As Sam Sees It

As you read this column, I will be enjoying the last hours of what has always in the past been a great reunion with a group of airmen with whom I served in 1954-55. (There are even a couple in this group with whom I served two more years.) There will have been plenty of old Òwar storiesÓ told, some of which is probably fiction.

We will have attended a baseball game at Bank One Ballpark between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the New York Mets. We will have toured several air force and Arizona attractions at Tucson and in Phoenix. We will have eaten at some of the finest Mexican food restaurants in the state.

My wife and I will have watched the Winslow Lady Bulldogs play in the Arizona State 3A Softball Tournament. Hopefully, we will be planning to stay and watch them play again on Friday and Saturday. We will all know if that is still possible by now.

This past week was one in which much of the responsibility for the sports page fell to my able colleague Crescent Buckles. She will likely have had to collect information and write anything that appears about the track teams. That is not an easy or simple task. She may have had to do some of the baseball coverage as well. That situation was still to be determined at this writing.

The sports activities for the 2003-2004 school year are either over or will be within the week. It has been a memorable time. Winslow High School has been in the hunt for a state championship in almost every sport in which it competes. The girlsÕ basketball team brought home their championship banner.

It has also been a difficult year to cover. I was diagnosed with Charcot foot (a diabetic condition) just before the state football play-offs began. The acquisition of the Bledsoe boot ended my driving and ended easy contact with coaches and other sources of information.

There are several people who deserve to be thanked publicly for their assistance. Loy Engelhardt of KINO Radio shared his basketball scorebooks and really made the reporting of that sport possible. That is true even though I did manage to attend some of the games here and in Phoenix. Also, Coach Don Petranovich was generous with his time when an interview was needed.

Coach Art Griffith has always been extremely helpful in providing information on the baseball team and athletics at the high school in general. It would be hard to imagine trying to cover baseball without a cooperative coach like Griffith.

Coach Matt Gracey was also very cooperative during WinslowÕs memorable and successful football season. It hurt to have to miss the play-off games, but Jerry and Dora Sullivan provided tapes of those games and, aside from already knowing the outcome, it was as good as being there.

Judy Prosser and Debbie Martinez were among several parents who provided the limited coverage we had of the wrestling season.

There are probably others who contributed and should not have been forgotten. At any rate, I would like to thank all who helped make my job easier.

The summer will present new challenges. Whether it is me or someone else at the paper, please feel free to contact us and share any sports information you think is important to be reported. Chances are you will be right and it will be appreciated. Our kids deserve good facilities for their sports activities, good people working with them and positive reports about them. Your help is needed and appreciated.

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