-Italics-

There’s a whistle on the field, stopping play. There’s the horn. We’re going to have a substitution. It’s Obrey. Rich Obrey is taking himself out of the game. Let’s go down to the sidelines to find out what that’s all about.

-End italics-

This issue of the American Journal is my last as sports editor.

For me, this is a transition I’ve been working towards for four years, ever since our first newspaper rolled off the presses.

The Current newspaper debuted on Sept. 13, 2001, and I had written, photographed and designed the entire sports section (1.5 pages!) myself. I took one look at the result and knew exactly what I wanted to do in the future: something else.

Someone, probably everyone, could do this better than I could. Our readers, our athletes, deserved better, so I started looking.

The help is here, so now is the time.

Next week, as the winter season starts to unroll, Jim Correale will be at the helm of the sports department. Jim joined us a year ago, and in that time he’s proven himself to be a good writer, with a lot of respect for our student-athletes.

In addition to the routine coverage of games and matches, he has made the effort to dive into bigger, more complex stories that affect our sports community, covering topics such as “Sports Done Right” and concussions.

Jim’s mandate is not maintain the status quo. His job is to take what we’ve done over the past four years and improve upon it. Take it to the next level. Our best is never good enough.

I know he’s got a lot of great ideas he’s ready to roll out, so stay tuned.

Helping Jim with this goal is another fairly new guy, Jason Rathbun. Jason works in our production department, designing the sports section, and he’s the reason our pages are looking really good these days.

I won’t be going far. Although the exact title is a little blurry, I am going to focus on photography – still sports, of course, but now also for the news side – for our four broadsheet newspapers, the American Journal, The Current, The Sun Chronicle and the Lakes Region Suburban Weekly.

There has to be some bad news with all of this, to keep things balanced, and here it is.

Chuck Anschutz, who has been the bedrock of the sports staff since we purchased the American Journal in 2002, has resigned from his full-time sports writer position.

Chuck has been working on a non-fiction book for some time, something about – surprise! – touring the world by bike. He’s going to be staying close to his home in Bridgton this winter, committed to finishing it.

Thank you, very much, to the athletic directors and their assistants, thanks to the parents, thanks to the coaches. Most of all, thanks to all the athletes. I had no idea when I started that so many talented young athletes were all around us. We’ve rarely gone a season without seeing a state champion – sometimes two or three – crowned in our circulation area.

There’s been a lot of good news in the past four years for us. Please, keep it coming!