Well, I was wrong.
Wait, let’s rephrase that. I was kind of wrong. Maybe even mostly wrong. But I was still right about one thing.
I’m never just completely wrong … right?
I’m referring to video highlights on columbian.com. More specifically, video highlights produced by me. From wherever I am sitting while attending whatever game I’m covering for the paper.
I didn’t want to do it. Heck, I fought against it for at least two days. (That’s a lot for me.)
Trying to capture video highlights would take away my strengths of writing a quality game story, I said.
Actually, I still think I’m right about this. Remember, in high school sports, unlike professional sports, the statistics and play-by-play are not provided to the journalist by the league. A good journalist covering high school sports must keep track of this vital information. By adding social media responsibilities a few years back and now video, well, it gets tough to do everything.
But we adjust, right?
Still, there was another concern.
No way, I said, would anyone want to click on video highlights of poor quality.
OK, I was wrong about this. Very wrong.
High school sports fans in Clark County know that they can’t turn on the TV to see highlights of their teams. (Well, with the exception of Friday night football on local TV stations.) There is no ESPN or Fox Sports show dedicated to Clark County high school sports.
The Columbian, though, is dedicated to high school sports. And our website is dedicated to trying new things, including video highlights by people who don’t know what they’re doing (like me) but still giving the effort.
Sports fans understand that some video highlights — even if they are not visually artistic — can be magical. The strange finish to the Columbia River-Skyview football game in 2013 comes to mind. That was not our video, but we were given permission to use the video on our site, and then the rest of the country picked up on that story. That wouldn’t have happened without video.
Then this past winter, I was told to take more video. So while the print coverage suffered a bit, we were able to add things to our web coverage. Give a little, take a little.
And yes, I did capture a few of those magical moments.
• Union’s Denis Kirichenko hit a 3-pointer to send a state tournament game into overtime.
• Columbia River’s Alex McGarry with an inside-the-park home run to win a state playoff baseball game.
• La Center’s state championship run in softball.
• And my personal favorite video of the school year, Cameron Cranston beating the buzzer to send the Titans to state, to send the Union fans into a frenzy.
Most of the video highlights were put on Twitter. But for some others, especially the big playoff games, we put together a highlights package for The Columbian’s YouTube channel.
Last week, I had every hit and RBI in La Center’s state championship game as well as post-game reaction.
Again, the quality was sub-par. I was sitting behind a chain-link fence and it was a tough angle. However, there is video documentation to go with our story on La Center’s first state title in the sport. Both should live on forever on the website.
