It’s year No. 49 covering high school sports for Eric Sondheimer

This is year 49 covering secondary school sports in Southern California. Let me tell you how it started.

Cut of the Madison Junior High basketball team, I discovered that writing for the school newspaper offered more power and influence than sitting on a bench. Everyone likes to see their name mentioned, so now I knew that I had great responsibility in the future.

It was the era of Watergate and new heroes such as journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein discovering corruption at the highest level, inspiring future journalists. While frequenting Poly High in Sun Valley, Pete Kokon, the San Fernando Sun sports editor, offered to pay $ 15 per week to write a history on high school sports. It was the first lesson of a sports editor – do not worry about money, preselect under the spotlight to reveal your name in a signature.

Kokon was the most entertaining character I have ever met. He had a building in Sherman Oaks and lived in his “Penthouse”, which consisted in entering a wallpaper that was never locked and seeing a small room on the top floor. He would leave his keys in his car unlocked under a carpet. He used to get Ronald Reagan out each time his name was mentioned. He taught me to bet on the race track, saying: “Give me a dollar”, before going to the window to place a bet of $ 2.

Eric Sondheimer made a speech in 1989 at the National Football Foundation and the College Hall of Fame of the Knollwood Country Club.

(Bob Messina Photography)

He taught me to play golf, to invite myself to the Woodland Hills Country Club and to shout his club identification number to pay everything, from food to the shirts through drinks. He wrote all his stories on an old royal typewriter. He smoked cigars and was once a boxing promoter. Two of his best friends were the temple of fame Donsdale and Bob Waterfield, Van Nuys High colleagues. Everyone knew him, appreciated him and feared him whenever he was angry.

Pete Kokon covered high school sports in the San Fernando valley for over 60 years.

(Valley Times)

For more than 60 years, he covered secondary sports. I never thought I would challenge his record. But after having become a silt for the Daily News in 1976 and having been hired full time in 1980 after refusing the position of Director of Sports Information at Cal State Northridge, I learned that it was necessary to cover local sports and it became my passion to make a difference. Yes, I covered the Super Bowl, the NBA final, the 1984 Olympic Games, the World Series, the Bowl Rose, the Breeders’ Cup, the Little League World Series, but nothing has provided more satisfaction than telling the stories of adolescents who get up in the face of adversity or overcome the doubts of its peers to succeed.

There have been difficult stories over the years. I will never forget to remain awake before 11:30 p.m. to see the main story on ESPN Sportscenter detailing any violations of NCAA rules by the University of Kentucky after a package sent to a high school basketball star in Los Angeles had money inside. It was a story helped by others at the Daily News.

I have always treated high school sports like different from the university or pros. They are adolescents, with criticism of coaches and athletes, mainly limits. But times change. The players are paid. The coaches engage in ethical gaps. It is a growing challenge. I will continue to respect the tradition of secondary sports to have fun, but insist on the fact that the rules followed.

Eric Sondheimer interviews Eric Freeny de Corona Centennial at the end of the State Championship in Sacramento in March 2022. Freeny is now a first -year student at the UCLA.

(Nick Koza)

There are so many stories of coaches who go crazy. Sometimes it takes time to understand that I simply try to do my job as a just and devoted journalist who understands my responsibilities and remembers my role.

Let me give an example. A moment ago, Sylmar’s basketball coach, Bort Escorto, stopped reporting the scores. Maybe it had something to do with writing on transfers. Maybe not. But today, he always responds to my calls: “I didn’t do it.”

You know you have won an argument when someone claims your bias for a school compared to another. It was the weekly debate years ago among fans of Crespi and Notre Dame. Panels have been made, beards have been shown. It made me laugh. It is now a question of sharing selfies.

What brings me back every season is the many new stories to tell. No region has a larger and more diverse collection of high -level athletes from various sports than southern California.

Eric Sondheimer interviews the second student Tajh Ariza after a basketball match in 2022.

(Nick Koza)

It has been more than a year ago that I am frustrated in the negativity in the world. I needed to do something to change my point of view. It was then that I swore to write something positive every day on high school sports. Prep Talk was created to inspire me and, hopefully, others that a positive message can pierce at a time of nonsense on social networks.

For readers over the years, you have helped me to stay used and to be dedicated to telling stories that resonate in the Southland. The newspapers are in trouble, but I cannot control what I can control, so please be customers loyal to a moment of upheaval.

Eric Sondheimer interviews the coach Edzam de Westchester in 2020.

(Nick Koza)

Over the years, when technology has changed, I have adapted, like the game sprint to find a rotary phone in a locked PE office or driving in a phone booth to call a story under pressure from the deadline. I climbed fences after being locked up like the last person of a stadium. I sat on gym soil in darkness by writing a story. One night in Mgr Alemany, I lost my mobile phone on the football field. I was ready to vomit in the embarrassment. Sports director, Randy Thompson, found it. My story was saved. I learned to take videos and take pictures and talk to the public (thank you to class 101 of speech at CSUN).

The world of today for secondary school journalists is not to be expelled by security after the matches when everyone left and remains calm when security does not want to let you enter before the matches or a touch with a press pass to do your job. Common sense disappears in the name of the following orders.

I already have goldplading from the southern section and the city section, which means that if I go away, I will always be able to attend events.

When and how this end has not yet been decided. Pete Kokon died at the age of 85 in 1998 when he was found with his television and the channel settled on ESPN in his penthouse apartment.

As long as a level of professionalism remains among the stakeholders, I will continue to do my best to tell stories. My job is to serve the public, not myself, and it will be my mission forever.