This is my last column with the Saratoga Sun.
Next week, my byline will no longer appear in these pages and my name will no longer be on the list of employees on page four. It’s a bittersweet moment as I think back to the first time I walked through the door of the Saratoga Sun as an employee in January 2018. In some ways, it has felt like the Sun was part of the family considering the years my mother, Liz Wood, put into this publication before she, too, went on to other adventures.
When I first came into the office and sat down at what would be my desk for the next four-and-a-half years, I could feel the shadow left by my mother even nearly two years after she left the office. At the time, I was worried I wouldn’t be able to cast my own shadow and separate myself from her own legacy with the newspaper. Of all the people who assure me I have, she is the most vocal that I have made my own legacy.
I have many fond memories with this newspaper. I also have very difficult memories.
Probably the most difficult memory is walking into the office of the Saratoga Sun on July 29, 2019 the day after the passing of Keith McLendon.
I remember standing in the middle of the office, unsure of where exactly to begin but knowing a newspaper had to be put out for the week. Even though we had community members tell us it would be understandable if we didn’t publish a newspaper just that once, I was insistent we get one out. I think part of me believed if we didn’t get that July 31 Saratoga Sun out, we wouldn’t be able to get any subsequent newspapers out.
The article about Keith’s passing was one of the hardest I had to write and I’ll be ever thankful to Dick Perue for giving me advice. I’ll also be thankful to Henry Hewitt, who was quick to defend the staff on social media as the headline for that article wasn’t one of my greatest.
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic was another difficult time. I remember, as news came out by the minute, putting more “breaking news” articles on the website in a month period than any time before March 2020. In some cases, it felt like I had written an entire newspaper’s worth of articles before Monday even rolled around and they had to be rewritten for the print edition.
I don’t think there is anything more eerie, by the way, than an empty downtown Saratoga on a Friday night.
The fond memories outweigh the difficult ones, though.
I will always remember following the Saratoga Panthers basketball team all the way to the 2020 1A State Championship where they won the first state championship in school history. Just a year before, I had watched as the Encampment Tigers had victory slip through their fingers thanks to a buzzer-beater three-point shot in double-overtime. In 2021, I watched as the Panthers returned to the State Championship to attempt a back-to-back win. Following their loss to the Upton Bobcats, I went to my car and called my mom in tears. I didn’t know why such a loss was hitting me, a spectator, so hard and she had to remind me I had followed the seniors on the team since they were freshman.
It was hard, also, not to get emotional when the Encampment Tigers made it to the Six-Man State Championships this past school year. Sure, there were emotions because they fell to the Little Snake River Valley Rattlers. It was also exciting to see a team which had only been playing a varsity schedule for three years make it to War Memorial Stadium. It was even more emotional to see someone like Koye Gilbert—who stood before the Carbon County School District No. 2 Board of Trustees as a freshman asking for a football program—to play at the championships his senior year.
I think it’s nearly impossible to cover a sports team year-after-year for a small-town newspaper and not become invested in some way.
One of my most treasured assignments was covering the final sermon of Reverend Arlen Rounds at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Medicine Bow. Mike Armstrong was originally going to cover it, but he called me that Sunday morning to tell me he was sick and couldn’t make it. I dressed appropriately and drove to the tiny church. Even though I no longer count myself as being among the religious, one would have to be stone-hearted not to be moved by Rounds and the people who had come from near and far to support him that day.
That story also gave me one of my favorite photos, which is of Rounds with a smile on his face and the stained glass window behind him forming a halo. Divine inspiration? I’ll let you be the judge.
Another assignment I enjoyed was interviewing some of the talent of MicroMania Midget Wrestling. I went into the interview with really one question in mind: is midget wrestling exploitation? Not only did the response from the wrestlers open my eyes—Little Fabio wasn’t shy about calling out the Little People of America—but watching and photographing the event helped me realize the artistry which goes into professional wrestling. Give me a match between a face (good guy) and a heel (bad guy) over a Broadway show any day.
I can’t say it’s easy to bid farewell to my first job in this industry. I’m thankful that Keith McLendon took the chance to hire me as a reporter and I’m thankful that Gary Stevenson gave me the opportunity to lead the Saratoga Sun. For good or ill, I’d like to believe I have left an impression on this newspaper, like so many editors and publishers who came before me. Now it’s someone else’s turn to make their impression.
In my very first column for this newspaper, I wrote about being at a trailhead. Now, I’m at another one and, just like last time, I have to figure out which direction to go.
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