Beginning a new ‘season’

Goodbye and hello.

On second thought, 'see you later” and 'welcome back.”

After a summer that seemed to fly by as fast as bass boat in a fishing tournament on the Mississippi, this 'Your Page” is taking its annual hiatus to make room for fall sports, specifically college football coverage.

Next Sunday 'The Final Score” will return with four pages of Iowa football coverage. Throw in our Iowa State, UNI and small-college coverage, sprinkle in high school events and, well, our Sports section fills up pretty quickly.

It's a good thing, a time of year sports fans look forward to all summer. But it's also hard to say goodbye to our outstanding community contributors and the great stories they've shared since last November.

So let me thank all who contributed, including regulars like Darren Schumaker with his great tales from Team 99 Counties, Cody Scharf and Adam Rees with their wonderful fitness tips, Erin Moeller with her unique stories about running and life, Steve Charters with his useful golf tips and Rick Hollis with his outdoor adventures.

We also had a couple of newcomers this year - Bill Johnson with his outstanding series on M&J League baseball and Kate Connell with her yoga advice.

It's exactly the kind of content we wanted to share with our readers when we started this project and we hope you've enjoyed it.

We will continue to run community stories from time to time, when space allows, throughout the year and the 'Your Page” will return in late November.

Which brings us to the next phase, one I'm always thrilled to announce.

We welcome back our High School Journalism program for its fourth year. This program started as vehicle to simply publish stories and photos by aspiring journalists at www.iowaprepsports.com, letting high school students tell their stories about their schools, athletes and coaches.

It has grown to so much more.

When I visit area high schools, the talks center around the importance of writing well, the value trusted news still has in our fast-paced society and where this business is heading.

Contributing students will be eligible to win one of three Kindle Fire HDX tablets after each season and, as always, two $500 scholarships at the end of the school year. Chase Lynn from Dubuque Senior and Daniel Vega of Cedar Rapids Xavier were last year's scholarship winners.

If you'd like to learn more about the program or have me visit your school, you can reach me at the email address below.

l Comments: (319) 368-8696; jr.ogden@thegazette.com