Well, it’s time for this column. This is what you do, after all, when you move on in the journalism business.
My time with the StarNews has been slowly dwindling in 2023, my schedule going from Wilmington-centric tasks to those far beyond Southeastern North Carolina. And now, that crossover is complete. I have taken a new position within Gannett (the company that owns the StarNews), working with high school sports editors and writers around the country on doing what we can with the resources we have in front of us right now.
After all, I’ve lived it. The StarNews is in a new place now. Our staff has been through an enormous amount of change. It’s not easy. It’s a process that’s been filled with learning experiences and challenges.
But no regrets.
I loved being a part of the StarNews. I liked writing on occasion, for sure, but I was most content letting my team get out in the field and talk to athletes, parents and help them finish telling the stories that were here. Everyone that has been a part of the StarNews sports department – and all of the StarNews, honestly – wanted to see Wilmington be a better place through what we were doing, even if it meant writing things that people didn’t want to see.
Sports was never just about the games, and it never will be. When Rachel George wrote about the collapsing Jap Davis Field House at New Hanover High School in 2009, some readers said we were out to get someone. No, we were making sure a bunch of football players didn’t have a building fall onto their heads and kill them.
Eligibility issues. High school coaches coming and going. UNCW athletics’ success (and struggles, and decisions about nearly eliminating some of their sports). The Wilmington Hammerheads going, coming back, going again, maybe coming back again? High school athletes and their college commitments. Stories of those same athletes overcoming incredible odds and tragedy. State championships won, and lost.
We’ve had our share of advocates over the years, too. Chuck Kuebler. Thurston Watkins. Wayne Jackson at the front of them all. Those were the readers I loved. I truly do miss all of them. Curious. Demanding. Fair. Gracious. There aren’t many left like them. Which is unfortunate.
I was going to create a list of athletes I’d seen over my time here that made you go, “Wow.” I stopped at 50. And I hadn’t even gotten to high school baseball or college students. Some very talented individuals have made an appearance in Wilmington. I’m glad we got to share their stories with you.
I’ll still be in Wilmington. You might even see my name atop a StarNews story on rare occasion. But you’ll still be seeing plenty of Michael Cuneo’s byline when it comes to high school sports, UNCW and everything in between here in our corner of the world.
Wilmington’s changed a lot in the past 17 years. Most of it for the better. Some not so much. I’m glad I’ll be here to watch that evolution continue, and see the StarNews document it. I hope all of you, and your friends and new neighbors, do too.
