EDITOR's NOTES: Your local sports coming in HD

http://www.journalscene.com/archives/journal-scene-sports-now-in-hd/article_ce3f9814-39ad-58d6-956a-d04ac1facb2e.html

By David Kennard

dkennard@journalscene.com

Journal Scene sports reporter Roger Lee and his counterpart in Berkeley County, Rob Gantt – or as I like to call them, “The Talent” were in Coastal Coffee Roasters in Summerville on Tuesday afternoon.

They were video recording the first of what will become a 10-week(ish) project that previews local high school football games. You can find the video now on our website. Look for future videos to appear every Wednesday.

This is part of our ongoing mission of making The Journal Scene your No. 1 source of local, local news. Between them, Roger and Rob have been covering our local sports teams for nearly 30 years.

Sports fans are used to seeing them in the press boxes and on the sidelines talking to coaches, players and parents. Readers are used to seeing their roundups and previews in the paper and online.

Now for three to four minutes each week, you can watch them online talking about our local sports teams. It’s fun for me to hear their insights on the local teams.

When I first floated the idea of a short preview video, you can imagine their excitement. Actually you’ll have to imagine it because their reaction was more like, “Now what is he making us do?”

The idea was to try and capture their wealth of local sports knowledge and share it in video form. That’s the goal anyway. We’ll see how it works in the weeks to come.

Player of the Week

Also coming up in the next couple of weeks, we’ll be bringing back the Player of the Week game.

This weekly pick’em contest lets you go online and select your favorite football player from among those Roger and Rob feel had exceptional games during the previous week.

Like all sports critiques, it’s pretty subjective – a little like asking who’s the better athlete: Michael Phelps or Usain Bolt. So, please, don’t take it too seriously.

Athlete of the Week

In case that’s not enough, we’re also bringing back the Athlete of the Week feature that began mid-way through the last school year.

Again, it’s up to “The Talent” to select the athletes from all sports who, whether or not they had a stellar performance, deserve recognition for their contributions to their respective teams.

We try to pick a male and female athlete each week, and again it’s highly subjective. Watch for that feature to begin in a couple of weeks as well.

I love the Athlete of the Week because it’s a good way to throw a little love to all those non-superstars like me, who enjoy playing, but often are relegated to the bench.

In elementary school I loved it when they pulled out the parachute because in basketball, I pretty much just got elbowed a lot.

As a father, I got to watch my children play sports quite a bit. In fact my oldest son, Nathan, just missed playing against LeBron James for the 2001 High School Boys Division III Ohio state title.

James was a graduating senior the year Nathan started playing basketball as a high school freshman. Nathan is 6 feet 7 inches tall and did a decent job as a center and power forward. Unfortunately he inherited a lack of speed that ended my basketball dreams in high school as well.

He played football all through high school, though, and even started a few times. Of course my wife and I were loyal sports parents, sitting through the cold Ohio winters huddled under blankets on freezing aluminum benches. It’s a different experience here in the Lowcountry.

By the way, make sure to check out today’s paper for the Football 2016 special pullout section. It’s  just one more fun feature we’re sending your way to get you in the mood for fall sports.

David Kennard is the executive editor of Summerville Communications, which publishes the Berkeley Independent, Goose Creek Gazette and Summerville Journal Scene. Contact him at dkennard@journalscene.com or 843-873-9424. Follow him on Twitter @davidbkennard.