The end of May and beginning of June felt like a big blur in some ways. There was barely time to catch my breath, but on this first official week of summer I would like to take a few moments to reflect and share some random thoughts with you.
Last week, I wrapped up my first season as a tee ball coach with the Corbin Little League program. I assisted last spring, but this time around I volunteered to lead the charge. I can honestly say that it was a fun and memorable experience. My daughter was on the team, and my wife and I had a great time with her and all of her teammates. After the last game, we handed out end-of-the-season medals and my mother offered to treat all of the kids to slushies from the concession stand at Miller Park. I want to thank Jeff Chadwell and everyone else with Corbin Little League for overseeing another season. I also want to thank the other coaches, and the other parents of kids on our team for all of their help as well. It takes a lot of effort to make a youth sports league go, but the benefits that the kids receive is definitely worth the hard work.
As I covered postseason baseball and softball at our local high schools in recent weeks, I couldn’t help but think that I kind of miss seeing dirt infields. This may annoy some of you out there, especially those who have had a hand in actually transitioning a playing field from a natural surface to artificial, but I can’t help it. The turf fields are extremely nice, and I understand that there are several benefits to having them, but I do miss taking pictures of players with dirt all over their uniforms. I miss the shots of the clouds of dust as a player dives back to first base in order to avoid a tag-out. I miss how it looked when a player slid into home while trying to avoid the tag from the catcher, and dirt goes flying just before the call of “safe” or “out.” Maybe I’m in the minority here, and that’s fine, but it’s just something that I wanted to share. In the end, I’m sure that the positives outweigh the negatives. I know that turf fields are a more cost-efficient investment in the long run, but that dirt sure does make for some good photos…
Speaking of the recent high school baseball postseason, I was super-annoyed to get to Lexington a couple of Fridays ago just in time to learn that Corbin’s game against Pleasure Ridge Park had been called off due to heavy rain. I’m sure that plenty of you out there were in the same position as me, and I’m sure that plenty of you did the same thing that I did – tried to make the best of the situation by hitting a store or two and grabbing a bite
See SHERMAN, Page A-7
to eat before heading back home. Personally, I hit a couple of comic book shops and then got two slices of absolutely delicious pizza at Jet’s Pizza. I had never been to this particular restaurant before, but I’ll definitely be back. Unfortunately, I was not able to make it back to Lexington the following morning to see the Hounds in action at Kentucky Proud Park, but I would like to once more congratulate them on a fantastic 2025 season.
In non-sports related news, I would also like to congratulate Emily Roberts on being named Interim Executive Director of the Corbin Tourism and Convention Commission last week. I have gotten to know Emily during her time serving as assistant tourism director over the past couple of years, and I think that she has done, is doing, and will continue to do a great job when it comes to promoting and enhancing Corbin’s many tourism-related initiatives. I look forward to working with her more in the future, and wish her the best of luck in all of her endeavors.
I want to also wish good luck to all of our area churches as they go about presenting Vacation Bible School programming for local kids in the coming weeks. Some have already held VBS, but there will be many more doing so between now and the end of next month. A few weeks ago, I made a post on the News Journal Facebook page encouraging folks to post information about VBS events taking place this summer in the local area. We received several responses, so if you are a family looking for some VBS opportunities, I encourage you to look up that post and see what all is there.
One last item… you may have noticed in recent weeks that crossword puzzles have been appearing in the pages of our paper again. We know that plenty of folks out there enjoy doing these, so we are going to make a concerted effort to keep them as a regular weekly feature. Have fun!
And that does it. It’s hard to believe that we only have one more edition left to print in the month of June, but here we are. Very soon we will be covering events such as July 4th, the Whitley County Fair, NIBROC and Old Fashioned Trading Days. It won’t be long before we are previewing the 2025 high school football season as well, so stay tuned!
