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LOVE them.

And it was my mom, who used to write for her high school newspaper, who told me that I could still be very involved with sports, even if I was the least-coordinated person ever born. Because I could follow sports. I could study them. And when I was old enough, I could cover them, and talk about them, and write about them, and report on them, and even announce them.

So that’s what I did.

And that’s what I do.

When I was ten, I wrote an article about the kickball tournament we had in fifth grade, when Louis Benson’s team beat Alice Freehold’s team 28–27 in a real thriller. My parents said the article was great. My dad said, “It’s almost like I was there!”

I was so happy when he said that.

Then, when I got to Walthorne South, I met Mr. Rashad. He’s a guidance counselor, and also the media advisor, which basically meant that he was going to be the most important person in my life for the next three years.

But our school doesn’t have the greatest media department. We don’t have a lot of money for that kind of stuff. In fact, we don’t have ANY money for that kind of stuff. But we do have a microphone and a transmitter. I don’t know what a transmitter does or how it works exactly—Mr. Rashad handles that part—but when I was in sixth grade, he let me hold the microphone, and he showed me the transmitter, and he told me, “You know what this is? This is a radio station.”

A RADIO STATION!

Right then and there I knew what I was going to do. “I am going to write about sports for the school newspaper,” I told him, “and blog about sports for the town website, and talk about sports on the school radio station.”

“So you want to be a journalist?”

I nodded. “A journalist about sports, yes.”

“That’s great. If you’re going to be a journalist, you must care about one thing, and one thing only.”

“Sports?”

Mr. Rashad shook his head. “Truth. The truth is the only thing that matters.”

“The truth is the only thing that matters,” I repeated.

Mr. Rashad smiled again.

“Welcome to WWMS.”

WALTHORNENEWS.COM

PROWLING WITH THE PANTHERS

A MIDDLE SCHOOL SPORTS BLOG BY ALFIE JENKS

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14

Injured Player: What Really Happened?

Hi again everyone, it’s Alfie, back to talk (well, actually write about) sports. Thanks a lot for reading my blog! Last night, the Walthorne South Panthers boys basketball team evened their record at 1 and 1 by beating the Harborville Boaters, 59–43.

Carter Haswell led the scoring as usual, with 26 points. The girls team tries to make it two in a row when they play Ackton tonight. Meanwhile, across town, the Walthorne North boys team played their first game without star center Clay Elkind and lost 54–49 to Suffolk Central.

Speaking of Clay Elkind, he really played an incredible game against Walthorne North last week—he led their team in scoring and rebounding and was clearly their best player. But the amazing thing was, he did all this even though he seemed to be limping through most of the game.

Then, just before the end of the game, Clay made a game-saving play but landed awkwardly. The whole gym held its breath as he screamed in agony, lying on the floor until his coaches helped him to the bench. And from what I’m hearing, he may be out for the season.

I checked in with Clay earlier this week, and he didn’t really want to talk about the injury, but he did tell me he came into the game already hurt. It’s hard to know exactly what happened here, but I have a pretty good guess. It was the first game of the season, against a big rival. Somebody, probably his coach or maybe even his parents, pressured Clay to play, told him how important he was to the team and what a big moment it was, and how everyone was counting on him. And then he gave in to the pressure and played, and then, well, you know the rest.

It’s really too bad. I hope Clay has a speedy recovery. I hope he can play basketball again up to his very high level, because he’s a really incredible player. And it would be great to see him on the court again by the time North meets South in the last game of the season. That would sure be a great comeback story!

WALTHORNENEWS.COM

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15 2:36 PM

Young Reporter Causes Stir with Blog Post

The youth sports community in Walthorne is buzzing today, after a blog post last night by Walthorne South Middle School eighth grader Alfie Jenks suggested that a young athlete was pressured to play while hurt, which may have led to his severe injury late in the game.

Referring to last Friday night’s contest between Walthorne South and Walthorne North, Ms. Jenks implies that starting North center Clay Elkind was convinced by adults, possibly a coach, to stay on the court even though he was obviously limping. Later in the game, young Mr. Elkind suffered ligament damage in his knee and had to be carried off the court.

In a combined statement this morning, the physical education departments of both schools said, “While we appreciate young Ms. Jenks’s zeal for a good story, there is absolutely no truth to the innuendo that any coach, or anyone in any official capacity, urged this young player to compete in a game despite being injured. Our athletic programs are focused solely on participation, personal growth, and the invaluable experience that comes from being part of a team. It may be true that youth sports, like many student activities, occasionally reach an inappropriate level of pressure, but please be assured that we take our Walthorne tradition of courtesy, cooperation, and fair play very seriously and believe in it deeply.”

Walthornenews.com reached out to the coaches of Walthorne South and Walthorne North Middle Schools with follow-up questions, but both were unavailable for comment.

8:22 pm