How we report on the achievements of high school athletes

Dear D&C Subscribers -- 

In Greater Rochester, one can mark the passage of time by the seasons, or by holidays or by personal milestones like family birthdays.

Or, as so many sports families and community loyalists do, one can mark the passage of time by the passage of high school sports seasons.

An exciting, action-filled autumn high school sports season drew to a close recently. Look in the near future for the D&C's All-Greater Rochester teams spotlighting top girls and boys athletes in multiple fall sports.

For our sportswriters, including James Johnson, Marquel Slaughter and Bob Chavez, great attention has been paid in recent weeks to setting the stage for the just-starting winter high school sports season.

One thing we've learned here in the digital age of news is that online readers -- many of them parents or grandparents or neighbors of high school athletes -- like to see highlighted news of achievement by girls and boys individual athletes and team members.

Before each season now, as a result of that interest, our sportswriters do considerable research to deliver "players to watch" articles.

Cases in point: Slaughter's and Johnson's recent article on "71 boys basketball standouts who aim to lead their team to titles: AGR preseason watchlist" and Chavez's recent article on "38 Section V hockey players on the AGR preseason watch list."

Such articles receive considerable readership from our subscribers and each year generate new digital subscribers. They serve to highlight achievement and set the stage for the upcoming season. Similar articles were done before the autumn season such as this watchlist highlighting Section V female swimmers.

A huge shoutout to D&C News Director Scott Norris, who works closely with our sports reporting team to develop and then deliver the "playbook" for covering each high school sports season. Norris ensures we're serving our subscribers preseason, early in the season, midseason, late season, at playoff time and then of course through postseason All-Greater Rochester honors.

Certainly, for our communities, for local athletes and for you our loyal subscribers, an effective way to mark the passage of time. We hope you enjoy the coverage all through the school year.

Each week, usually on Sunday evenings, we'll email you highlights of our reporting and videography created exclusively for our subscribers. And we'll share with you some "behind-the-scenes" tidbits on how such journalism comes to be.

Below are some other stories written only for our subscribers you may have missed this month.Thank you for your continuing support of local news in Rochester. We’re greatly appreciative.

Sincerely,

Michael KilianExecutive Editor