My goal is still to make Bob proud
I cherish my Bob Frisk button.
It's nothing special, just the standard round piece of metal with a pin on the back. A handful of words on the front surround his smiling face: Bob Frisk, Daily Herald, 50 years.
They were given to employees in 2008 to commemorate Bob's golden anniversary with the paper he loved —the paper that loved him back from the day he was hired in 1958 after graduating from the University of Illinois.
Bob meant everything to the Daily Herald, but especially the prep sports department. Through the decades, he brought unmatched positivity and commitment to our pages through his columns and so much more.
He brought that positive energy, every week, to this space.
Bob, who died in 2020, had shoes impossible to fill. Impossible at the Daily Herald and in the Illinois prep sports scene in general. He earned countless honors for his efforts, too numerous to mention here.
Yet here I am on the front page of the Daily Herald's sports section trying to capture a fragment of Bob's energy and the sense of pride he felt for the athletes and teams he wrote about with such flair.
As someone lucky enough to call Bob a friend in addition to a colleague, I consider the opportunity a blessing and a humbling challenge.
All I can say is, I'll try. I'll try my best to fill this space in a way that'd make Bob proud.
For the many of you unaware about me, I have deep roots in Herald City as a 1987 graduate of Buffalo Grove High School (no, I didn't play for the 1986 Class 6A state championship football team but still love to brag about coach Grant Blaney's boys).
I grew up reading Bob Frisk, and sought employment at the Daily Herald while still a student at the University of Missouri-Columbia. I freelanced for my childhood paper from 1990 to 1997, when I was hired fulltime.
Between 1997 and 2020, I wrote almost exclusively about prep sports. From P.J. Fleck to Corey Davis, and from Candace Parker to Frank Kaminsky, it's been an honor to cover some of the greatest athletes to emerge from this area.
For the last three years I've gained tremendous experience in the Daily Herald's news department. I truly believe it helped me become a better writer and journalist.
But now — as the paper's new associate sports editor and columnist — I'm back to the place I consider home. The sports department is my home.
I plan to bring you my perspective on various topics based on my 30 years roaming sidelines, being the last one left in the gymnasium while filing stories on deadline, and freezing through baseball games on spring days that felt more like winter.
It won't be Bob Frisk. It simply can't be Bob Frisk.
It'll be Kevin Schmit with a viewpoint you hopefully enjoy.
A viewpoint that'd make Bob proud.