College Report
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Greetings College Report fans!
Before we get rolling with this week's College Report I have a few announcements concerning future college reports. Some people will be very happy by the announcements, some will be not so happy. There have been some drastic changes and we will start with the good ones first. This first part will read like a letter to the editor.
Paul Lambert, who some of you will remember from one year ago, will take over writing this column next week. While I will continue the administration duties, like fielding the emails from parents and getting the sponsors, Paul will handle the research and the writing of the column. The second good change is that the column will run every week for the next 18 printings of the Randolph County Herald Tribune. That should give very intense coverage to the winter (what is left of it) and spring athletes. At the end of the year, we will post senior articles. Every athlete from Randolph County that has completed their career during the 2008-09 school year will be featured in those articles during the summer.
People that had the opportunity to read Lambert's version of the College Report agree that he does a very good job. That being said, Lambert is a highly-educated, highly-experienced writer who has won awards for his sports writing. When he was employed in the western United States, he defeated writers from papers from papers with over 100,000 circulation for awards. The College Report, as well as any paper, would be lucky to have him as a part of his staff. His creativity and writing style make me look like a second-rate hack.
That also being said, Lambert does not come cheap, and last year I dipped into my profits from other papers to pay Lambert. I am doing so again this year. Therefore this simply can not continue. If things do not change, this will be the final year of the College Report in the Randolph County Herald Tribune.
I feel bad about using the newspaper to say what I am going to say, but it needs to be said. Today and for the rest of the year, we have five sponsors, thus far. Some of the sponsors have been with us the entire time and are very respectful of the athletes and know they work hard. They are also respectful of what the College Report is trying to accomplish. I can't thank these people enough.
Other people in the county simply don't care and have as much as said so. Every other paper, which employs us and has us get sponsors, pays us $100.00 per week through the various businesses. Randolph County is getting the column for $55 at this time. In other words, we need about another five sponsors to equal what we are getting from other territories.
We are continuing to attempt to get sponsors in Red Bud and Sparta. As soon as we accomplish that task, we will add their names to the list as well. We have also added another school and paper this year. The column will appear in the Steeleville Ledger and we will also cover the athletes from Trico High School that are now competing in college. We have been to Sparta and Red Bud, but not near enough. The high price of gasoline during the summer months prevented us from getting there as much as we would have liked.
Not having the athletes from Sparta or Red Bud will make the column short for a few weeks. Sparta has had some very successful teams in the last few years and they probably have the most athletes of any school in the county playing a sport. There are some basketball players from Red Bud suiting up and we would love to write about them. Red Bud was very supportive in the past. As for Sparta, the only sponsor we have had from their town was Moody Pharmacy. Dennis Moody was one of those people who read the column and loved it. He was a constant supporter and I even though I miss him, the people of Sparta miss him far more.
Some people will understand this rant and some people won't. To the college athletes, especially the fall athletes, I owe you a big apology. You are caught in the middle. Not only to the ones from the afore mentioned towns, but to the fall athletes who will not be featured at all this year other than their final season numbers. Hopefully, most will understand this is not meant to be a personal attack on any town, but it is simply business. I am selling and they simply are not buying.
In closing this part of the College Report, I want to assure everyone that no one but me, Daniel L. Chamness, made the afore mentioned decisions. No person that is a member of the staff at the Randolph County Herald Tribune, nor Lambert, had anything to do with the decision. If anyone wants to make any suggestions on sponsors or if anyone has any names to add to my list, please e-mail them to Dan62801@aol.com. When e-mailing a name of an athlete, I will need the name of the athlete, the former high school, the college/university they are attending and of course, the sport they are playing.
I want to welcome a new high school and a new paper. The column will now run in the Steeleville Ledger as well as the Randolph County Herald Tribune. In addition, we have picked up Trico High School as a coverage area. If we get rolling to full capacity, we will be covering athletes from five high schools. ...
Speaking of business, lets get to it. ...
Steeleville grad Tyler Tiemann, a Webster University senior, is averaging 3.1 points and 1.3 rebounds per game this year. Besides his 43 points and 18 rebounds, Tiemann also has six assists and five steals. He has 16 field goals (six treys) and five free throws. Webster won their third consecutive game on January 14, beating Maryville University 84-76. Tiemann finished with two points in 10 minutes of play. Webster is 6-8 overall and 3-3 in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. ...
Steeleville grad Joshua Uchtman, a Southeast Missouri State University sophomore, placed in the top 10 in two events at the SASF Invitational, which was hosted by Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. Uchtman finished fourth in the shot put with a toss of 50 feet, eight inches. He also took seventh in the weight throw (53-6.25). Team scores were not kept. ...
Chester grad Juli Koenegstein, a SEMO senior, has yet to compete in an indoor track meet during her senior season. We will try to find out her status in the next few weeks.