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Sports editor Paul Thompson will be leaving the Daily News this week.
File Photo
Saying goodbye not an easy thing
Ready to take the next step
The headline was "Playoffs are tonight"; the date was July 7, 1992.
It was my first "official" byline in a newspaper and I couldn't have been more excited. I think I stared at it for hours and probably carried 20 copies of that day's paper home with me that night.
I was just 22 years old, a junior at UNC-Wilmington and was working as a "stringer" - industry slang for a part-timer who does mostly grunt work - for the Wilmington Star-News. Looking at my name in print that day, knowing that thousands of people would see it, left me smiling for hours. Maybe even days.
My parents photocopied the article and put it in an album, wanting to chronicle their youngest son's first step in his career. They called family, mailed it to friends, and generally bragged like parents are supposed to do.
But it didn't really start there. Much like many of the athletes I've been fortunate to meet and cover over the years, there was a seed planted long before.
The exact details are a bit fuzzy, as things tend to become as you get older, but the basics still sit fresh in my mind.
It was my sixth-grade year and, not surprisingly, I loved to play sports. Most 11-year-olds at the time did, because there was no Xbox or Nintendo or cell phones. Cable was in its infancy so when you wanted something to do you came home, changed out of your school clothes and got outside.
It was near the end of the school year, because it was baseball season. I played for the Major League Tigers of Northwest Forsyth Little League in little Pfafftown outside of Winston-Salem. Nothing was better to me than putting on a uniform - be it baseball, football or basketball, heck, I even played soccer for two years - and coming home dirty or muddy after a fun game of the season.
As class was winding down one day, I found myself with free time. Yep, I was a bit of a geek in those days and actually did my homework during class to get it out of the way.
Well, I decided to take that time and write an article about my exploits on the diamond that previous weekend.
I was an avid newspaper reader even at a young age. I'd get up in the morning and while having breakfast would peruse that morning's edition of the Winston-Salem Journal. Of course the sports page came first, but I'd flip through the whole thing.
Being a young kid I had dreams of seeing my name in the paper one day, but not on that little byline atop the story. It was always going to be for leading Wake Forest to a national championship, or helping the Dallas Cowboys win the Super Bowl, or hitting the deciding home run for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series.
So instead of waiting to see my name in print I took it upon myself to do it then. And I haven't stopped writing since. But, near the end of the coming week, I will stop at least for now, and leave the Daily News to try my hand in another career. It means saying goodbye to a lot of people who feel very much like family.
My real career started with UNCW's student weekly The Seahawk, then took me to the Star-News and later on to a paper in the Southern Pines area before landing here.
I've been fortunate enough to meet some pretty amazing people and experience some exciting events. The first two years the Carolina Panthers were in existence, I didn't miss a home game. I've been on press row for basketball and football games at Carolina, Duke and N.C. State. My first Daytona 500, which was my first-ever NASCAR race, was in 2001 when the legendary Dale Earnhardt was killed in a last-lap crash.
But none of that compares to the last 13 years of covering high school sports - nearly 12 here in Onslow County.
There is nothing more impressive and enjoyable than watching a kid play simply for the love of the game. There is still an innocence about them. And while some are chasing that elusive dream that I once had, most are well aware that sometime during their senior year they will take off that uniform for the last time.
In theory, a journalist is supposed to be objective. Your writing is supposed to be unbiased. Ask any sports writer and he or she will quickly say they don't root for any team, that because of their job they can't play favorites.
I never subscribed to that theory. At least not fully.
While I did my best to remain objective in my writing, it is difficult not to pull for a team of kids you have written about for a full season, and some of them for several years. You want them to succeed, you hope they can experience that thrill of victory.
Strolling the sidelines when the Southwest football team was winning three state championships or when one of the many boys and girls soccer teams brought a title back to Onslow County, there was no way I could not pull for the "home team."
Through the years I've interviewed the likes of Emmitt Smith and Steve Young, Earnhardt and Richard Petty, Alonzo Mourning and Tim Duncan. I count myself lucky that I had the opportunity to sit and talk with Johnny Bench, who was a childhood idol and someone I patterned myself after as a young catcher.
But my most enjoyable interviews came from kids like Kendric Burney, Hosea James, Jon Myers, Dakota Marshall, Deunta Williams, John Anderson and Quincy Monk. Nothing put a smile on my face like talking to one of them, or any number of high schoolers, after a hard-fought victory.
The coaches and athletics directors were just as fun, and what an outstanding group there is in The Daily News readership area. Phil Padgett, Bob Eason, Ben Marsh, Homer Spring, Jim Sheehan, Tony Marshburn, Ron Holtsford, Larry Coffman, Bev Marley, Jackie Wagner, Dave Miller, David McLeod, Mike Smith, Greg Grantham ... you get the idea. Some of them I could predict their quotes before I even asked the question.
There are so many more. After 12 years I've probably interviewed thousands of kids and coaches. And those are the memories I'll take with me as I embark on my newest challenge.
