Since its February 2022 inception, the Hauxeda has not only touted its approach to community-minded journalism, but the localness of its growing staff.
The nonprofit, independent news outlet has carried a Springfield stories, Springfield reporters tagline as a nod to a newsroom with a vested interest in the Queen City. They're either from the Ozarks or have lived here long enough to develop the sort of institutional knowledge you'd get from a multi-generational native.
Springfield isn't just a rung on their career ladders, it's home.
In the Daily Citizen's search for a full-time sports reporter — its first since launching 28 months ago and part of a recent expansion — it didn't have to look far, but it appears to have deviated from its usual hiring practice.
It hired me.
Most of my journalism career was spent in the Pacific Northwest, where my wooded North Idaho hometown near the Washington border sits roughly 1,700 miles from Hammons Field. There's Seattle Mariners, Seahawks, and Gonzaga University garb in my closet, and a Lake Coeur d'Alene sticker that is still stuck to the window of my pickup truck.
Its license plates read Missouri, though, and I'm proud of that.
After my parents, brother and nephew relocated to the rural Ozarks in 2021 to enjoy a slower pace of life, I made the eventual trek to southwest Missouri and became a features writer and crime reporter for the Springfield News-Leader. The position helped me get acquainted with Springfield for two years as I observed its robust sports scene from a distance, hoping a sportswriting vacancy would surface.
It did, but not at the media outlet I expected. I'm now ready to leverage 17 years of print journalism experience into a market that has a fervent interest in its teams, athletes and coaches.
I was blessed to have covered Eastern Washington University and Big Sky Conference athletics for The Spokane Spokesman-Review (no, EWU's red turf didn't burn my retinas), Washington State University basketball and prep football for the Lewiston Morning Tribune, and NAIA power Carroll College for the Helena (Montana) Independent-Record. There were other stops along the way, but those three helped me understand the importance of thorough community sports journalism better than most.
As the Daily Citizen embarks on a new sports journalism frontier beginning in mid-July, its primary mission is to ensure the most interesting stories are being told and told in a way that's representative of the city it covers.
Football and basketball at the prep and collegiate levels will obviously be major points of emphasis, but so is the diversity of our coverage.
- You're going to know a lot about that Division I volleyball recruit and what makes her different from most of her peers.
- Those state champion distance runners and wrestlers have stories to tell, and we want to hear them.
- The longtime Springfield Public Schools coaches and educators who helped shape the culture of their respective sports — you're going to learn about them, too.
Missouri Sports Hall of Fame inductee Lyndal Scranton will still be providing his insightful analysis on Missouri State University athletics, the Springfield Cardinals, and whatever else catches the longtime sports scribe's eye. Inheriting Scranton and other freelancers in this pursuit is akin to an NFL expansion team signing a Super Bowl-winning quarterback to help get other position groups up to speed.
The Springfield metro area's sports journalism landscape has dramatically changed in recent years, and it will continue to change. What won't go away, however, are the names, faces and the wide-ranging stories behind them.
The mission of the Daily Citizen since its launch has been to inform the community and be a catalyst for good. In a city with several tradition-rich high school programs, four college athletic departments, a St. Louis Cardinals affiliate and much more, there will be plenty of good for us to write about.
Ryan Collingwood is a sportswriter for the Hauxeda. Have a story idea or gripe? Send an email to rcollingwood@hauxeda.com, call or 417-837-3660, or follow Ryan on social media at X.com/rwcollingwood.
