The Story Behind the Score

When I was in high school I enjoyed a multitude of extracurricular activities, some sanctioned by the school and others created by my own girl-obsessed brain. Along with yearbook staff, guitar club, drama club and art club memberships, I also found time to participate in high school sports.

Like many ex-jocks remembering their “glory days” of high school, a few moments stand out. I guess the low point of my athletic career would have to be fouling out of a basketball game at the Marietta Johnson School of Organic Education in Alabama…in the first half! Evidently my tenacious “D” was a little too tenacious for the refs that day.

Bill Cain (left), seen here with High Country Media cohorts Frank Ruggiero and Jason Reagan at last year’s July 4th parade in Boone, will be relocating to New York this summer after spending the past few years covering Watauga High School sports. Photo by Jeff Eason

My moment of glory came later that same season. An atrocious free throw shooter who was often asked by the coach to practice at the foul after everyone else had left the gym, I was playing late in a game for my team, the Organic Cardinals. We were beating the stuffing out of some team (Bayside Academy perhaps?) when I stole the ball seconds before the end of the game. Before I could race in for a lay-up, I was fouled. I went to the free throw line and made the first shot. The crowd went wild. I assumed it was because they knew I was the worst free throw shooter on the team. I swished the second shot and the crowd roared. I knew my reputation as a shooter wasn’t the best in the world but their reaction bordered on sarcasm.

Well, it turns out the crowd was cheering because our team had 98 points when I was fouled at the end of the game. Organic hadn’t reached the 100-point mark in over a decade until my free throws went in. Fortunately, I had no clue as to the score when I stepped to the foul line. Otherwise I would have clanked a couple of bricks off the rim.

My heroics that night earned a line or two in the story about the game in the Fairhope newspaper, The Eastern Shore Courier. To be a teenager and have your name in the newspaper (not crime related), is a thrill that I hope every kid experiences at least once.

One guy around our office at High Country Media goes out several times a week to make that thrill happen. His name is Bill Cain and he covers high school sports for The Watauga Democrat. Last weekend Bill drove down to Raleigh to cover the North Carolina High School 4-A Track and Field Championships. There he witnessed Watauga High School senior Sallie Gurganus win her third outdoor pole vault championship (fifth overall), reclaiming her state record from Ragsdale’s Caitlin Thornley with a remarkable 12’ 1” vault. Cain also reported on how the other WHS pole vaulters fared at the state meet as Julie Ward finished fifth and Taylor Cook finished eighth among the women and Macey Ruble finished fifth among the men.

After taking photos at the track meet’s award ceremony, Cain drove back to Boone for the end of Watauga’s playoff soccer game against Providence. The Lady Pioneers came up short and lost 2-0, thereby ending a very successful season with 15 wins, 6 losses and 3 ties. Not being able to attend the entire game, Cain had Watauga Democrat Sports Editor Steve Behr cover the match and write the official version of the event for the newspaper.

Cain takes high school sports seriously and writes about it with a flair usually reserved for reporters covering professional sporting events. He is fair—when the home team messes up, he’ll tell you about it—and he’s not afraid of a little controversy. He fills his stories with pertinent quotes from both players and coaches in order to let the participants tell their story in their own words. He’s also a better than average sports photographer whose shot of WHS pole vaulter Julie Ward clearing the bar at the state meet was a classic in Monday’s Democrat.

Why am I heaping all this praise on Bill Cain, you might ask? Well, it’s because Cain will be leaving the Democrat in the middle of June to return to his home state of New York. His work covering Watauga High School sports speaks for itself, but he will also be missed as an all around good guy around the office. I think I speak for everyone at High Country Media when I wish Bill the best.

Covering high school sports is an important function of a community newspaper and this area has been lucky to have sports writers the caliber of Cain and Behr working to deliver the story behind the score. Here’s hoping that High Country Media successfully finds a worthy replacement to fill Cain’s spot on the sideline.