The best part of my job
There are few things in this world I enjoy more than feeling like a member of the Missoulian coverage area’s sporting community.
As a 16-year transplant to Missoula with no immediate family currently living west of Cleveland, I consider it an honor and a privilege to have forged myself a space among the area’s athletic family over the course of my nine years of writing sports for the Missoulian.
That’s where I’ve met some of the finest people I know and I’m now pleased to call many of these good folks my friends. Developing relationships with people like long-time Missoula soccer coach Geoff Birnbaum, Missoula Mavericks manager Brent Hathaway, Thompson Falls softball coach Randy Pirker, Hamilton activities director Darrell Holland and Whitefish volleyball coach Jackie Fuller, just to name a few, is what makes my job seem less like a job and more of a hobby.
But over the years it’s been the athletes themselves – high school, college and professional – whom I’ve had the most fun building relationships with.
It might come off as a simple pleasure, but I relish getting a chance to watch World Cup soccer matches with former Missoula Sentinel three-sport star and University of Montana soccer goalkeeper Grace Harris. Things like getting invited to a high school graduation party for athletes I’ve covered or going out for pizza with the parents of Maverick baseball players make me thankful to live in a community such as this.
I imagine I speak for the entire Missoulian sports staff when I say that it is with great pride that we strive to do our best to give these athletes and their coaches the recognition and credit they deserve.
So thank you athletes and coaches alike. Thanks for your dedication and thank you for making covering western Montana athletics for the Missoulian as enjoyable a job as I could possibly hold.
– Michael Heinbach
Michael, thanks for taking a positive interest in our children. It would be easy to write about a particular player having a bad day for the Mav’s, but you tend to avoid the obvious by putting something cleaver rather than blasting the young man. It is nice to know that you are not into censationalizing an article at the expense of a kid who is already feeling down. Hope you are enjoying the Mav’s ride this year! Hope the Mav’s can find a way to do what many a good Mav’s teams have failed to do over the past 12 years, win state. Thanks again, Don Griffith.
Thanks for the kind words, Don, and thanks for reading.