It’s almost hard to believe, but it’s that time of year again.
High school football season is upon us, which means The Covington News sports team has the privilege of bringing you the second edition of the county’s most comprehensive football primer in magazine form.
It was one of the greatest thrills of my sportswriting career to be able to bring last year’s magazine to you. A 40-page, first-of-its-kind sports publication in Newton County, it helped us raise the bar for how local sports are covered around here.
Well, they say it’s hard to beat first impressions, but we certainly gave it a shot this year, as the 2018 Football Preview magazine has, in our humble opinion, gotten bigger and better.
This year, we’ve added 20 more pages of photos, features and the kind of content that you’ll be hard pressed to find anywhere else in order to get you prepared for the comprehensive football season.
No other publication puts as many resources, as much manpower and as much time and energy into exclusively covering the Newton County area as The Covington Newsand our CovNewsSports squad. And we’re grateful to bring it to you.
Why do we do it? Why do we work the long hours and do what we can to push the envelope on the coverage we offer? Because of you, our readers, parents, coaches, athletes and fans, not to mention the community businesses who are kind enough to believe in our products by advertising with us.
Without you, there’d be no us. And we thank you.
I’d also like to thank my team: sportswriters Tyler Williams and Matthew Grimes, photographers Anthony Banks, Sydney Chacon and Jason Mussell and graphic artist/page designer Brain Worton.
Special thanks to our leadership. David Clemons, who served as our editor and publisher for 11 months before moving to our sister paper in Walton County and our newly appointed editor and publisher Jackie Gutknecht. Without their belief in our vision to provide big sports coverage in a “small market,” we couldn’t do what we do.
And last but certainly not least, I need to give a HUGE shoutout to our ad sales staff: Cynthia Blackshear-Warren, Susan Grajko and Sydney Chacon. Without their excellence in selling our product, we'd not even have a magazine to provide you. Also special thanks to Amanda Ellington who works tirelessly as our circulation director.
These ladies are the backbone behind our operations, and without them, The Covington News as a whole would cease to exist.
It’s my hope that you’ll not only enjoy this year’s magazine, but also the expanded football coverage we’ll provide this year from middle school to local colleges.
Make sure you’re following us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at @CovNewsSports to stay connected to all the awesomeness this season will bring. We’ll see you at Sharp Stadium August 17!
Gabriel Stovall is the sports editor of The Covington News. He can be reached for tips and story ideas at gstovall@covnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @GabrielStovall1.
