My first column: Excitement and dread comes with new seasons and assignments

Note: This column will appear here and in the Southeast Missourian newspaper each Wednesday. While the Missourian coverage area includes only a portion of the schools included on semoball, I hope to be able to travel to more events throughout the year and write about things people from all over the region can enjoy.

I should've been thinking about the upcoming year of high school sports.

I should've been thinking about the games of the year, the matchups I can't wait to watch, the players who will be missed and the players who have improved the most in the months since I last watched them play.

That's definitely what I, professional sports journalist, should have been thinking about when high school athletes and coaches started practicing for fall sports Monday morning.

But all I could think about was the pain in my side caused by circuit training, the horrific shrill of the whistle telling me it was time to run another line drill and that feeling of not being able to breathe in the stifling heat of a small gym with no air conditioning.

It's been years since I've experienced any of those things, but just like back when I was the one walking into the gym, I felt a mixture of dread and excitement for the players who walked into the first day of practice Monday. I don't know if that feeling will go away one fall, but I think I'll always remember it.

It's not often you get to dread something you're excited about or be excited about something you dread, but I think that's usually the case with preseason practices full of extra running and endless high hopes for a successful season, however that may be defined by an individual or team.

I feel a lot of that excitement and a little of that dread as I write this first of what will be a weekly column published here.

I'm excited to get to show you a little more of what I see each week and to tell you more about the people than the players and more about the men and women than the coaches.

This comes with some dread only because it goes against my years of regimented training designed to allow me to leave myself -- and my thoughts -- out of the story and because there probably always will be someone who doesn't like what I say.

For example, whenever I praise an individual player, which I sometimes will do here, I almost always get some variation of the following five responses. The same ones apply to both girls and boys, but let's just say for now that I write somewhere that I'm impressed by a boys basketball player. This is what I hear:

1. Sure he is good, but what about his teammates? Why do you personally hate every other member of the team and refuse to acknowledge that they also are awesome? Did you even watch the game or just the person scoring?

2. Did you know he secretly was a terrible person? Like, really terrible and cocky and just all kinds of horrible? He had detention just last week. You should personally hate him instead of praising him.

3. He's not good at all. You know who's good? This other player. Actually, your compliment of him is directly disrespectful to the other player, whom you obviously personally hate.

4. Why do you only care about boys basketball? If you didn't personally hate every other sport and the athletes that participate in them, you would know about some other great athletes.

5. Reserved for when I compliment a Notre Dame player (the horror, I know): Why do you always write about Notre Dame? What is your obsession with them, and why do you personally hate every other school? Also, life's not fair and neither is Notre Dame's existence.

Of course the number of people who actually have these reactions is small, and I get far more amused than bothered by the few that do share those opinions. Plus I hope I don't need to write that I don't personally hate anyone I do or do not write about.

My promise to you is to write the things I see that usually wouldn't make a story about the game and to write some things I think that I usually wouldn't share. I'm going to get out to as many events as I can featuring as many sports as I can throughout the course of the year and tell you about the people and things I find interesting. Hopefully you'll find some of them interesting as well.

What I find will be published each Wednesday in the Southeast Missourian and on my easy-to-find blog on semoball.com. You can leave me your comments and questions there, and I will be able to respond or you can reach me at rcrader@semissourian.com.

Rachel Crader is editor of the regional sports website semoball.com. Follow her on Twitter @semoball.