Gazette Closure Leaves Hole In Sports Coverage

By Ryan Deal ’16

For nearly 60 years, The Gazette, the notable Montgomery County-specialized publication, has covered high school sports with a watchful eye, hiring beat reporters and columnists to cover games of all sports over the course of a season. With All-Gazette honors and in-depth articles, The Gazette provided a venue for the student athletes to be recognized at the next level. However, that venue, which had been available for so long was slammed shut this summer as The Gazette ceased publication.

The Gazette’s final issue ran in June, thus signaling the end of the paper’s presence in Montgomery County. The financial constraints suffocated the publication in recent years, making it harder and harder for the publication to continually distribute news in a cost effective way. One of the consequences of the ceasing publication is that the extensive coverage of high school sports by local reporters is all but removed, dimming the spotlight on some of the county’s finest athletes.

“I was heartbroken when I found out [about the cessation],” said the girls’ lacrosse Coach Kelly Hughes, “We knew the reporters by name. I was able to check the local scores that mattered to me. They ran special interest pieces about any athlete, no matter how their team was doing that season. I really feel for the athletes who deserve to be recognized.”

Disappointment was a shared trait among all coaches residents in Montgomery County. With a large portion of local sports coverage now going into the hands of Washington Post reporters, many coaches who do not lead major, private-school programs fear that their team performance may get lost in the shuffle.

“It is very difficult for the Washington Post to cover so many MCPS athletic teams and thus many student athletes and teams lose the recognition they deserve,” said girls’ soccer Coach Danielle Rosanova. “Typically, only the powerhouse programs receive coverage from the Post and that leaves out the majority of schools and players who are performing well, but may not grab headlines.” Such an occurrence may become a very real situation for many of the county’s top programs, because now they must compete with players all around the state for recognition, not just players from their own county.

Recognition is certainly something that student-athletes worry about as they may look to make a name for themselves on the field as they graduate and head to the next level of their careers. For such athletes, the loss of The Gazette is a massive blow. However, other resources have emerged in the past years that may give such athletes some much needed exposure. Hudl, an online video-editing website, has been launched into the mainstream in recent years, allowing athletes to sort through game film uploaded by coaches and make highlight tapes from their best plays. The site has become so popular to the extent that a high school student may find it difficult to scroll down their Twitter feed on a given day and not find some sort of link to a fellow student’s tape. Often times, such tapes will catch the attention of college coaches, where, as athletes know, opportunities can begin pouring in.

The closing of The Gazette not only ends an era, but creates a void in the recruiting game. Tactics used to get recognition will surely change in the future, but no longer will a player be able to put “All-Gazette” team on their resume.