Sportswriters should make a yearly commitment to readers so they know where they are coming from. It doesn’t mean every commitment can be fulfilled, but it’s a good start for the new year to understand expectations and seek feedback in the months ahead.

Understand this is more than a job covering high school sports in Southern California. It’s a passion to tell stories, capture moments of success and failure, and to celebrate those who overcome obstacles to be successful.

This is the beginning of my journey for 2025:

• Seek out a positive story each day in high school sports. There’s so many options, from a parent driving their son or daughter to practice to a kid sitting on the bench cheering the loudest. Let me find those moments in a daily write-up called, “Prep talk.”
• Look at both sides when there’s a transfer student. Don’t assume someone was recruited illegally. Check if the family made its legal choice without undue influence and let them swim or sink on their own.
• Highlight coaches doing things the right way, putting students first and teaching lessons that will last a lifetime.
• Find parents who calmly sit in the bleachers rooting for their team without criticizing officials.
• Salute football officials who do the right thing by admitting they made a mistake and pick up the flag they threw.
• Pay more attention to offensive linemen, the key to any successful football team. They don’t score touchdowns but their blocks lead to touchdowns and some are the smartest, most authentic personalities on a team. It’s so tough to determine who’s a really good linemen, so I need to talk to more line coaches who know their profession and can spot the good ones and not just because they’re big and have stars next to their name.
• Make sure to watch handshake lines after games to see which teams have the discipline to accept defeat or celebrate victory with class and sportsmanship and give credit to coaches for making clear that if you play for them, you will do this important gesture with class.
• Point out again and again it’s not how hard a pitcher throws but how many strikes they can produce that leads to baseball success. Those scouts showing up with speed guns and celebrating pitchers throwing 90 mph but walking batters, go become a private coach charging $50 an hour with a promise to improve velocity.
• Teenagers of all shapes and sizes can be a high school star, so just because a quarterback is 5 feet 9 and dismissed by others doesn’t mean their contributions should be ignored.
• Continue to highlight those with the skill and fortitude to be multiple-sport athletes in a time others want them to focus on one sport. If you have any doubt, go talk to a college recruiter. They love quarterbacks who play baseball, linemen who wrestle, running backs who are 100-meter stars, basketball players who send balls crashing to the floor in volleyball.
• Keep encouraging those in other sports to try flag football because those who have done it fall in love even if they are scholarship athletes in soccer, softball, volleyball and basketball.
• Accept criticism and try to learn from it even if you know the person has a conflict of interest. The only way to keep moving forward is to look at both sides of a debate.
• Try to be patient with new coaches who have no idea how important it is to promptly return a phone call or report a score whether they win or lose. Hopefully they will learn it’s a responsibility that comes with coaching and sets an example for their players.
• Be vigilant and hold the CIF accountable when trends develop but change is rejected because people want to cling to ways of the past. A good organization keeps evolving, keeps listening, keeps inviting different viewpoints. If someone doesn’t understand that more than 17,000 transfers in a single year isn’t a cause for concern, then make sure they know the ramifications on the mission to be the leader in education-based high school sports.
• Start taking a closer look at sports that might be considered new but have passionate competitors and advocates. The line of communication is open for those to suggest story ideas.
• Keep pushing to bring attention to those making a difference on unsung teams to show good coaches and good athletes can be found anywhere and everywhere.
• Be respectful to security guards who don’t seem to understand that a press pass means the person qualifies to be allowed access even if their boss told them, “NOBODY goes in before 5 p.m.” A little common sense needs to win the day.