Round Two: Braving the great outdoors to get the story

With 2024 marking my 30-year anniversary of covering sports in Portage County, I figured I’d take a walk down memory lane and look back at the years I spent covering high school track and field (and cross country, too, since it’s pretty much the same coaches and athletes). The stories are endless, but I thought I’d cull a few of my favorites for Round Two.

In Part 1 last week, I recounted unforgettable moments like Garfield’s John Oliver telling me he would return to finish our interview at Ohio Stadium right after he won the 110-meter hurdle state championship race — which he did easily (kind of like Babe Ruth calling his shot in the 1932 World Series); a Mogadore runner who shall remain nameless jogging backward through much of the 3,200 in a meet at Woodridge (ostensibly in protest of having to do the event in the first place); and the haunting specter of Comet Hale-Bopp hanging high in the night sky above Roosevelt Stadium following a meet in April 1997, an awesome snapshot forever etched in my memory.