Beginnings
Sometimes change is needed in life.
Throughout the fall athletics preps season, I’ve always wanted to see what it would be like to cover the San Gabriel Valley and Whittier area without the prism of a deadline of a budgeted space in a newspaper. In many of the interviews that I have done, I can’t tell you how much stuff I’ve left on the “cutting room floor” because of space limitations.
Well, it’s time to get out of my comfort zone.
Starting this week, I am beginning a new high school sports newsletter (done through the platform of substack.com) called the SGV/Whittier Preps Sports Zone. It will be all about preps in the Whitter area and the San Gabriel Valley.
The mission is simple, to give the coaches, players, and parents a voice and tell their stories. And we are going to do with the same passion that you saw when I worked with Fred Robledo for the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group (SGVN).
Every morning, you’ll be getting a newsletter from me that will focus on everything that has to do with preps in the San Gabriel Valley and the Whittier area. You might ask “Are you going to change anything that you did at the Trib?”
The answer is NO! Those popular roundups that I did in the winter and spring will still be the same, except you’ll get them in your email box in the morning. How about notebooks of in-season sports? Yup, you’ll be getting notebooks delivered to your email box and available on Substack.
Boys and girls basketball, boys and girls wrestling, girls water polo, and boys and girls soccer notebooks will be delivered weekly starting this week. And since we are not constrained by space limitations, look for these notebooks to be the most comprehensive in the area.
What about podcasts? We got that covered too. Each week, we’ll have a new episode of the SGV/Whittier HS Sports Zone podcast. We’ll sit down with coaches, players, parents, experts in different areas of expertise and allow them to them their stories unfiltered. No one has ever done that before – until now.
What about football season? We have you covered as well. During the offseason, we’ll have bi-weekly editions of the “Monday Morning Quarterback” as well as weekly editions during the season. We’ll have a preseason football e-book preview that will look at each of the teams in the area.
That’s right! Every single team.
We’ll have more about this project in the spring. We’ll also preview the games of the week and other top matchups.
What about the business side of the CIF Southern Section? We have you covered there as well. I’ve been covering the business side of the section for three years and that will not stop with this new venture. I’ll be at all the CIF Southern Section Council Meetings covering “the other side” of education-based high school athletics.
The great thing about the newsletter for the winter and the spring is that it will be for free. All you have to do is sign up with an email address and that’s it. You are off and running. We’ll start charging in the fall for selected items, but let’s tackle that road when it comes.
You might be asking if I am going to compete with my former boss Fred Robledo. The answer is yes – to a certain extent. Freddy is one of my closest friends and nothing will ever get between us.
The Tribune/Star-News/Whittier Daily News should be a required stop if you are looking for game stories and photography from award-winning photographers such as Keith Birmingham. You need to support local journalism. Without it, our community does not remain strong and vibrant.
There should also be room for independent journalism that looks beyond the box score. That is where we come in.
So many of you have been a tremendous help when I covered games at SGVN and you showed it with paid subscriptions. In this new venture, I will work twice as hard to earn your trust. Don’t worry - my presence in social media will be stronger now than ever before.
The only thing I ask of coaches is please send me (along with Fred – you know his email address) your results from your games. You can send them to me at james_escarcega@outlook.com, or tag me on Twitter @James_Escarcega or post them on MaxPreps.com.
The more you send your results with the top performers, the more you players will appreciate it.
We want to be your trusted voice for coverage of high school sports in the San Gabriel Valley. I will be at more games now than ever before. Consistency will be the hallmark of this project. I’m ready – are you ready?
LET’S GO!!!
James Escarcega