March 28, 2024

The Pressbox

Local sports beat fine for me

Local sports are my beat. That’s why I became a journalist. Growing up in a small Kansas town — rural area — school activities, which included sports to music concerts, books sales or whatever involved youth, took center stage.

I’m comfortable writing about Newton’s cross country athletes knowing that “real women and men” run in pink. The Cardinals runners were focused on competing in their home Cardinal Invitational meet Tuesday at Westwood Golf Course. They were also showing support for a teammate’s mother battling breast cancer and all those who fight the good fight against breast cancer.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The NHS cross country teams aren’t home in October, so they went pink Tuesday. Pink is the new NHS Cardinal Red for October. There’s the Dig Pink Night Oct. 7 for the NHS volleyball team, which sold T-shirts to raise funds for breast cancer awareness. On Oct. 10 is the Pink Out football game involving the football team, the NHS cheerleaders and dance team and band.

I’m comfortable writing about the NCMP swim team pledging to Swim for MS.

I enjoy telling the stories of competitions — win or lose — involving local youth. There’s great stories among those participating in athletics, coaching athletics, supporting the efforts of athletes in the local area.

Right now, there’s a lot of buzz about the Newton High football team, and rightly so. Undefeated through four games of a nine-game season is an accomplishment. The next three Fridays will challenge the Cardinals as they take on three straight ranked teams in Class 3A.

Gilbert and Ballard are in the same district as Newton. Friday and a week from Friday, the Cardinals are on the road in district play. It’s a tough challenge to come back at least 1-1 when Newton hosts Pella in a non-district game on Oct. 10.

Writing my opinions of national sports issues is not my beat. There are times when I will wade in, but there are so many talking heads out there on television, radios and columnists closer to the national scene than I to talk it up.

I’m just glad this week ended with some cool and good news, at least in my opinion. On Thursday night it came in the form of Major League Baseball.

Kansas City rallied to beat the Chicago White Sox to stay in the hunt for the American League Central title and in the playoffs. As much as I’m not a New York Yankees’ fan, it was a magic night in the Big Apple at Yankee Stadium. The rain went away and the Yankees were able to get in their final home game of the season, which means retiring Derek Jeter took center stage. Jeter doubled in a run in his first at bat then had a walk-off single in the ninth to give the Yankees a 6-5 win over Baltimore. The Yankee captain delivered in his final game in the Bronx.

I love football at all levels. I’ll watch almost anybody play football. Trends in the NFL and in college football of late are bothersome. We all know the NFL and teams with suspended players for domestic violence did not get it right to start with. Now, we’re listening to everybody backtrack and “explain” themselves. The blame game continues.

What has happened in college football? There was a rash of suspensions of players across the country even before the season began. Then we have the Florida State fiasco. I agree with one columnist who said “Jameis Winston just doesn’t get it.” Florida State’s Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Jameis Winston continues to rack up embarrassing incidents for this institution of higher learning.

A week ago it was announced Winston would be suspended for the first half of the FSU-Clemson game for an incident on campus — screaming an obscene phrase in the student union. Wow, what a punishment. Then it is learned Winston lied to school authorities about the incident, so the school suspended him for the full game against Clemson.

What does this student-athlete do? Dress in full pads and uniform, trots out onto the football field to warm up with the team before Saturday’s game. Florida Sate head coach Jimbo Fisher gets Winston’s attention and he goes in to change out of his full uniform. What happens during the game? Time and time again, we see Winston on the FSU sideline almost as much as we saw the actually action on the field.

After the game, Fisher announces Winston is reinstated and is the starting quarterback. Fisher comes out with an explanation of the “confusion” about Winston dressing for the game and it is pretty lame — miscommunication with locker room/equipment staff had Winston’s pads and uniform in his locker. Please, this college student-athlete knew he was not going to play in the game and shouldn’t be in uniform.

Where is the institutional control at Florida State when it comes to the football team, coach and Winston? Winston has a long list of incidents that would have sent other players packing from a program. He is 20-years old and his response to the latest incident was “I have to tone it down.” You think, Jameis.

Speaking of head-scratching things on the football front — how about the ridiculous notion that the NFL overtime rules are unfair because Peyton Manning didn’t get a chance to have the football in Denver’s overtime loss to Seattle on Monday night. Say what.

Manning led the Broncos down the field at the end of regulation for a touchdown and a two-point conversion to send the game into overtime. Manning called the coin flip at the start of overtime, and lost. He had to stand, with helmet on, and watch from the sidelines as Russell Wilson orchestrated a game-winning touchdown drive for the Seahawks.

How is that unfair? At anytime, the Bronco defense could have made a stop and forced Seattle to punt the football or get a turnover. It didn’t and it couldn’t. Seattle wins.

Contact Sports Editor Jocelyn Sheets at (641) 792-3121 Ext. 6535 or jsheets@newtondailynews.com.