All that was east is west of me now.
Those were the words of Irish singer Glen Hansard, who sadly passed away this week.
All the reasons why I started Hillsbroughsports.com in 2016 are well in the past. It came during a period of instability and personal desperation.
In 2016, I was at midlife and left wondering what my legacy would be. I knew that Roxboro and Chapel Hill had print publications and radio stations that covered the Person Rockets, the Chapel Hill Tigers and the East Chapel Hill Wildcats.
The internet makes the best of both worlds possible. So why couldn’t Hillsborough have that?
The time was certainly right. The Orange baseball team, which started my announcing career at the age of 16, had a promising freshman named Bryse Wilson. The Panther football team had several deep playoff runs under Pat Moser.
Cedar Ridge’s volleyball team beat Carrboro and Chapel Hill and looked like a potential force under head coach Charlie Oakley.
The hurdle, in my mind, was my own vanity. No one makes starting a high school sports website their ultimate goal in life.
At least, I didn’t when I graduated from Orange High School in 1991. I walked around the polyurethane floor of Orange Gymnasium (there’s a wooden floor there now) thinking “I can’t wait to leave this place.”
Seeing the Carolina Hurricanes win the Stanley Cup this summer reminded me of November 1991 when I went to my first hockey game in person. The Raleigh IceCaps vs. the Knoxville Cherokees at Dorton Arena and I was hooked immediately. I thought that being a minor league hockey play-by-play guy would be the most romantic thing in the world, if not glamorous.
(By the way, if you ask me ‘Jeff, did you celebrate the Canes winning the Stanley Cup,?” I’ll probably respond ‘Why are you asking me in past tense?’)
If I had gone down that wormhole, it would have likely led to plenty of fly-by-night franchises and dead ends, which is typical of minor league sports.
Now, Hillsboroughsports.com is celebrating its 10th anniversary.
In the years since, I’ve often wondered if the late nights writing and miles driven covering games have been worth it. Then I read a quote from Terry Pratchett’s book “Reaper Man,” where he said “No one is finally dead until the ripples they cause die away.”
That’s when it hit me that this website exists to create ripples that would otherwise be ignored or, at best, delayed. The state champions, the personalities, the stories of triumph and disappointment that go hand-in-hand with all levels of sports.
I expected to do profiles of Bryse Wilson, his brother Payton, Mia Davidson, and many others. What I didn’t expect was how all encompassing the website would become.
Watching a state championship female swimmer in Katie Belle Sikes, who is now at Georgia. I had to learn how to do volleyball play-by-play out of necessity. The 2021 Cedar Ridge volleyball team of Cameron Lloyd, Cameron Lanier, Julie Altieri, Grace Young, Melissa Benkowitz, Addie Reid, and so many more. Orange’s 2017 3A State Softball Championship team led by Davidson.
Orange’s 2025 3A State Championship Men’s Cross Country team. Myles Jermyn winning the state championship in the 3,200 meters last year. And the first men’s soccer team to win a conference championship in the 38-year history of the program last year.
These are all ripples that the website have captured, with the help of peerless photographer Jacques Morin, photographer Erik Perel, play-by-play man Curran Campbell and writer/announcer Jon Franklin.
As I started summer break, I sat down and enjoyed the final season of “The Bear” on Hulu. The day-to-day chaos of running a restaurant, for the characters, may have proven to be insurmountable, at times. But by the end of the show, they realize they’re where they’re supposed to be.
After all this time, I’ve learned I’m where I’m supposed to be, too.
It’s year number 10. Let’s go east.
