Alex Valentine (the sports editor at the Times-News) and I co-authored a beast of a feature on local high school dynasties. I won’t waste your time reading this intro. Read the actual story instead!

5 pillars of Idaho’s high school sports dynasties

With Father’s Day approaching, I set out to write a feature on at least one local father who coached his child/children. Derrik Brinkman, the head softball coach at Buhl High School, immediately stood out because he coached his twin daughters.

Until I began reporting, I didn’t realize how complicated his story was. Coaching his daughters was a small part of his parenting duties.

Double-play dad: Derrik Brinkman reflects on coaching family

Idaho horse racing took a big hit in 2015. In June, I explored the struggling industry from a local perspective.

Horse racing returns to Jerome amidst uncertain future

You don’t have to cover sports very long to feel a sense of repetition. I don’t mean this cynically, it’s just reality. Games ranging from meaningless regular season contests to state championship matchups hit similar beats. Luckily, the athletes and the circumstances change so much each season that it’s never hard to find a new angle.

That was especially true in late May, when the Twin Falls High School baseball team won the 4A state championship. They weren’t merely a good team that pulled through in high leverage situations. They were playing for a former teammate who died the previous year.

Here’s my gamer from that state championship win: Bruins storm past Tigers for emotional state championship

This was one of my favorite features to write, and, at around 2,500 words, is easily the longest I’ve written in my career. This story — about Idaho’s new pitch count rules — is catered to die-hard baseball fans. But this biased narrator argues that there’s enough interesting information and anecdotes to grab any reader.

Idaho’s counting era: No-hitters take back seat to pitcher health

UDPATE (September 3, 2017): I wrote a follow-up story about pitch counts after Idaho finished its first high school season(s) with the new rules in place:

Pitch counts have already changed Idaho prep baseball, but injuries persist

One of my first features with the Twin Falls Times-News, where I began working in March, was about a father and son: Brian and Jack Darcy. Not only did they help the Gooding High School boys basketball team end a long state tournament drought; they made a cool connection between their careers.

Here is the link to that feature: Brian and Jack Darcy created symmetry in Gooding’s drought-ending season