Farewell, sports fans, but not goodbye

by Aaron Selbig
After toting my trusty camera to thousands – well, hundreds, anyway – of sometimes offbeat Homer sporting events – including broomball, snow tubing and the exploits of the world-famous Homer Ice Racing Association – it’s time to call it a day.
Starting tomorrow, I will be moving from the Homer Tribune – where I’ve had a brief but very enjoyable run writing about sports like football, volleyball and city council meetings – to KBBI, where I’ve accepted a position as news director – and will hopefully still get to witness the bloodsport of city council meetings.
It’s been a fun ride covering the wacky world of Homer sports and I’ve learned some valuable skills along the way. Like how Xtra-Tufs are not suitable footwear for broomball, for instance, and how the ink in a standard ball point pen freezes at about minus five degrees.
There are many things I know I’m going to miss very much.
I have quite enjoyed learning the tricky ins and outs of sports photography, for example, and I hope to continue using my camera on subjects that require a super-fast shutter speed. Is it too early to get my two-year-old son into bobsledding?
Mostly, I’m going to miss the people I’ve met and worked with – people like Cam Wyatt, the coach of the Mariner football team and a man I’ve come to admire very much, and Chris Perk, the former Homer High athletic director who is always willing to go out of his way to help reporters with their dumb questions.
There are too many sport-minded folks in this town who have helped me along the way. I couldn’t possibly name them all, but a few are Beth Trowbridge, Buck Laukitis, Deb Lowney, Bill Bell, Allan Phelps, Doug Schweisow, Kim Duggar, Dan Deschamps, Catriona Lowe, Stacey Murphy, Rachel Lord, Anna Borland-Ivy, Megan Corazza, Dave Gilbert, Julie Barnes and Warren Waldorf.
At the Tribune, it’s been a great pleasure working with the awesome, dedicated staff – especially my fellow newsies Naomi Klouda and Sean Pearson.
There are a few things, honestly, that I won’t miss about covering sports – chief among them the long weekend hours it takes to quickly write up all of the week’s athletic goings-on over at Homer High. It’s going to be nice to have my weekends back so that I can do what comes naturally – watching sports on TV –while all the Homer coaches enjoy quiet Sunday evenings at home without worrying about me calling in the middle of dinner.
That’s somebody else’s job now.
Mine will be yapping into a microphone about the news of the day, the weather forecast for the Barren Islands, the bush lines – I’m especially looking forward to that – and the bloodsport that is city council meetings.
And who knows? Maybe some sports reporting, as well.