By LARRY AMES
Ventura County (Calif.) Star

I made a mistake more than three decades ago by not copyrighting my favorite slogan: Just do it.

So Nike's gain was my financial loss, and even after the shoemaker adopted my words for an ad campaign, I am still using it when reporters provide endless excuses.

At 5 p.m. on March 2, I found myself turning to my favorite expression when Ventura County Star editor Joe Howry called me into his office. Howry told me he was promoting my boss, Mike Blackwell, to assistant managing editor sports/business/arts & living, and as of 9 a.m. the next day, I would be sports editor.

When I asked Howry if I would be able to replace myself, he said no. There has been a trend nationally to promote sports editors into news-side management positions. (See APSE story, CLICK HERE)

The task of operating a sports section with just under 100,000 circulation daily and more than 105,000 on Sunday with one supervisor handling the day-to-day duties is not easy. In an era of more budget preparation, three-month outlooks, payroll, work schedules, story and photo assignments, there aren't too many breaks in the day.

We average nine pages daily and 13 on Sunday and go up two pages when the volume and circumstances call for it. We have a staff of 12, including seven writers who must compete with the Los Angeles Times and the Los Angeles Daily News on a daily basis. The Times has 900 percent more staff than we do, but we have a dedicated group of jour-nalists who work hard and cover our county well.

We have nearly a dozen baseball players in the major leagues and a dozen more ready to make the jump. We have three PGA members and an LPGA member. The tennis-playing Bryan brothers, Mike and Bob, call Ventura County home, as do boxer Fernando Vargas and more than a half-dozen NFL players. We had 10 Olympians in Athens and we also cover two-time national champion USC.

Our county numbers just 800,000 people. Our editors are increasingly asking for A1-type stories, and often our A1 resembles the sports pages. This summer, the Dallas Cowboys returned to our area for three-and-a-half weeks for training camp, and we responded with a daily feature story, notebook, practice schedule and map.

This year, we've revamped our Page 2 with more television listings, a daily feature, a daily Web question, facts, numbers, a daily quote, a five-day outlook and a Seen & Heard column that provides news with a little edge. Copy editor/designer Ben Kwasney has nurtured the page since its inception in July.

We aim for a weekly Sunday takeout and cover our prep and local college scene extensively with game coverage and a weekly notebook in each sport. We honor All-County teams for our prep and college teams, run a Scholar-Athlete program for high school seniors and have a Star Cup competition that honors excellence in the prep programs. We publish two Youth Pages a week.

How do we do it? We just do it. As sports editor, my day averages 10-14 hours. I take my days off and vacation time, but I do make a daily call to check things out. But the saving grace has been my decision to delegate more responsibility to our copy editors/designers. I have delegated more responsibility to two members of our desk, Keith Kropp and Jon Catalini, and both have responded to the increased workload.

Without delegating some of the workload, we wouldn't be able to put out the product we do. We are putting in a new computer system in the winter and we will move into a new building in the fourth quarter next year. Challenges all, but we still put out a great product each day. By just doing it.

Anderson (S.C.) Independent-Mail: Hired designers/copy editors Robert Meyer from the Lorain (Ohio) Morning Journal, Rusty Boggs from the Spartanburg (S.C.) Herald-Journal and Brad Senkiw from the Sumter (S.C.) Daily Item. Hired high school sports writers Keith Farner (2005 Western Kentucky graduate) and Jonathan Kay (2005 Northwestern graduate). Moved Ian Guerin to Clemson beat from high schools.

Greenville (S.C.) News: Hired Joel Hammond as copy editor/paginator. A Bowling Green grad, Joel comes from the Anderson Independent-Mail. Promoted Scott Keepfer to Clemson basketball beat, backup on Clemson football.

Lynchburg News & Advance: Hired Nathan Warters of the Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star to cover Virginia Tech football, Virginia Tech basketball and NASCAR beats. Hired Chris Lang of the Arizona Daily Sun in Flagstaff, Ariz., to cover Liberty University and golf.

Roanoke Times: Hired Tony Paul of the Port Huron Times-Herald in Michigan as a copy editor.

No report.

Chicago Tribune: Hired Luis Arroyave to cover soccer. Hired Dave Van Dyck, who had been working as a freelance baseball writer, full time. He serves as backup beat writer for the Cubs, White Sox and Bulls. It also changed several of the newspapers other beat assignments: K.C. Johnson and John Mullin moved to the Bears, Marlen Garcia to the Bulls, David Haugh to special assignments, Terry Bannon to Northwestern, Bob Foltman to the Blackhawks and Neil Milbert to Illinois.

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Hired Ryan Powell, formerly of the Baltimore Sun, as a sports designer and Doug Lesmerises, formerly of the Wilmington (Del.) News Journal, as its Ohio State beat writer working out of Columbus.

Detroit News: Promoted Heather Burns to assistant sports editor. She joined the paper in 2002 as a copy editor and was a driving force in the paper's change from Decade to CCI last year. She will serve as night/weekend editor.

Evansville (Ind.) Courier & Press: Hired Tom Wyrwich, a freelance writer the past year at the Orlando Sentinel, as sports writer. Wyrwich, a 2004 graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, will cover University of Southern Indiana athletics. He replaces Leigh Ann Tipton, who left to become editor of her hometown Union County (Ky.) Advocate.

Fort Wayne (Ind.) Journal Gazette: Hired Michael Rothstein as Notre Dame beat writer. He will also cover the Indy 500, the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, high school sports and regional racetracks. He is a 2002 Syracuse graduate. He worked previously with the Daily News-Record in Harrisonburg, Va., covering the Bridgewater College football team, the James Madison University women's basketball team and the University of Virginia football team.

Lorain (Ohio) Morning Journal: Hired Matt Goul as the assistant sports editor. He was working at the newspaper part-time as a writer/copy editor. He graduated from Kent University in May.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Promoted Karl Svatek to deputy sports editor. He serves as the night sports editor five days a week and is the newspaper's college basketball editor.

Minneapolis Star Tribune: Hired Michael Russo to cover the Minnesota Wild. He had covered the Florida Panthers for the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel the past six years.

St. Paul Pioneer Press: Hired Marcus Fuller, a high school sports reporter for The Kansas City Star, to help cover the University of Minnesota sports teams.

Wisconsin State Journal: Promoted Bill Cooney from sports assistant-scoreboard to sports copy editor.

Daily Oklahoman: Hired Matt Clayton from the Tulsa World as lead designer. Assistant sports editor Josh Crutchmer left to join the Arizona Republic as page-one designer. Enterprise writer Carter Strickland left to join the Atlanta Journal Constitution as Georgia's beat writer.

Denver Post: National baseball writer Mike Klis joins Bill Williamson on the Broncos beat. Rockies beat writer Troy Renck adds national baseball to his workload. Patrick Saunders moves from the Broncos to the Rockies. Golf and men's college basketball writer Tom Kensler moves to Colorado men's basketball and college general assignment. Chris Dempsey, men's CU basketball writer, moves to national college hoops. Anthony Cotton, NFL and general assignment reporter, picks up pro golf.

Des Moines Register: Hired Brian Gaynor, copy editor at the Fresno Bee, as a sports copy editor.

The Hawk Eye (Burlington, Iowa): Hired Joe Spencer from the Peoria Journal-Star as a preps/general assignment reporter.

Lincoln Journal Star: Promoted copy editor Matt Humphrey to assistant sports editor/design. Appointed copy editor Karl Vogel editor of the Journal Star's new weekly publication for Nebraska sports, Husker Extra Weekly.

Wichita Eagle: Jeffrey Parson, who had covered Kansas State for four years, is the new general assignment writer for sports. Jeffrey Martin, who had covered the Baltimore Ravens for the York (Pa.) Daily Record, was hired and is covering Kansas State. Paul Suellentrop is the new Wichita State beat writer after five years as a copy editor. Tom Seals also re-joined The Eagle as a sports copy editor.

Baltimore Sun: Hired Rick Maese from the Orlando Sentinel as a columnist, Heather A. Dinich from the Annapolis Capital to cover Maryland football and hoops and Brad Jennings from the York (Pa.) Daily Record to become a night slot. Night slot Kevin Eck becomes an assistant sports editor, horse racing writer Tom Keyser moves to Albany Times Union features department, NASCAR writer Sandra McKee takes over the horse racing beat and copy editor Lowell Sunderland retires.

Home News Tribune (East Brunswick, N.J.): Promoted T.J. Furman to assistant sports editor from scholastic editor, replacing Terry Lipshetz, who took a position with the Appleton (Wis.) Post-Crescent. Hired Al Ditzel, a copy editor at the Asbury Park Press, to fill Furman's scholastic editor's position. Hired Mark Spivey, part-time scholastic reporter, full time. Hired Patrick Buganski to fill the part-time scholastic post.

Philadelphia Inquirer: Frank Fitzpatrick added Penn State football to his duties as GA and Olympics reporter. Bruce Martin moved to day editor from colleges. Gary Miles is the deputy sports editor for locals, overseeing colleges and high schools. Named Jeff McLane full-time Internet reporter, focusing on breaking news and development of content for Philly.com. Jay Nagle resigned to pursue other interests. Marc Narducci becomes the backup Eagles beat reporter. Rob Parent becomes an assistant editor for Pennsylvania high schools. Ray Parrillo becomes backup Flyers beat reporter. Shannon Ryan is the new beat reporter on Villanova basketball.

Wilmington (Del.) News Journal: Hired reporter Geoff Mosher from the Bridgewater Courier-News to replace Doug Lesmerises, who took a job at the Cleveland Plain Dealer covering Ohio State. Hired copy editor Kelly Madden from Penn State to replace Jennifer de la Fuente, now a copy editor at the Sacramento Bee.

Albany Times-Union: Hired Bill Douglas, former night sports editor, as sports editor, with oversight of high school and community sports and outdoors coverage. He spent the previous two years as a producer for the newspaper's Web site. Hired David Filkins, a 2004 graduate of the University of Albany, to cover high schools. He interned in the sports department and worked for seven months as a temporary reporter in news. Hired Pete Iorizzo of the Idaho State Journal to cover Siena College basketball. He'll also be the section's lead enterprise reporter. Moved Tim Wilkin from Siena College basketball to lead horse racing reporter and columnist, replacing Matt Graves, who retired.

New Haven (Conn.) Register: Hired Brett Orzechowski, formerly at the Glens Falls Post-Star, as a sports reporter. Promoted Bill Bernardi, copy desk editor, to assistant sports editor/nights.

No report.

Albany (Ga.) Herald: Hired David Hale, who received his masters of arts in journalism from Syracuse in July. He will cover SEC/ACC football during the fall and the Arena Football 2 team during the spring.

Athens (Ga.) Banner-Herald: Hired Nick Mathews, formerly the sports editor of the Fremont (Ohio) News-Messenger, as an assistant sports editor.

Charlotte (Fla.) Sun-Herald: Hired Jason Elek, a sports designer from the Elkhart (Ind.) Truth, and Colin Downey, a sports writer from the South Bend (Ind.) Tribune.

Florida Times-Union: Hired Zachary Spain, a recent Florida State graduate, as a part-time sports writer.

Florida Today: Hired copy editor/designer George Bremer, who held a similar post at the Northwest Florida Daily News.

Knoxville News Sentinel: Hired Troy Schneider, lead designer for A1 and sports section fronts, from the Asheville Citizen- Times, as a designer.

Macon (Ga.) Telegraph: Hired sports writer Robyn Disney from the Leesburg (Fla.) Enterprise. Billy Dunham returns as a copy editor/designer. Sports writer Candace Buckner was hired by The Kansas City Star to cover high schools. Copy editor/designer Ted Newman left to join the Wilmington (Del.) News Journal.

Morning News of Northwest Arkansas: Promoted Robbie Neiswanger to Stephens Razorbacks Bureau director. He will continue to be the beat writer for University of Arkansas football but will also help oversee the bureau. Grant Hall will move from covering UA women's sports to men's basketball. Vernon Tarver, who was covering preps and handling UA recruiting, will move over to cover UA women's sports. Ryan Aber, a preps writer from The Morning News' sister publication in Fort Smith, Ark., was hired to take over coverage of preps and handle UA recruiting. Dustin Dearman, hired in January to cover preps, will take over coverage of the Arkansas men's track program. Hired Nathan Allen to cover preps in the Bentonville (Ark.) zone.

Naples Daily News: Hired Steve Megargee from Treasure Coast Newspapers in Stuart to cover the University of Miami and Miami Dolphins beats. Megargee replaced Pat Finley, who left for the Arizona Daily Star to be a features/enterprise reporter.

Pensacola (Fla.) News-Journal: Hired Danny Aller, designer and copy editor, from the Key West Citizen. Hired Scott Hotard to cover preps from the Alexandria (La.) Town-Talk.

South Florida Sun-Sentinel: Named Brian White sports editor. White had been deputy sports editor. Named Jonathan Boho sports presentation editor. He had been designing A1 for the Sun-Sentinel. Hired Andrea Vigil as the Sunday designer. She had been designing A1 for the Sun-Sentinel. Hired Steve Zimmerman as a designer/copy editor. He had been a designer at the Miami Herald.

Tallahassee Democrat: Promoted Bob Ferrante to assistant sports editor, where he will take a lead role as an assigning editor for the department. Promoted Ike Morgan from deputy sports editor to senior editor of the sports and news copy desks. Lindsey Barringer joined the department as an intern assisting with the sports copy desk. Hired Mary Beth Bishop, a recent University of Florida graduate, to work on the sports copy desk.

No report.

Bakersfield Californian: Hired Ron Stapp as a copy editor/designer to replace Scott Tittrington, who became high schools editor in Lawrence, Kan. Stapp had been a stringer with The Californian for some 10 years. Hired Brett Anderson as a copy editor/designer to replace Ray Hacke, who moved over to news side. Hired Dominic Perrone as a sports reporter (covering high schools, colleges and Bakersfield Blaze baseball) to replace Ryan Schuster, who moved to news. Added the Bakersfield College football beat to Jeff Evans' current colleges beat. The two had been separate in the past but were joined after the staff was cut by one person.

Sacramento Bee: Sam Amick to take over as NBA Kings beat writer. He replaces Marty McNeal, who becomes a Page 2 notes columnist. Promoted Victor Contreras to assistant sports editor in charge of the NBA and motorsports. Melody Gutierrez will focus on preps enterprise and the WNBA Monarchs, Debbie Arrington will become a full-time motorsports writer and part-timer Jimmy Spencer will become the department's Web writer/coordinator.

Salt Lake Tribune: Hired Ron Gullberg, sports editor of the Casper (Wyo.) Star-Tribune, as an assistant sports editor. Moved Jay Drew to a newly created reporting position on the local sports staff.

• • •

Send personnel moves to Larry Ames by calling (805) 655-5818 or send an e-mail message to lames@venturacountystar.com.

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