Don't see your results? Covering the Hi-Line requires your help

The Hi-Line football and volleyball roundups you see on today’s sports page are one of the things in my 18-year Havre Daily News career I’m most proud of.

No, I don't mean these two stories in particular, I mean the fact that, for the last 18 years, they’ve been there, every Tuesday.

And, I’m writing this column to tell all of you who care about local sports in our communities all over the Hi-Line, I don’t want to see them go away. But I have to admit, I’m getting a little concerned.

So, area coaches, and athletic directors, that’s where you come in. Yes, I’m asking for your help.

Maybe you’ve noticed that fewer and fewer newspapers are publishing what we in the business refer to as agate. You might know them better as box scores. Many papers are understaffed and just don’t have the man or woman power to sit up late at night and type box scores anymore.

Fortunately, here at the HDN, I’m not there. I will happily type box scores and make sure they’re a part of our sports coverage. So will Chris Peterson. But the problem is we’re not getting your box scores and results nearly as frequently as we have in the past. And, it’s simple, we can’t type and can’t report on what we can’t see.

Also, because we are only a two-person staff here at the HDN, we rely heavily on all of you sending in your results so we can report on your games, not just the final score, but what happened in the game. We can’t be everywhere, we can’t cover every game, match and tournament that happens in our area every weekend for nine months. But when all of you folks send us your results, we do get to report on the games still, and the Hi-Line Roundups are the result. I’ve felt it’s always worked, but it seems to be not quite working as well so far this school year.

And there’s another issue with not receiving volleyball, football, basketball, wrestling, cross country, track and field or any other sports results for that matter. That is, if we don’t know what your kids did, how can they ever receive Hi-Line Athlete of the Week? The simple answer is, they can’t. We can only base those nominations and decisions on the information we have. Without it, we don’t know about all the great performances by high schoolers all over the Hi-Line each and every weekend. And, in those instances, very deserving athletes miss out on their chance to be the Hi-Line Athlete of the Week.

So having said all that, here I am, asking for your help. Please, coaches, please, ADs, even parents if need be, please take the time to email, fax, or even call in your results. For the last 18 years, I have prided myself on being able to cover not just Havre High and Northern, but every single varsity sport at the more than 14 schools in our coverage area. I’ve prided myself on the fact that, your results, from Turner to Chester, from Big Sandy to Box Elder, and all points in between, make it into our paper.

And I don’t like to see that slipping or going away. Hopefully all of you, who are so proud of your school and your athletes, hopefully all of you don’t want to see that go away either.