There are no sports pages in this week’s paper, but we didn’t give up on sports. In fact, we’re giving it higher priority than we ever have.
Tomorrow marks an exciting new beginning for The Citizen Newspapers as we launch The Citizen Sports Weekly, a full-color tabloid-sized newspaper focusing on sports and recreation in Fayette and Coweta counties — every week, not once a month.
The goal for this publication is to be the most comprehensive, timely sports publication about Fayette and Coweta County for its residents. It is going to be loaded with high school sports, but we will not turn a blind eye to the number of other athletes that populate our streets, cart paths, golf courses, athletic fields and also play on the world’s largest stages in college and professionally.
That’s right, I’m already making a push to get to the Olympics this summer to cover Kelley O’Hara (Starr’s Mill graduate) and the U.S. women’s soccer team and Christian Taylor (Sandy Creek graduate) as he goes for gold in the Triple Jump. One of you readers out there has to know somebody at Delta.
But I digress.
The Citizen Sports Weekly frees us from the trappings of two half pages of space to cover what is well over 100 area high school teams playing sports in the spring. With a little more space, a renewed focus and a push for more involvement from coaches, boosters and parents of local players, this publication has the potential to be something very special. I’m excited to build it and I hope thousands of readers come along with me as it evolves.
And you don’t have to wait until every Thursday to get your sports news, visit our sports website at www.thecitizensports.com for the latest sports news and follow us on Twitter @citizensport where you can get updates from games that we are at and also find links to stories as they are posted.
Where can you find The Citizen Sports Weekly? There will be copies around the area at Kroger supermarkets as well as participating area businesses and all Citizen newspaper boxes.
There are 15 weeks of spring athletics to be covered with a hefty dose of state basketball playoffs (we hope).
In addition to track and field and golf, there will also be stories each week on tennis, lacrosse, soccer and baseball, as well as anything recreationally that is going on and anything that can fall under the category of sports. That may be boxing or mixed martial arts or it may be auto racing and bull riding.
If you’ve got a good story idea, send me an email at sports@thecitizen.com. That’s also where you can send me photos you’ve taken or stats if you just happen to be the student, coach or parent who keeps the books for your favorite team.
And read about your team or your sport every week in The Citizen Sports Weekly.
