Local coverage of high school sports is a way to give back to community [column]

No matter the level, having the title “student-athlete” is a privilege. I was blessed with that privilege during each of my four years at Wakefield Memorial High School in Massachusetts and Ithaca College. During my time at LNP | LancasterOnline, I’ve gotten to know some household names in each sport across the Lancaster-Lebanon League.

When I was on my high school’s cross country and track teams, we were a force to be reckoned with. We consistently contended for league, division and state titles. During my freshman year, I was part of a team that was crowned the Division Three Eastern Massachusetts state champions in cross country. That gave me a lot of perspective and visions for what I could accomplish with my teammates over the next three-plus years.

Although we had a successful program throughout my career, it felt like the community was not as familiar with our success.

Back home, we have the Wakefield Daily Item, a small news outlet that covers everything in Wakefield. While it covered all of our meets and sporting events, the paper doesn’t have as big of an outreach as, say, the Boston Globe.

Yes, the Globe does cover high school sports, but I did not feel its magnitude as heavily as I have with LNP | LancasterOnline.

Maybe that’s because I was never fast enough to see myself mentioned by the Globe in any capacity.

I’ll admit, I was not the greatest of runners like many of my former teammates were. Despite that, I always found myself excited to see my name in the Daily Item’s recap of our cross country races. In that one moment, you feel a rush of adrenaline as you feel famous. I’ll always remember the first time I had that feeling.

Until my freshman year of college, I was on the outside looking in at sports media. Once I joined The Ithacan, Ithaca’s school newspaper, I slowly realized the importance of being there for the community.

It meant a lot to me when I could publish a story about another athlete or team’s success at Ithaca. Working with my colleagues at The Ithacan taught me about the importance of community, whether one writes for the news section, life and culture or sports. The Ithacan’s coverage holds an astronomical importance to the IC community, just as LNP | LancasterOnline’s coverage does for Lancaster and beyond.

Fast-forward to today and I find myself in the middle of an internship with LNP | LancasterOnline covering high school sports. I’ve seen how much it means to the area schools when we cover their sporting events. It’s almost contagious.

After I had my first couple articles published, I received many emails from readers welcoming me to Lancaster. I quickly learned how important high school sports are to this community, and seeing how passionate the families and teams are is why I love my job.

While we may not have had this level of attention during my high school days, I find joy in putting smiles on the faces of the athletes, parents and coaches with our coverage.

Whether it’s a postgame interview, a feature story or a video highlight reel, to give back to these kids and highlight their accomplishments means a lot to me. That’s what it’s all about.

Without a doubt, no one covers high school sports like LNP | LancasterOnline. Although my time here is coming to an end, I want to say thank you to the community for welcoming me and for allowing me to cover your local sports.

LNP | LancasterOnline will always be where my career began, and it has been my absolute pleasure serving you.

David Schurter is an intern for the LNP | LancasterOnline sports department this fall. Email him at dschurter@lnpnews.com, and follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @DSchurter02.