Sports writing help wanted

It was in August of 2003 when I found out about an opportunity to help the sports department at the newspaper where I grew up cover high school football.

The TimesDaily newspaper in Florence, Ala., was looking for stringers - a sports term for freelancers that I’m sure has a reason for it being called a stringer.

I’ve heard different theories from older journalists but nothing concrete. But I digress.be

I answered the request with a phone call to the sports editor at the time, Josh Bean, who told me about a gathering they were having inside the athletic building at my college, the University of North Alabama, where he’d talk to an entire room of us, tell us what he wanted, answer any of our questions and give us information to build a story out of.

I put it together, turned it in and hoped for the best after leaving.

Later that week, I got a call from Josh asking if I’d be willing to help every Friday night for the 10 weeks of football season (there were no bye weeks in 2003).

My answer: “I’m going to need about half-a-second to think about it. Yes.”

So that season, every Friday night during the regular season, my dad and I were in a press box at usually one of the smaller schools in Northwest Alabama. But that was OK because 1) I was getting into football games for free and then getting $25 to go there and 2) some of the best small-school football teams in Alabama were in that part of the state at the time. A third reason would be I was just glad to be doing this.

The fall of 2004 a year later was my final semester of college (also my 12th semester, but that’s another column topic probably not in sports), and I needed an internship. I did that with the TimesDaily sports department, except this time it was covering football on Fridays and either covering a volleyball or basketball game on Tuesday or staying in the office and taking calls with game stats and scores.

Because it was an internship, I didn’t get paid, but the experience paid off because when Josh had to do my evaluation at the end of the semester, I still smile 22 years later when I remember him telling me I was the best intern he’d had to that point (for all I know he told all interns that, but it was still a thrill considering some of the mistakes I’d made that semester and he’s not the type to unnecessarily flatter anyone).

And I remember during that semester that I’d do my normal job every night when church wasn’t involved, and I’d go home tired, but on those Tuesdays and Fridays, I had to wait to wind down because I enjoyed what I did so much.

Now it’s time for The Post to offer that kind of opportunity for someone else.

For more than 2.5 years now, I’ve done my best to do sports for this county while also covering government, education, features and dabbling at times into business and crime.

But the sports coverage needs help, so I’m asking for that help.

I need two or three people that enjoy watching different teams from around Madison County play sports. I need people who are available and willing to cover football on Fridays and go to another sport competition on another night during the week.

We’ll pay you (more than $25 because inflation is a thing), and we’ll spread you out among different schools.

So if you’re willing and able, I’d love to hear from you. My e-mail is listed at the end of this column, so please drop me a line. Because I’d love to improve the sports coverage for The Post and more importantly the people of Jackson and Madison County.

But I’ve realized I can’t do it by myself.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Brandon Shields is the managing editor of The Jackson Post. Reach him through e-mail at brandon@jacksonpost.news. Follow him on X.com @JSEditorBrandon. Follow him on Instagram @EditorBrandon.