Miles Vance Sports Journal is ready to cover it all in 2022-23

I’ve chosen to invest a bunch of my own money to cover Lake Oswego, Lakeridge and West Linn’s best.

I’m in.

I’m all in.

For those of you who may not know me or may not know my commitment to covering high school sports in Lake Oswego and West Linn, let me offer this — in the worst economy and business climate in a very, very long time, I’ve chosen to invest a bunch of my own money to launch Miles Vance Sports Journal (milesvancesportsjournal.com) for the 2022-23 high school sports season.

And I am in — all in — for the entire 2022-23 school year.

So the obvious question is this — what the heck am I thinking and why would anyone choose to do this now?

For me, the answer is both multifaceted and simple at the same time. Let me explain — covering high school sports is important to me, and I believe it’s important to the athletes and teams I cover, too.

The reason it’s important to me is easy. I lost my dad when I was 11 and my coaches — both in youth sports and in high school — gave me much-needed father figures while my teammates became lifelong friends.

For the teams and athletes I’ve written about for 33 years of my professional career, the coverage I’ve been able to provide has preserved memories, highlighted accomplishments, enabled college recruitment and much, much more.

I plan on doing that — preserving memories, highlighting accomplishments, enabling college recruitment and much, much more — in spades for the athletes at Lake Oswego, Lakeridge and West Linn high schools, and for youth and community sports in Lake Oswego and West Linn.

I am going to write more stories on more athletes and teams in those two cities than anyone else. I’m going to shoot and share more photos of more athletes and more teams at those three schools and in those two cities than anyone else. And I will interview and publish quotes from more local athletes than anyone else.

Covering high school sports has been the focus of almost all my professional career. Over the years, many people have asked me why I didn’t try to move on to write about college or professional sports. Why, they asked, didn’t I try to do something “bigger?”

For me, that might be the easiest question to answer in my life — it’s because I consider high school sports to be big in their own right. It’s because almost 95% of the athletes who play high school sports are playing competitively for the last time in their lives. And it’s because so many other reporters — too many in my view — don’t understand or acknowledge the importance of high school sports. Too many wish they were covering collegiate sports, the pros or something else they consider to be “bigger.”

For me, covering the teams and athletes from Lake Oswego and West Linn is big enough for me. And I’m going to do it bigger and better than anyone else. That’s why I’ve risked so much to launch Miles Vance Sports Journal in these perilous financial times.

I’m in. I’m all in.

I hope you’ll join me by becoming a subscriber.