Following, not replacing, a legend can be a big challenge
This must be how it felt for Babe Dahlgren, Ryan Minor, Gene Bartow, Ray Perkins and Neal Anderson.
Wondering who are all those guys?
They had the difficult, if not impossible, task of following legends.
Which is sort of how it feels to be occupying this space right now. One where our readers have comfortably found Bob Frisk's sterling work for the last 50 years.
So much for following the old coaching advice that it's best to be the guy who follows the guy who followed the legend.
But we'll follow in the best way possible not to duplicate - because it would be silly to try - but perpetuate what has been done with high school sports for decades here.
Similar to Bob, my aspirations of covering the obscenely rich and infamous disappeared long ago.
We all know it's not perfect at the high school level, but there are a lot more open doors and open minds and a lot fewer "no comments" with nasty glares.
As a result, there are so many stories to be told of athletes making a positive difference. Athletes who may become doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers and coaches and even journalists and not necessarily all-star shortstops or all-pro linebackers.
Athletes who excel on and off the field. Athletes who put in countless hours and seemingly endless energy to achieve greatness - which could be an all-area captain or state champion or someone getting the most of their ability to help the team in a complementary role.
Some of those stories hopefully will make you laugh. Some might make you cry. Others might inspire or help.
That will be the challenge each week, and it's a bigger challenge than ever in this business - just as it is in many others in these difficult times - to do more with less.
Times like these are what make high school sports such a wonderful escape.
One where it doesn't take an entire paycheck to bring the family to a game, have something to eat, and leave knowing you witnessed an honest effort.
One you'll continue to get here as well.
There's no promising 50 years - that would mean 37 more and put me at 79 - but there are three kids age 5 and younger who need to eat and hopefully go to college.
So, here's how this feels right now.
Dahlgren replaced Yankees' legend Lou Gehrig when his streak of 2,130 consecutive baseball games played ended.
Minor stepped in when the Orioles' Cal Ripken Jr., voluntarily ended his 2,632-game streak of baseball games played.
Bartow took over on the UCLA bench after John Wooden won 10 NCAA men's basketball titles in 12 years.
Perkins followed his old coach, the larger-than-life Bear Bryant, on the Alabama football sideline.
Closer to home, Anderson took over after Walter Payton, arguably the greatest running back in NFL history, retired from the Bears.
Anderson, however, finished second all-time to Payton in rushing yards in Bears history.
A run of similar success after one of the best ever is something I could handle.
mmaciaszek@dailyherald.com