Once upon a time, there was a boy with a dream. It was September in 1994, and I showed the guy at the gate at Fox Field in Marion, S.C., my official press pass from the Marion Star. That was the first night I covered a high school football game.
I’ve done hundreds of them since, all over North and South Carolina, and in the process I’ve been fortunate enough to cover 14 football state championships in that time during stints in Shelby, Fayetteville, Henderson and, in 2021 with Cleveland, here in JoCo.
Each time is as special as the last, and No. 15, better known as Clayton’s trip to Chapel Hill on Friday night for a 7A title clash with Grimsley, is no exception.
This is the first one with JoCo Sports, however, so the work is combined with the small business owner side of the equation, or more simply put, the need to generate profit on the work we’re doing.
We’re holding the January issue to include the result of Friday’s game, and as such, we’re planning a section of coverage of this event — win or lose — in the magazine. Great, right?
It is. Or at least it could be. You see, pages cost money. Without getting too inside baseball here, we can only print in increments of eight. So, if ad revenue suggests we do a 32-page issue, we’d need a good amount more to cover the expense of jumping up to 40.
As it so happens, we were already running a sale on full-page ads in January. So, we’ve extended it to cover the Clayton coverage as well.
I understand the temptation to wait and see who wins before committing to buying an ad. But, again some more insider knowledge here, we’re already stretching the deadline to the point of absurdity if we’d like to get the January issue back from the printer sometime before New Year’s Day.
Obviously, it’s going to be way more fun if the Comets win. But consider the fact that only the 1989 Comets and Smithfield High School, back in 1959, have ever won an 11-man state title (Clayton has a six-man title from 1952, per HighSchool OT). Consider also that aside from Cleveland (2021), South Johnston (2009), Clayton (1966, 1977 and 1979) and Princeton (1976 and 1979), we’ve hardly had any Johnston County teams reach this point on the football playing calendar.
So, be a part of history — no matter what. Consider buying a little space in the January issue and congratulating the Comets on an historic season. I’ll even make it easy for you:
OK, now that we’ve shilled a little, we can resume normal operations. Oh, and if you missed the game preview, you can read that here.
Pep rally
Want to send the Comets off in style? Check this out!
Sounds like fun.
PODCAst
Episode 17 of the podcast, with a chat with Scott Chadwick and all sort of state championship coverage is coming tomorrow. While you wait, feel free to get caught up on the first 16…