Herald shirks club sports in coverage
In response to Marty Colgan of Palatine, who in a letter to Fencepost ("This is such a sad day," published July 3) lamented the fact that there were no high school sports to read about in the Daily Herald since the end of the school year:
Mr. Colgan, we share your disappointment with the lack of coverage during the summer, but it is certainly not for the lack of high school-aged competition. There are plenty of sports that can be covered by the Daily Herald staff during the summer. It is simply unfortunate that as a matter of policy (as explained to us), they do not cover club sports. This despite the fact that the players and families live in the newspaper's publication area, attend the same schools that they will cover during the school year and play other sports such as football and wrestling that get press space. And yet, sports at this age group continue.
Case in point: Since 2005, the Arlington Stallions Rugby Club (ASRC) has been dedicated to providing an opportunity for middle school and high school boys in the Northwest suburban geographic area to participate in the international sport of rugby. In that time, we have had about 200 kids go through our program. While we play a competitive season during the spring in which a state champion is crowned on Memorial Day, the players also have an opportunity to continue with postseason play through Select Side tryouts. ASRC placed six players on the Illinois Tornados U-19 and U-17 teams that played teams from Wisconsin in the annual Cody Cup competition between the two states at Toyota Park (held prior to the international game between the USA Eagles and Wales, which received no press coverage either), then finished first and second, respectively, in the Midwest Championships held in June. Finally, on July 4, they each played visiting high school teams from Windsor, England, on tour of the Midwest, East Coast and Canada. And yet, not one word of the outstanding accomplishments of the local or state teams or the achievements of the local players was mentioned in this newspaper.
So as you can see, Mr. Colgan, you need not be so upset during the summer months if only the Daily Herald would rethink its policy that does not include coverage of these excellent high school-aged athletes.
Michael Pateras
Paul Bergman
Courtney White
Lou Raymond
Fernando Egea
Jason Blue
Board of Directors
Arlington Stallions Rugby Club, Inc.