If you want to know how much I care about Indiana, despite its flaws, look at my right leg. There, you’ll see an outline of the state on my lower thigh.
To the Michigan residents reading this article, I promise I’ve got love for your state, too.
A big source of my passion for Indiana stems from high school athletics. My grandfather is a state champion boys basketball head coach. My dad was a state champion assistant on the same staff.
My mom was an All-State and multi-time sectional-champion volleyball player and sectional-champion head coach. My girlfriend was a three-time state qualifier in cross country and has her name hanging on the walls of her high school’s gym on an all-time leaderboard.
My cousin earned multiple county or school records as a two-time state qualifier in track and field and was a sectional champion in football. Many of my aunts and uncles won sectional or regional championships as players or coaches for basketball, baseball and volleyball at high schools around the state.
I can already hear you telling me about how everyone has family members who won a sectional or two in high school. I’m sure you’re only actually curious about the glory of my high school sports career.
I quit the Yorktown High School basketball team after my freshman year and was a so-so baseball player for three high school seasons (thanks for taking away my junior season, COVID). So, I decided to get a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Ball State University that gives me an excuse to continue experiencing other people’s sports successes.
During my (relatively brief) time as a sports journalist, I’ve covered my fair share of collegiate athletics and a bit of professional sports, but a large chunk of this time has been spent dedicating my ability (or lack thereof, depending on who you ask) to giving high school sports a platform.
I’ve written about high school sports in Delaware, Madison, Grant, Marion, Hamilton, Randolph, Kosciusko, Henry, Blackford, Jay, Tipton, Howard, Wayne, Tippecanoe and Monroe Counties. St. Joseph, Elkhart, Marshall, LaPorte, Berrien, Cass Counties, you’re next!
All of these places have supported a belief I’ve had since I can remember caring about athletics in the slightest: sports have a way of bringing people together.
Think of a fond memory you may have at a sporting event. It could be professional, collegiate, high school or even pee wee, I’d bet anyone reading this can think of at least one.
In your moment, you were almost certainly surrounded by strangers.
If you are in the stands watching a game during your moment, that means you dwelled amongst these strangers. You may have even instinctively given a high-five or a fist bump to someone beside you that you had never met before walking to your seat.
If you were the athlete during your moment, that means you or a teammate were being cheered on by strangers. Sure, maybe friends and family of yours may have been watching too, but some of those cheering were people with whom you’ve never shared a conversation.
The point is, sports can encourage people to care about issues or people by which they may not be directly affected. They can make people feel emotions for which they may otherwise have no outlet. They can make people momentarily forget the goings on of their everyday life.
Some of my fondest memories have been made at professional baseball games with family, in collegiate press boxes alongside countless other journalists or sitting next to PA announcers behind a high school scorer’s table.
Sports, like people or events or worldly issues, can also break your heart. There’s nothing (in an athletic setting) worse than watching a family member strikeout or your favorite team lose a big game. Chances are, either later in that same game, season or year, that same athlete or team can mend your broken heart back to health.
High school sports are perhaps the most personal of them all. I believe my job is to relay the importance of local athletics to any person who fires up the South Bend Tribune’s website or (hopefully) picks up a newspaper six days a week.
I’m going to do my best to serve the South Bend Tribune community’s needs, and I’m glad I get to do so alongside such talented peers like Austin Hough, Gayle Bell, Mike Berardino, Scott Davidson and Tom Noie.
I won’t exclusively be covering high school sports, though that will be my main responsibility, and not every story I write will be a happy one. What I hope every reader keeps in mind, though, is that my goal is for every story I write to carry human emotion and to give the audience at least one piece of information or insight they can’t find anywhere else.
Kyle Smedley is a high school sports reporter at the South Bend Tribune. Contact him via email at ksmedley@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Smedley: Why I’m excited to cover high school sports for the South Bend Tribune
Reporting by Kyle Smedley, South Bend Tribune / South Bend Tribune
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