By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

Though our official ‘second’ year mark isn’t until mid-October, I just want to take the time to thank those who helped get the site up and running over the past few months.

What started as a way to help recognize a few athlete’s on a few buddies of mine team’s at Stayton and McKay and to stay fresh as a sports journalist in between writing opportunities, has turned into a passion and great opportunity for me to help out the communities that the school’s I write about are in.

I noticed that they’re gaps and as it is today as it was in October last year, but I never wanted to step on any other newspapers, or any of the fellow journalist toes to push myself to the top, that’s not me and never will be me.

All I wanted to do is to help, the kids deserve the recognition.  And with journalism going through a transitional period between juggling online and print editions, it’s becoming increasingly harder for journalist to go out to games and do stories as newsrooms continue to shrink.

I won’t drone on about the ups and downs of the field, but in general for me, I could care less if there’s money involved, it’s not about the paycheck.

It’s about showing the hard work and sacrifice that these team’s are putting in on a daily basis. I love writing and putting to good use that Journalism degree I got from Southern Oregon University so long ago.

As jmcdonaldmedia.com enter it’s second go-around, it’s second year, things will be the same:

Helping recognize athletes.  It doesn’t matter if their dead last or number one in the State of Oregon, they all put in the same amount of work and we will never focus on win-loss records on determining where we go or what stories we do.  It will never be jmcdonaldmedia.

We will never charge for how many clicks on a story or charge for pictures, if you want to print the story, the picture of your family member or want to take the picture for your social media profile picture or in general, please, be my guest.  It’ll be an honor that you would want do that.

We will continue to help donate to teams and school, having donated 150 dollars to the McKay Turf Project and 75 to help the Single-A Summer Baseball Legion team Santiam Senators go to State in Central Point, Oregon in July.

Thanks again for everyone who made it possible to help get the site up and running the past few months, it went up and beyond my expectations and I’m looking forward to another great year covering sports in the great State of Oregon!

As always, if you have any story ideas, feel free to email myself, Jeremy McDonald, at jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com.