Greene's Gripe: fall sports, please don't go so soon

For most people, the leaves changing colors, the return of pumpkin spice lattes at Starbucks and the realization that you have to spend an entire day with your family eating turkey represent the season of fall.

But for me the picturesque season represents the opportunity to cover some of my favorite high school sports. And now that the snow has started to fall and the swim team has wrapped up their season, I’m faced with the realization that the fall sports season is over. It’s dunzo, kaput.

No more jaw dropping plays from wide receiver Christian Niemela who turns a screen play into an 80-yard touchdown. No more Beast Mode esque runs from Sandpoint’s two-headed monster of Gerrit Cox and Braden Kappen.

No more heart-stopping saves from goalkeeper Hattie Larson. And no more record-breaking results from Sandpoint cross country.

And that’s only Sandpoint sports. Don’t think I forgot about the late night drives to Clark Fork to cover Lady Cats volleyball.

The point is the fall season is packed with some of the most entertaining sports for me to watch and cover. Which is why they should never end.

Football has been my favorite sport since my dad put me on his lap before I even knew how to walk and had me watch the NFL with him on Sundays.

I played the sport for a handful of years in middle school and high school and ever since its become hard for me to not spend at least part of every day debating who the best teams in the NFL and college football are with my friends.

So naturally when I arrived in Sandpoint in mid-September to take on this job without much knowledge of the teams I was going to have to cover, I was immediately drawn to the football teams in the area.

But soccer, cross country, volleyball and swimming are also sports I genuinely enjoy watching.

And the success of all these sports this season made covering them a dream. From state titles to record breaking feats, the athletes and teams in this area made typing away on a keyboard for hours on end satisfying.

Not every journalist gets to cover sports and athletes that make state berths and individual triumphs seem customary and I’m thankful for that.

I wish somehow, someway fall sports could be played all season, but I know that’s impossible and I’m eagerly awaiting the start of the winter sports season so I can be enamored with a whole new group of teams and athletes for three months.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank all the players and coaches that made taking over this position midway through the fall sports season much easier. They put up with me so here’s a list of some of the coaches I’d like to thank: Karen Alsager, Brian Arthun, Conor Baranski, Matt and Angie Brass, Lance Clark, Tanner French, Jared Hughes, Ryan Knowles, Greg Jackson, Chris Shelton, Michelle Valliere.

Without you, my job would not exist.

I hope to continue getting better at this job as the year progresses and the winter sports season engulfs my every waking moment, but if you have any tips, suggestions or comments please email me at dgreene@bonnercountydailybee.com. You can also follow me on Twitter @DylanDailyBee.

I hope to continue writing this column weekly, but despite the name (Greene’s Gripe) not everything I will write about will be negative as was evident with this piece. What can I say, my writing is bipolar.