The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Chad Courrier

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May 15, 2009

Strong season from East swimmers overlooked

By Chad Courrier

After returning from a long weekend of fishing in northern Minnesota, there was a voice mail waiting Monday from longtime Mankato East swimming and diving coach Tim Johnson, who was fired up about something that appeared in Friday’s newspaper.

It was an attempt to highlight the celebration of the Mankato East boys track and field team after winning the True Team section championship, noting how it’s been a tough athletic year for boys at East. Nearly every team has struggled, save for the boys soccer team, or so it seemed.

Johnson’s call pointed out that the Cougars’ swimmers and divers also had a pretty good season, and predictably, his sport had been forgotten. The Cougars finished fifth in the True Team state swimming meet and sent a solid contingent of swimmers to the individual state meet.

He was right about the oversight. It wasn’t done out of malice but of ignorance. Didn’t know much about the East swimmers this season and didn’t try hard enough to find out.

This whole conversation prompted an awakening. As the career has unfolded, the focus has become more limited to fewer sports. There’s college and high-school football that dominate the fall, though an occasional volleyball match pops up on the schedule. In the winter, it’s college and high-school basketball, men’s and women’s and boys and girls, with games nearly every night.

The spring is more of a potpourri, with baseball and softball getting the majority of attention, with a track meet or golf tournament every now and then.

It didn’t start out that way. Back in the late 1980s, at the daily paper in Faribault, the sports editor was a one-man show, responsible for covering all the teams in the area, and that meant showing up at as many events as the clock would allow. It was a scheduling nightmare, but at the end of each season, there was a sense of knowledge about every team and most of the players.

Which is how it should be.

Certainly, the Free Press covers more high schools with more teams and more athletes, but maybe the “beat” has become too narrow. There are sports that offer better potential for excitement, but the drama that each event potentially offers has more to do with the competitiveness, not the actual sport.

For years, the best events were boys basketball games between Mankato East and Mankato West, but you’d have been hard pressed to find any drama in those games this season. Instead, the East-West girls basketball games were much more intriguing and competitive this season

Johnson was right, there were no East swim meets on this schedule this season, and it’s a shame. Every event, regardless of sport, has the potential to be dramatic, and when it is, hopefully someone’s there to chronicle that.

Next year, there will be a swim meet to be covered, if Johnson will help a less-informed writer to capture any interesting angles. It shouldn’t be too much to ask for every local media member to attend at least one of the three Mankato high school’s sporting events, making the public conversation a lot more knowledgeable.



Chad Courrier is a Free Press staff writer. To contact him, call 507-344-6353 or e-mail at ccourrier@mankatofreepress.com.

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Chad Courrier