about celebrating human accomplishment. Somewhere along the line, we’ve lost that.

So, don’t look for me under this logo. I’ll still be around, pacing up and down the pitch, wandering around the track infield or peering through the backstop fencing along the diamond.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].