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I’m a little late linking to this article by Todd Beckmann in the Sentinel which is basically a collage of thoughts from area high school coaches about the former editor of the Burnett County Sentinel, Byron Higgin.

Here is the link.

If you knew Byron at all you would know he had a deep affinity for sports. One glance into his office would give that away. Homer Hankies, bobble head dolls, baseball cards and other memorabilia adorned his workspace at the Sentinel.

He always had time to talk about sports, especially local. He loves it and he loved covering it.

It was a nice night for the Pirate boys. Not great, just nice. The Pirates won the game by 11, 55-44 and stayed unbeaten on the year raising their record to 6-0. They were led in scoring by Tyler Myers whom I had down for 18 points. I was also impressed by the Trent Bonneville/Jason Jensen duo defensively and rebounding-wise.

Bonneville, who had scored at least twenty in the past two games was pretty much shut out offensively the entire game, he maybe had four points which was mainly due to the defensive scheme of the Pine City Dragons. The Dragons played a good portion of the night in a 2-3 defense which is meant to shut down the opponent’s inside game.

Grantsburg was relegated to jump shots, and they didn’t make a lot of them, especially in the first half. They were 11-32 from the floor in the first half mainly due to having to shoot from the outside and they came out cold. That changed a bit in the second half when they started canning some of those jumpers they missed in the first.

This was the first time I had seen the Pirates this year and they looked like they really knew what they were doing and they played very well together. Coach Danny Judd rotated eight players in the entire night and all played well, including Thane Larson who was, at least for me, a pleasant surprise coming off the bench canning a couple threes early in the second half and giving Grantsburg a nice lead.

Grantsburg has some good shooters, a good inside presence, and an aggressive defense. I also believe they can play a little better than they did tonight. The game tonight could’ve been a 20+ point win had they come out hot in the first half.

NOTES:

Did anyone notice the night and day difference between the roads in Minnesota compared to Wisconsin? It was like driving on a skating rink and then once you crossed the bridge it was like Lightning McQueen had just finished paving the new road! I could not believe the difference.

I interviewed Byron Higgin during halftime of the game and he seemed very upbeat about his situation of being let go at the Sentinel last week. It must have been an adjustment sitting in the stands just enjoying a game without thinking about story lines or deadlines.

Tonight was my last broadcast of the year. There will be more programming on WXCX, but I won’t be back behind the mic until Grantsburg plays Webster on January 6th.

We’re heading to Iowa tomorrow to celebrate Christmas with Renae’s family. I’m so excited to drive through a blizzard.

I would appreciate prayers for my family, especially my dad, who lost his brother today. I found out about my uncle’s death about half an hour before the broadcast. I was not close to my uncle mainly because of proximity, but it is still a bit stunning and of course losing a brother would be very difficult. Thanks.

Carter Johnson, the son of Gene Johnson (the owner of Press Publications, which owns the Sentinel and twelve other newspapers), is the new editor and publisher of the Burnett County Sentinel.

I know Carter from the time I spent working for the Sentinel and from what I know of him he is a high energy, go-getter type and is passionate about the newspaper business. I wish him nothing but success with the Sentinel and Press Publications.

He wrote an article about the shake up at the Sentinel (you can find it on page 4A of Wednesday, Dec. 17 2008 edition. As of this post it has not been made available online). In it he outlined that it was a difficult decision to let Byron Higgin (pictured) go, but that it was necessary to keep the Sentinel alive, which I have no doubt is true. Recently the Sentinel decided to shrink the physical size of the paper used to cut costs and I know other staff was cut or consolidated in the past.

I find it a little strange that in the article Carter didn’t offer more of a tribute to Byron, the long-time editor and publisher of the Sentinel. Maybe he has something planned for the next issue. I think it would be a good idea to feature some of the work that Byron did along with his accomplishments. I would think advertisers would be excited to wish Byron farewell and show their gratitude towards him.

I wish Johnson would have given us a vision to what he wants the paper to be, where he wants it to go and how he’s going to accomplish it. He only gave general thoughts and emphasized that the community needs to help with the process. Hopefully he does that in future issues, as well.

I am not sure where the Sentinel is heading. The outlook doesn’t look good for the industry or the paper itself, at least in it’s current form. The Sentinel has beefed up it’s online content and presence, which is the key element in staying viable in this day of instant gratification and fast-paced society.

News has been a part of Byron Higgin’s life for the majority of his life.

Now the news is about him.

Byron is no longer the editor at the Burnett County Sentinel. I don’t have any details on what transpired there, but I think it is probably safe to say that the shake up has to do with the ailing economy and the overall downturn of the newspaper industry.

This comes from an informative article at MSNBC.com (read it in it’s entirety here).

The venerable newspaper is in trouble. Under sustained assault from cable television, the Internet, all-news radio and lifestyles so cram-packed they leave little time for the daily paper, the industry is struggling to remake itself.

Byron was passionate about his work and loved what he did. He was unapologetically Christian and conservative and drew a lot of fire from those who did not like his take on things, but he was consistant with his ideals, and took opposition as a sign that he was doing something right.

Byron has been the editor at the Sentinel for a long time (I believe he started in 1994) and his legacy will be a positive one. It is unclear at this point if Byron will continue to write for the Sentinel or if he will be moving on entirely from the newspaper.

I have attempted to make contact with those close to the situation and when I learn more I will pass it on.

Full disclosure… I was an advertising representative for the Sentinel for a short time in the past year and have some idea of what is happening within that world.

Byron Higgin has written a great piece on Kristina Anderson and her success as a volleyball coach in China. Read it here.

Byron Higgin has named his choices for the volleyball all-area team. As you might imagine it is rightfully loaded with Pirates. I know first hand that Byron takes a lot of time and puts a lot of thought into these teams and I think he has done a good job with this one. Here is a link to the article.