Wes’ Words – NSO Is One Year Old!!

Feb 1

Wes Vork-NSO

Northland Sports Online is one year old!! Sometimes it seems like just yesterday, while other times it seems like forever. But one year ago, Kerry Rodd posted our first article, writing about CEC girls’ hockey.

The initial thought of NSO came from a meeting with Kerry and Mark Fleisher. We decided there was a huge need to identify and enhance the area’s sports coverage, which had been dropped by other media outlets. It did not take long for our idea to balloon into a full-blown website, one which provides comprehensive scores, articles, and photos of Northland sporting events on a very timely daily basis.

One of the most appealing and challenging aspects of this undertaking was building and maintaining a daily sports website. There truly was, and continues to be no blueprint for this task. The second aspect of great interest was to create a place where student athletes can be recognized for their hard work and dedication. This site is really about the student athletes and putting their accomplishments in a positive light. You won’t see any photos of goalies who gave up the game winning
shot lying on the ice on our website.

If photography and covering sporting events is meant to be a job, then this is definitely my dream job. I have a lot of great memories from the past year and it would be impossible to name them all.

However, please allow me to provide a few that stand out. The first is shooting and covering the Cloquet girls’ soccer team winning a shootout in the pouring rain at the state tournament en-route to winning the third place game in the Metrodome. I also made trips to the cities over three consecutive days to cover the Barnum girls’ successful run to a third place finish of their own in the Minnesota state basketball tourney. The Metrodome was also the location of choice for the Hermantown boys’ soccer team, who did a great job of representing the Northland as the state runners-up in boys’ soccer.

The ML-WR boys also brought home a state runner up trophy from the prep bowl. This was a school best, which is a difficult task for such a storied program. Prior to the prep bowl, we covered their first round game of the Minnesota State Football Tournament, which was played in of all places, North Dakota. It was a bit of a drive, but the Rebels overtime win over Hawley was, what I believe to be the best football game I have witnessed at any level.

Mostly, what stands out in my mind, though, are the day-in and day-out regular season games. No one contest in particular, just a good rivalry game. Being able to watch and cover student athletes compete against one another, giving it their all while showing good sportsmanship in the process, is certainly a privilege. We are very fortunate to live in an area where high school athletics are well supported. Shining a light on the person who just had a great game makes all of the efforts entirely worthwhile.

The success we have enjoyed during our first year has been way beyond my wildest expectations. And at the risk of this turning into a long thank you letter, there are several people I really do need to credit with our success. First and foremost, even though she doesn’t work directly with the site, is my wife Becky. She has a good understanding of what we are trying to accomplish and is very supportive with the amount of time I dedicate to NSO. This involves me being off and gone many evenings. Since starting NSO in January, I have traveled 7740 miles covering sporting events in 2009. I cannot thank her enough for her understanding and support.

We are also fortunate to have Kerry Rodd and Dwight Cadwell, who write for NSO. In addition to writing, Kerry has worked in Television and radio most of his adult life. He has covered UMD hockey for 17 years. And, not to purposely date him, he also covered the 1982 Barnum boys’ state championship. Dwight knows virtually everyone connected to high school sports. He also has a great knowledge of the game of basketball and its history in the Northland. His constant interaction with athletes, parents and coaches, gives the NSO viewer the latest scoop and information, usually long before it is available from other sources. My brother Joe, who is a great writer, also helps us out with a story from time to time. Their job is made a lot easier by the coaches who take the time to call or report in scores, stats and information. Thanks guys and gals.

Photography is the most viewed item on our site and something we are very proud of. Chris Shevich is possibly the best sports photographer in the Northland, and it is our good fortune she shoots for us. Dan Saletel and Paul Gregersen also do fine work and their efforts allow us to cover more games in any given day.

The site itself was built and is maintained by a good friend of mine named John Pawlicki. Our relationship dates back to the beginning of my hardware days of the late 80’s. While our site may not have quite as much glitz or bells and whistles as others, I think we are way ahead in important content. We have received lots of comments about how user friendly and easy it is to navigate. Also, as simple as it may sound, it “works” and does what it is supposed to do without down time. Anyone who has been involved with websites knows this is no easy task. My niece, Jes Vork does the copy editing for us. While I have worked years to learn sports photography, the same cannot be said for my writing. While balancing college studies and sports, she finds time to make our articles sound good, (or is that well?).

The last group I have purposely chosen to mention at the end, so they would remain fresh in everyone’s thoughts, is you, the viewer. As I stated earlier, the success we have enjoyed, and the numbers of viewers we have are way beyond our loftiest expectations. We can take all the photos we want and write the best stories possible, however, this would all be meaningless without you, the viewer, taking the time to pull it up and enjoy it. And for that, I personally thank you. Hopefully, we can use this first year as a springboard to create an even better product for you in the years to come.

Wes Vork can be reached at wes@northlandsportsonline.com