There Ya Go
For the much better part of my nearly 36 years toiling away at newspapers, I have made plenty of sacrifices. I have routinely gone above and beyond to write the best stories, take the best photos and put out the best paper possible.
Because of my workaholism, I missed a lot of time with my daughter during her years leading up to college, and I regret it every day. Newspapers have been my life for so long, and I have always been committed to a fault.
But a couple of weeks ago, I made what might be the most uncomfortable sacrifice in my career when I traveled to Minneota — ugh, right? — to attend the school’s High School Athletic Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
I was anxious to go, because I had a feeling I would come back with an incredible story. And I think I did. The piece about Jerome Frazier was published in last week’s paper, and I’m very proud of it. In hindsight, I didn’t regret giving up four hours of that Saturday.
Still, I kind of felt like a traitor. There I was, standing on the town’s football field, amongst dozens of Viking fans. It’s safe to say I was the only one from Tracy there. Sure, I had spent time in my younger years covering Minneota when I was a sports writer at the paper in Marshall, but the difference between then and now is that I wasn’t anchored in Tracy like I currently am. I lived in Marshall at the time and went to college there, and might have even been planning to grow roots there.
At that time, Tracy was my past, visiting only to see my parents or cover the Panthers from time to time. Today, it’s my present and future.
That’s what made that Saturday afternoon a weird one. It was strange listening to a speech from Chris Meidt, the quarterback who helped guide the Vikings to so many wins and state tournament appearances. He even mentioned a game against Tracy in the mid-80s and how his team beat us on our own field in a game, he said, that sparked the program’s turnaround.
Taylor Reiss, one of the very best athletes to come out of this part of the state, also spoke as did Sandy Smith, another inductee. She is credited for bringing girls’ sports to prominence in Minneota. Like Reiss, she faced teams from here and more than likely had some success as well.
But that day also reminded me of how blessed I am to be able to do what I do, and in my hometown no less. This job gives me the opportunity to get to know people on an intimate level, and putting Frazier’s story together was a special process, as he was a friend and teammate with my late brother, Eric. How lucky am I to do what I love — something I’m even sort of good at — right here in Tracy? If I pinched myself everytime it dawned on me how fortunate I am to be doing this, I would have bruises all over my arms.
Still, I don’t think I’ll be making many more trips to Minneota.
• We said good-bye last week to longtime Tracy resident Alita Lenertz. Little do most people know, Alita had a special tie with the Headlight. Back in 1979, the newspaper hosted an open house to celebrate its 100th anniversary. The occassion inspired a drawing, with the winner claiming a lifetime subscription to the newspaper, and Alita was the winner. That was 46 years ago (almost half her life), likely making her the record holder for the longest running subscription.
But Alita wasn’t your ordinary subscriber. Not only did she read the paper religously every week, she asked her family to read it to her when her eyesight diminshed to the point where she couldn’t. Now that’s loyalty.
