Greene’s Gripe: How we will honor senior athletes

SANDPOINT — For the last month since the high school sports hiatus began, I’ve been trying to figure out a way to honor the spring senior athletes.

It’s hard to try and make up for an entire season that they had stripped away but I’m going to try my best.

I feel like the only way I can do that is by writing a feature on every single one of them. So that’s what I’m going to do.

It’s going to take a lot of time and a lot of effort but it’s what they deserve. They gave everything they had to be ready for this season and now they’ll have nothing to show for it with the season getting canceled.

But I’m going to make sure they get recognized for the dedication and passion they have for their respective sport.

If you watched SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt over the past few weeks, you saw him dedicate five to 10 minutes every night to honor seniors around the country who had their seasons cut short or erased due to the coronavirus pandemic. He called it “Senior Night.”

That’s how this section will look for about the next month and a half as I try to get in touch with every single Clark Fork, Sandpoint and Priest River senior who lost their season and make sure they get their name in the paper.

If there is one thing I can promise seniors it’s this: you will not be forgotten.

My plan is to do a feature on every single senior. I will talk to them, their coach and the one person that has had the biggest impact on their life. If they say both their parents have had the biggest impact on their life then I’ll talk to both of them.

I’ll want a photo to go along with the story as well. I have file photos of most of the athletes but I want them to be able to choose what photo runs with the story.

I call this special tribute “Senior Spotlight” because every athlete deserves their moment in the sun.

I then want to include a portion called “In their own words” within the article or at the end. This is basically a letter. The senior can write about whatever they want. This is a chance for them to say farewell to the community, school and team that has had such an impact on their life. There is no minimum word count but there is a max — 250. I don’t want this to turn into another homework assignment they dread writing. I want them to have fun with it.

To make this possible, I need help from the family, friends and loved ones of these athletes to get in touch with them. Email me at dgreene@bonnercountydailybee.com and send along a phone number I can contact them at. Please help me make this something they can hold onto to remember their senior season.