Its year No. 49 covering high school sports for

It’s year No. 49 covering high school sports in Southern California. Let me let you know how it began.

Cut from the Madison Junior High basketball workforce, I found writing for the school newspaper provided more energy and affect than sitting on a bench. Everyone likes to see their title talked about, so now I knew I had a big accountability going ahead.

It was the time of Watergate and new heroes such as journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncovering corruption at the very best degree, inspiring future journalists. While attending Poly High in Sun Valley, Pete Kokon, the sports editor of the San Fernando Sun, provided to pay me $15 a week to write a story about high school sports. It was the first lesson of a sportswriter — don’t fear about the money, bask in the highlight of having your title seem in a byline.

Kokon was the most entertaining character I’ve ever met. He owned an condominium building in Sherman Oaks and lived in his “penthouse,” which consisted of coming into a screen door that was never locked and seeing a small room on the top flooring. He’d go away his keys in his unlocked car under a mat. He used to cuss out Ronald Reagan whenever his title was talked about. He taught me how to guess at the race monitor, saying, “Give me a dollar,” before going to the window to place a $2 guess.

He taught me how to play golf, inviting me to Woodland Hills Country Club and shouting out his membership ID quantity to pay for every part from food to shirts to drinks. He’d write all his tales on an historic Royal typewriter. He smoked cigars and once was a boxing promoter. Two of his best buddies have been Hall of Famers Don Drysdale and Bob Waterfield, fellow Van Nuys High graduates. Everyone knew him, appreciated him and feared him whenever he acquired offended.

Pete Kokon lined high school sports in the San Fernando Valley for more than 60 years.

(Valley Times)

For more than 60 years, he lined high school sports. I never thought I’d problem his file. But after turning into a stringer for the Daily News in 1976 and being employed full time in 1980 after turning down the job of sports data director at Cal State Northridge, I discovered there was a need to cowl local sports and it turned my ardour to make a distinction. Yes, I’ve lined the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the 1984 Olympic Games, the World Series, the Rose Bowl, the Breeders’ Cup, the Little League World Series, but nothing has offered more satisfaction than telling the tales of youngsters rising up in the face of adversity or overcoming doubts from friends to succeed.

There have been robust tales through the years. I’ll never neglect staying awake until 11:30 p.m. to see the lead story on ESPN SportsCenter detailing potential NCAA rule violations by the University of Kentucky after a bundle despatched to a high school basketball star in Los Angeles had money inside. That was a story helped by others at the Daily News.

I’ve always handled high school sports as different than school or professionals. These are youngsters, with criticism of coaches and athletes largely off limits. But instances are altering. Players are getting paid. Coaches are participating in moral lapses. It’s a growing problem. I’ll continue to respect the custom of high school sports being about having enjoyable but insist on guidelines being adopted.

Eric Sondheimer interviews Corona Centennial’s Eric Freeny at the end of the state championship in Sacramento in March 2022. Freeny is now a freshman at UCLA.

(Nick Koza)

There are so many tales of coaches getting mad. Sometimes it takes time for them to perceive I’m just attempting to do my job as a honest, devoted journalist who understands my tasks and remembers my position.

Let me give an instance. At one level years in the past, Sylmar basketball coach Bort Escorto stopped reporting scores. Maybe it had one thing to do with writing about transfers. Maybe not. But today, he always solutions my calls, “I didn’t do it.”

You know you’ve gained any argument when somebody claims your bias for one school over another. That used to be the weekly debate years in the past among Crespi and Notre Dame followers. Signs have been made, barbs have been shouted. It made me giggle. Now it’s about sharing selfies.

What retains me coming back every season are the many new tales to inform. No space has a bigger, more various assortment of top athletes from a selection of sports than Southern California.

Eric Sondheimer interviews sophomore Tajh Ariza after a basketball recreation in 2022.

(Nick Koza)

There was a time more than a year in the past that I acquired annoyed with the negativity going on in the world. I needed to do one thing to change my perspective. That’s when I vowed to write one thing constructive every day about high school sports. Prep Talk was created to help inspire me and hopefully others that a constructive message can break through in an period of social media nonsense.

To the readers through the years, you’ve helped me keep employed and keep devoted to telling tales that resonate around the Southland. Newspapers are in bother, but I can only control what I can control, so thanks for being loyal clients at a time of upheaval.

Eric Sondheimer interviews coach Ed Azzam of Westchester in 2020.

(Nick Koza)

Through the years as technology modified, I’ve tailored, such as sprinting from video games to discover a rotary phone in a locked P.E. workplace or driving to a telephone sales space to call in a story under deadline stress. I’ve climbed fences after being locked in as the last individual in a stadium. I’ve sat on a gymnasium flooring in darkness writing a story. One evening at Bishop Alemany, I misplaced my cellphone on the soccer discipline. I used to be prepared to throw up in embarrassment. The athletic director, Randy Thompson, discovered it. My story was saved. I’ve discovered to take videos and shoot pictures and converse in entrance of audiences (thanks to speech class 101 at CSUN).

Today’s world for high school sports reporters is about not getting kicked out by security after video games when everybody has left and staying calm when security doesn’t need to allow you to in before video games or on a sideline with a press move to do your job. Common sense is disappearing in the title of following orders.

I already have gold passes from the Southern Section and City Section, which implies if I step away, I’ll still give you the option to attend occasions.

When and how this ends has yet to be determined. Pete Kokon died at age 85 in 1998 when he was discovered with his TV on and the channel tuned to ESPN in his penthouse condominium.

As long as a degree of professionalism stays among stakeholders, I’ll continue to do my best to inform tales. My job is about serving the public, not myself, and that will likely be my mission without end.