Note: I have this blog that I pay money for, I may as well start to use it more often. – Cody

I don’t shy away from telling everyone what my ultimate professional goal is. The desk is about 8 feet from mine.

Getting to the daily newspaper sports editorship will take time, and will take different roles perhaps elsewhere. I like to think that there are advancement paths carved out for me with my current job. Right now, I get to experience the organization of content for the sports section of one of SVM’s weekly publications: Prairie Advocate.

Technically, I am the “sports guy” for PA, having replaced the long-time “sports guy” who retired in October. It is not a sports editorship-like “command” as I do not lay out the pages or do any additional behind-the-scenes newspaper legwork. However, just between us, I like to think of it as my first sports “charge” role. Thus, I take a lot of pride in what I do for this free weekly publication.

You can find print editions of Prairie Advocate at news stands throughout Carroll County, Fulton and Morrison. The sports section usually starts out with a few sports briefs, and then includes whatever Sauk Valley Media coverage of our area teams we have. My main duties are to write the sports briefs, put together the sports calendars, and update the Carroll County Youth Baseball scores and standings during the summer. Every now and then, I’ll chip in a column about the area’s sports.

Prairie Advocate covers some schools that aren’t in Sauk Valley Media’s coverage area, such as Lena-Winslow, Pearl City and Stockton. So there is some work on my end to include news and things from those three schools in the mix.

This most recent edition (Wednesday, June 13) include sports highlights and a news story about the Best Burger in Carroll County – as determined by a Carroll County Farm Bureau poll. I even tested out my photo skills, going to a little league came in Mt. Carroll. I used my phone; everyone else in the newspaper world used these nice cameras I can’t quite afford yet.

So far it’s given me some of the experience I need to operate a sports section well. I hope to continue to do that for a while.