- December 25, 2024
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I think I started sweating in Georgia. By the time 1-95 knifed through the Jacksonville skyline, it became clear to me that my long-sleeved baseball fleece and sweat pants were poor wardrobe picks.
I’m Joey LoMonaco, the Palm Coast Observer’s new Sports Writer, and last week I Ieft behind Woodbridge, Va. and half a foot of snow to embark on my new adventure. Virginia is the only home I’ve ever known, and I’m putting you on notice Palm Coast – you’ve got some big shoes to fill.
The earliest LoMonaco home videos chronicle the misadventures of a 5-year old Joey, usually not too far from a baseball field. On one particular Sundance-caliber reel, I round second base hard during a tee-ball game, pick up steam approaching third, touch the bag – and keep going. Heck, I can understand why. Between my nearby mom and the post-game snack spread (which I’m going to go out on a limb and say included Sunny Delight), third seemed like a logical stopping place.
About three weeks ago, I stepped onto that same field by Dale City Rec. Center. This time, I braved a single-digit wind chill to do flat-ground work with a high school buddy who hopes to make a comeback and pitch in junior college.
I could sit here and expound all day upon my own sports memories, my “war stories” (which I find to be a really misused term in this forum), but the above really says it all. Community sports journalism is in my marrow; it’s a huge part of me.
I’m fresh off a four-year, parent-subsidized vacation at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg. At the end of it, they made me dress up in fancy clothes and handed me a piece of paper that promises I’m really, really good at writing. That was last May. Two days after graduation, I accepted a post as a Cops and Courts reporter at a small hometown Va. paper.
Four months after that (keep track, we’re in August 2013 now) I landed at the Post – The Washington Post, that is. There, I wrote high school sports features – about a brave kid who eviscerates stereotypes about midgets and wrestling, and about the top high school football recruit in the country, Da’Shawn Hand. I drove through 26 miles of the worst traffic in America to work a late-night Sports Aide shift on L Street in Northwest D.C.
And now at 23, I’m yours, Palm Coast. I feel blessed.
