A LABOR OF LOVE
SEPTEMBER 9, 2024
BY MIKE TUPA
BARTLESVILLE AREA SPORTS REPORT
Shortly after I arrived in Bartlesville in 1996, a reader of my sports coverage in my previous town wrote a letter to the editor to that newspaper in which she wrote about me, in part (with original spelling):
“Since he left, coverage is almost nil. He was always there for the kids. Each sporting event was the world series, super bowl and Olympics combined. Each kid a super star.”
Obviously — and at the risk of bragging on myself — I appreciated her compliment, even though I thought she was too generous.
As I contemplate her sentiments — along with my newspaper career in reporting local sports and this current endeavor Becky Burch and I are undertaking — I’ve tried to understand the roots of my attitude about how I covered sports and the kids that participate in them.
It’s hard for me to clearly express my thoughts on the reasons. I’ve just always believed each kid is a special human being, a unique collection of energy and optimism and fears and confusions and hopes and dreams and vulnerability and potential to create a happy life for themselves. I’ve perceived sports as a way of focusing kids on the virtues of hard work, teamwork through a common purpose, learning tolerance toward other people and how to get along with them, the importance of rules, motivation to improve and succeed, achieving goals through consistent effort, self-discipline, loyalty, a love of community and other assets that will serve them well during their upcoming tribulations as adults.
I’ve thought of the need for kids to be recognized, to feel important while doing something praiseworthy, to bolster their self-image, to be encouraged, to believe they are unique, to be applauded for the hours of grueling practice and games and other sacrifices and to believe that success is not reflected on a scoreboard but in the internal growth and maturity that comes from chasing excellence or perfection.
People have commented often on my reporting style that I make an athlete’s effort sound good even if they lost big. I guess that’s because while other people are fixated on the final result, I’m thinking about all the hours and sweat and devotion and progress and loyalty these kids gave to their teams, their schools, their communities and on behalf of their families.
No one’s going to care 15 years later on the result of a specific game or competition — unless perhaps a state championship game or something like that, and even then the glory fades throughout the years. What people are going to care about most is what kind of an adult and a citizen this athlete turned out to be.
I’ve observed this at Bartlesville Athletic Hall of Fame induction ceremonies — the athletic achievements of the distant past are often secondary compared to the joy of the useful lives they have achieved as adults.
As I reflect on my approach to reporting, the positive recognition during the years or even the kind words of the letter quoted above, I have to scratch my head: Are they really talking about me?
Funny thing is I never played organized sports as a kid. I don’t think I ever knew things like Pop Warner football (or its equivalents), Little League baseball, youth basketball or youth soccer even existed.
After all, when you move 10 times, between the ages of six to 11, to a total of seven cities located in three different states, the only stabilizing force you understand is your immediate family and your only comfort zone inside the four walls of whatever house or apartment you happen to be living in at a given time — and comic books.
No matter where I lived, a new issue of “Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos” “The Green Lantern", or "Batman" would appear every month on our grocery store’s magazine stand.
It wasn’t until after age 11, when we put down roots for a few years, that I discovered the magic of sports as a participant, mainly because of my exposure to them in sixth-grade P.E. Class. At age 13, I found the joy of following pro and college athletics.
My life was never the same after my epiphany about sports — and that was more than 55 years ago.
Unfortunately it was too late — I was too shy, too lacking in self confidence, too unskilled and too unaware — to play organized school or competitive sports. I did make an attempt to try out for my junior high football team — and the coach turned me down. I spent a whole summer between my sophomore and junior years of trying out for my high school football team. I had a good chance of making it but that fell through for unrelated reasons.
During my high school years, my mom — knowing of my duel passions for following sports and creative writing — suggested I focus on sportswriting when I grew up. I instantly balked — I thought no one would ever want to read, let alone pay to read, anything I wrote.
Therefore I missed out on the opportunity to try to become on my high school newspaper staff or the yearbook group and hone my early talents.
It wasn’t until my second year of college I decided to take a newspaper writing class — because I had never forgotten my mom’s advice. I wouldn’t label myself as a prodigy, but I seemed to have a talent for reporting and writing.
The campus newspaper soon hired me to write articles and I began to believe perhaps I had a skill with which I could make a living.
Without going into the details and “whys,” my ardent search to become a full-time journalist sputtered until age 31, when a small newspaper located in a remote mountain town in Eastern Nevada reluctantly gave me a chance — more out of desperation to bring someone on board than anything else.
With my foot in the door, I slowly pushed it open to greater opportunities, leading finally to my position with the Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise. where I spent 27-and-a-half years prior to retiring last year.
My emphasis has always been the same — local sports, local sports, local sports.
Especially for the kids.
I take great pride when someone tells me how they made a scrapbook for their child out of my articles and the game photos, many of them taken by Becky Burch.
One such example is Burch’s daughter Jessie Burch Bartholomew.
Jessie proved to be an exceptional athlete — a four-year varsity softball player for Dewey High School, and a member of the ultra-competitive Oklahoma Booyahs softball team.
She earned multiple honors, including All-State recognition, participation in the All-State game played in Norman, her photo with a trophy in the Dewey High honors case and her name being listed at the Dewey softball fields.
Along the way, I and other reporters helped chronicle her accomplishments.
“I just want people to know that I understand the excitement of seeing my child’s achievements recognized,” Burch said. “I literally have stacks of newspaper articles that have her name in them — and not just for sports but also for her academic achievements. I’ll cherish these memories forever. I have something tangible in my hand to remember.”
Burch said she’s felt a real joy and pride in covering local athletes the past three-plus decades, primarily as an award-winning photographer but occasionally as a writer, too.
“The kids I covered are coming back to me as adults and telling me about the stacks of articles and photos they have of themselves and how much they appreciate it,” she added.
Becky fell in love with sports photography as a young person and developed a fascination for it. To her, it doesn’t matter to her whether she’s taking a photo of a determined T-baller whacking at the ball or shooting on the sidelines at a Super Bowl (which she has done).
She also enjoys shooting the human reactions of athletes — even if they’re standing on the sideline — including the expression on their faces, body language and so on.
Local fans that have followed her for years are well aware of her considerable talent and sensitivity in capturing unforgettable moments of action or reaction.
It’s due to Becky’s and mine desire to see continued detailed coverage of area sports we’ve started this website, because we feel Bartlesville deserves consistent, comprehensive local sports reporting that we’ve attempted to provide the past several decades.
Let me digress here. Bartlesville Radio does a tremendous job in highlighting sports in our community, especially on the high school level. They broadcast many games live on their stations and provide other sports-related content that reflects their commitment to highlight local athletics.
Our service is tailored to providing highly detailed written accounts —along with incredible photos — of games and competition among all area schools and seasons. We want to highlight athletes from Bartlesville, Dewey, Copan, Caney Valley, Wesleyan Christian, Osage County, Nowata County and Montgomery (Kan.) County through photos and comprehensive reports, as well as other reports related to local sports.
We want to personalize our coverage down to the single athletes and coaches that make it happen.
Although this will be only an electronic endeavor, at least for the foreseeable future, we hope people can make copies of our articles for their own electronic scrapbooks, or print them out for a tangible copy.
We also want to recognize the incredible contribution of Jessica Buchanan for building the website, despite her otherwise hectic schedule. With great kindness and patience she tweaked the site through many, many changes for which we've asked.
We're also appreciative of the encouragement by a handful of people in the community with which we've shared this vision.
Our intention is to provide a free service for the community, which hopefully might attract some sponsors or advertisers. We’re not looking at this as a major moneymaking operation, but a chance to fulfill our passion to give local athletes, especially the youth and high schoolers, positive recognition that we feel is so vital to their lives, as well as a boost to the community's identity.
We each feel extremely blessed to have been able to do something that we’ve loved with all our hearts and have found great personal fulfillment in doing it.
