Live Oak — While thousands of sports writers from across the country converged in Hoover, Alabama to cover the annual SEC Media Days, a few us were in Gainesville to meet area high school football coaches in the Third Annual Gainesville Sun Media Days.

From Bronson to Live Oak, coaches from approximately 36 schools in the Gainesville Sun coverage area were invited to attend and speak to the media about their programs.

The event is typically used as a way for Sun sportswriters to gather all the coaches and players in the area in their own house and help them generate stories and photos on file. Having been friends with the Sun writers and a correspondent for the newspaper, I was one of two journalists allowed in as an exception.

Every school brings their head coach and a few players, some of which are handpicked by the Sun and some by their coaches.

Starting Wednesday morning, schools make the walk upstairs and into a conference room waiting their turn to talk to the media. Usually two schools each hour come in giving the interviewee plenty of time to talk to the coach and 4-5 players from each team.

You can see the information that I gathered covering the event in the upcoming football preview.

The problem, though, is who wasn’t invited.

Willie Spears was there with Tre Robinson, Andre Zanders, Greg Swinson and Alex Falleck. Lafayette’s Joey Pearson was there with Antwan Brown, Andre Hall, Josh Lira and David Carson.

Branford was unable to attend due to a schedule conflict as they were attending an FCA camp but rescheduled with the Sun for this Thursday. Bill Wiles is scheduled to bring Max Lambert (Sr., OL/DL), Kyle Certain (Sr., RB/OLBDL), and David Bass (Sr., WB/DB).    



Notice a school I didn’t mention, Hamilton County.

Turns out Hamilton County wasn’t invited because they are no longer in the Sun’s coverage area now along with Palatka. Hamilton was phased out last school year while Palatka was invited last year but not this year.

Which means Hamilton not only won’t be covered in the Sun unless they play another team inside the Sun’s coverage area, but they won’t be eligible for any of the All-Area teams.

So perhaps its fate, then that I emailed my editor out of the blue one day asking  him if he needed any help with sports coverage for the Suwannee Democrat, Jasper News and Mayo Free Press.  That email led to me getting hired full time to cover all three papers and Suwannee, Branford, Lafayette and Hamilton.  

Not to toot my own horn, but without me Hamilton County doesn’t get any coverage.    

If you noticed in the spring I debuted my own All-Area teams which will carry over into the fall, winter and spring.

No one should be left out, all four schools plus Melody Christian (in some sports) will be mentioned.