Happy Monday, and welcome to the Legacy Library Newsletter.
For the unfamiliar, I live in Boynton Beach, Fla. Maybe an hour and change north of Miami. I’m a stone’s throw from Boynton Beach High School, which is Lamar Jackson’s alma mater, and within 10 minutes of at least two other high schools.
This week, most of those schools will be kicking off preseason football camp. College football training camps aren’t too far off, either. But based on how local news outlets handle non-sports news, do you really expect them to show up at your favorite team’s workouts?
In less than 48 hours from Thursday afternoon through Saturday morning, the following events happened within a 5-minute walk of my apartment.
- A major road was closed following an accident;
- Another accident on that exact same road the next day involving someone who was driving in the wrong direction and got pulled over;
- Nearly 15 Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office and Boynton Beach Police Department SUVs gathered in a shopping center, over half of which had their lights on. And this was at 7 a.m. on a Saturday morning!
And do you think any of those stories got coverage? All we got was essentially a press release about how the road was closed. But never anything about when the road would reopen!
There was also allegedly a car chase that ended in the parking lot of a medical facility and resulted in someone getting tased. Boy, if only there was a local newspaper or TV station to confirm that story!
Picking on the local media is easy, and sometimes even unfair. That doesn’t change the point that this is a problem nationwide. Our communities aren’t being covered, and why? Are we just waiting on press releases and people to do the work for us?
There’s a sense of responsibility that is supposed to come with being a journalist, and it’s why I don’t consider myself one anymore. It’s not even about clicks, either. It’s about the bare minimum. Where are the TV stations and newspapers to provide meaningful updates on what’s going on around us?
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Correct me if I’m wrong, please, because I can only speak for Palm Beach and Broward counties. But where’s the emotional investment in the community from the local news outlets? It’s right in the name. Local. Telling me what the weather is shouldn’t be enough to call it a day.
I’m not talking Legacy Library up just to make myself sound important. We’ve connected with student-athletes in double-digit states in less than a month of operations. We’ve built — and in some cases, rekindled — relationships with high schools and universities at all levels.
Why? Because community must matter. The whole tagline of Legacy Library is that “everyone has a story worth telling.” And if local news has no interest in telling those stories, then someone needs to. Otherwise, who wins? Other than those who cash their check every Friday?
So when your favorite high school’s soccer team gets maybe a one-paragraph mention in the newspaper for the entire month of August, Legacy Library will be speaking with the rising star junior goalie and the senior midfielder who leads by example.
When a freelancer posts a college football season preview riddled with inaccuracies, I’ll be writing features platforming the breakout candidates, and why they think they’ll succeed.
And when the TV station gets someone’s name wrong, I’m asking for the preferred pronunciation.
Legacy Library is here to stay. So please subscribe. We’re serious about everything that we intend to do here.
I had the opportunity to speak with athletes at the college and high school levels about what scholarship offers mean to them. Thank you to all of those involved, and we’ll keep you posted on their journeys this season.
I won’t spoil everything, but here’s a preview of what’s to come this week:
- A high school receiver explains why he’s become picky about the camps that he attends.
- I’ll be at Spanish River High School (Boca Raton, Fla.) for some preseason coverage.
- Former FAU running back Gerald Hearns joins us on the Legacy Library Podcast.
Congrats to former FAU linebacker Chase Lasater on winning his first MMA fight.
Lasater played at FAU from 2017-21 and became the starting middle linebacker during the shortened 2020 COVID year. He had 95 tackles, including 12 for a loss, and forced two fumbles over that 20-game stretch.
On that note, I’ll talk to you guys on Wednesday. Have a great week.
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