With the early start of football, the last week of July and somet imes the first week of August cause me to loose sleep.
It’s the love of what I do for those gridiron warriors. Yes, it’s interviewing coaches, transcribing notes, writing stories and sweating profusely with afternoon picture days under a blazing sun.
Thankfully, Brantley County head coach David Shores booked an early 9 a.m. shoot last week. A gentle breeze kept the spirits up for quickly finished project.
The writing is time consuming, but not as long as putting together our Pigskin Preview. Thankfully, I’ve been able shed repetitiveness over the years.
From one large edition covering the Okefenokee region with the old Waycross Journal-Herald and then centering my attention to four weekly community newspapers, it’s now just one publication.
I streamlined Head Publishing LLC’s football edition four years ago when Sandy and I decided to go to a magazine format.
The edition, though not award-winning on the state level yet (you never know what out of state judges for the GPA awards are looking for), is a color throughout on glossy pages edition.
I have received rave reviews from a lot of supporters of the Brantley County, Ware County and Pierce County football programs. That makes me feel good.
Everything you need to know is right at your fingertips. And, if there is room, action shots from the previous season are used.
There are team photos, group photos and stories with coaches talking about starters in each group of linemen, running backs, quarterbacks, receivers, linebackers, secondary and special teams.
The struggle with the season kicking off in the middle of August is most coaches aren’t really set with starters, especially if the previous season’s starter or starters were lost to graduation.
Some programs have two weeks of practice, a scrimmage and then kick off the season. Some have one week of practice, two scrimmages and then start in what is called “Week 0”.
Week 1 is the next to last Friday in August.
Coaches just aren’t ready sometimes to announce starters and backups. I pretty sure they know who those players are, but its something they keep under their hat until the first game.
Because of the early start, trying to get information on opponents is near impossible. All I can do is try and seek information on opponents from other sports writers.
In say all of this, I hope everyone takes a look at this year’s 64-page edition. This was a labor of love in putting it together.
It takes the entire staff of Head Publishing from sales to writing to layout and design to make this product special.
It will be in next week’s edition. I hope you enjoy it.
• Rick Head is the Publisher and Editor of The Brantley Beacon and the Waycross Journal- Herald. He can be reached at beacon@btconline. net
