Dear coaches, athletes and devoted sports fans:

I don’t often move (or run, kick, throw, or bat) within the world of sports, so many of you probably don’t know me. Those of you who do know me might also know that if I tried my hand at one of Free State’s many sports, that hand would end up in a cast before the score advanced from 0-0.

However, my startling lack of athletic prowess doesn’t keep me from appreciating the role sports play in our school. No school-sponsored event can rally Free State’s green-and-silver spirit like a homecoming football game, a whirlwind track meet, or a basketball victory over Lawrence High. Pep assemblies can try to compete, but the bleachers are always at their liveliest after the school lets out.

That’s why we at the Free Press want to revamp our sports coverage, from content to communication and readability to design.

As both student reporters and plain old students, we realize that there’s more to athletics than scores and trophies. Of course, those honors are always nice, but they aren’t the fuel to an athlete’s fire. We’re aiming to report on the bones and muscles of Firebird sports–both figuratively and, perhaps in our upcoming health and nutrition issue, literally.

To make sure we aren’t ignoring those scores and trophies I mentioned earlier, we are also including a sports ticker in the design of the sports page that will tell readers all the quick facts they need to know about past and upcoming sporting events.

What we need from readers is support in our quest to make our sports coverage meet the standards of the school’s impressive sports program. Senior Kimberly Messineo was recently appointed sports manager of the Free Press, which means she’ll be in contact with coaches and athletes to get the latest news from the field, the court, the pool, the track and the mat.

If readers have any tips or suggestions for the sports page, or for the newspaper in general, the Free Press would be ecstatic to hear them. Tweet at us at @fsfreepress, email us at [email protected], write us a post on fsfreepressonline.com, message us on Facebook, or tap us on the shoulder in person (you’ll usually find us in Room 115).

We want to hear your stories. We hope you’ll stick around this year to hear ours, too.

Thanks for reading, Free State.

Katie