Sports Reporter at The Villages Daily Sun in Florida

My first thought when reading that quickly: Just because maumann is a felon they required police to be there when he attended?

 

Guess his reputation preceded him ...

 

There was one point when the Trumpist was blathering on about some $4,200 conspiracy involving the board not paying yearly dues that I was tempted to stand up and yell, "If you don't shut up, I'll gladly spend more time in the county jail if it means knocking you on your entitled white supremacist ass!"

 

And I'm actually staying at a hotel in The Villages tonight, awaiting purchase of a fifth wheel trailer for our winter RV park space. Haven't been accosted by any people of MAGA but I need to get to Walgreens and the day is early. Wish me luck!

 

Yep, if you thought you'd be writing briefs about pickleball at The Villages ...

 

1. You can apparently write columns about anything, based on this one on the 0-2 Denver Broncos.
2. Not fond of the pea green section design, but hey, it's Florida.
3. A full page of golf, full page of agate. It's like 1990 called.

 

WHY ISN'T THIS A1!?!?!!!!1!!!???

 

Checking out the Sun's web page, I spotted an interesting article about a former county commissioner being convicted of felony perjury for lying about accusations that he violated the state open meetings law. Under the statute, two commissioners cannot speak to each other about county business outside of a meeting. Prosecution used phone records as circumstantial evidence that they did so, depite the defentant's claim that the conversations did not have anything to do with government. The former commissioner was taken away in handcuffs after the jury verdict.

Here's a take on the case that's an alternate view to coverage by The Sun. https://theintercept.com/2023/02/05/ron-desantis-florida-villages-oren-miller/

 

Just want to provide some context here, if I may:

Overall, our goal for the sports section is to combine hyperlocal community journalism (yes, such as pickleball briefs) with a section that provides enough of a national picture to meet the demands of a very transient population (yes, such as a column on the Denver Broncos). The weights of either side of that scale tip differently on different days, but that's the balance we are trying to hit.

While there is a competitive local sports scene here, we do aim to capture the "slice of life" of Villages recreation, much of which is the reason people moved to The Villages in the first place. So we do expand some of our sports coverage into a more feature-based realm to try and reflect that spirit. We also do cover local tournaments, competitions and quite a bit of the local high school sports scene.

As for the national coverage, virtually nobody who lives in The Villages grew up near The Villages — and most not in Florida at all. They came here from New England, the Midwest, the Mid-Atlantic, etc. When they move here, they don't give up their team allegiances in favor of Florida teams (usually), so that's another balance we are trying to hit: Provide everything they are looking for about their favorite teams, while also providing enough focus on Florida teams. But all of that is wire coverage.

As for golf: There are more holes of golf here (over 800) than anywhere else in the world, so we do put emphasis on that.

 

Sounds like what all of us who have worked at locally-oriented papers have or are doing, looking for that perfect balance.
And, a shoutout to Nick for being such a good sport when it comes to our inquiries about pickleball, etc. Hell, this paper may have been ahead of the curve on that sport, the way its grown the last few years.

 

I'm a company man if nothing else!

 

I certainly agree that pickleball briefs and golf should be staples of this sports section, but that does not excuse such a poorly written story as the one posted here. Was it written by a sixth grader?