Meet the new boss

I’m the new sports editor at The Vindicator and it’s all Mike Sparks’ fault.

I don’t know Mike Sparks. Never met him. I don’t know where he lives or what he’s doing today. But I owe him a debt of gratitude.

In 1985, both of us applied for a part-time job in the sports department at The Star-Beacon in Ashtabula. The ad was too good to be true for an 18-year-old just out of high school, so I applied and eventually was called in for an interview. I met with Karl Pearson, the newspaper’s sports editor, and tried to make a case for myself.

I couldn’t have been very convincing, because Mike Sparks got the job. The duties were typing up sandlot results, taking reports over the phone and typing in weekly TV listings, including a bunch from some fledgling network called ESPN. It wasn’t the most glamorous gig, but I figured it was right in my wheelhouse and I was crushed when I didn’t get it.

But I moved on to something else. A friend lined up jobs at a nursery for my friend Dan Ciolek and I. We loaded potted plants onto a flatbed trailer, moved them from one area to another and then unloaded them.

Repeatedly.

All. Day. Long.

By lunch time on the first day, Dan and I knew this wasn’t what we wanted to do with the rest of our lives. Or even for the rest of the afternoon. But we were troopers and certainly not quitters. At least not until the end of the day, when we let the boss know we wouldn’t be back the next morning. He took it better than we expected, in that he resisted the urge to hit us with a shovel.

And, oh, by the way ... can we get paid for today?

But then a funny thing happened just a few days later. Mike Sparks left The Star-Beacon. My dream job was open again. Karl called, asked if I was still interested and if so, when I could start.

Immediately, it turned out. I spent six years at The Star-Beacon, where Karl and some other patient co-workers somehow found a way to teach what they knew to a kid who already knew everything. I guess I did some things well enough that Karl began to trust me with bigger and better assignments as I juggled school and work. Later I moved to newspapers in Willoughby, Meadville, Pa., and Warren.

I spent almost 18 years in Warren, including the last seven as sports editor at the Tribune Chronicle. Maybe — unlike Mike Sparks — I’ve already met some of you along the way as I covered the Youngstown State football teams of Jim Tressel, Jon Heacock and more recently Eric Wolford. Maybe our paths crossed on other beats. If not, I hope what you’ll find in this space in the weeks to come and your feedback will allow us to get to know one another.

I’ve been entrusted with the keys to The Vindicator sports section and I’m honored and humbled. Aside from Wolford’s gig, this is the best job in one of the best sports towns anywhere. And since I have no shot to coach the Penguins, I want to make the most of my new position.

Newspapers have changed exponentially since 1985, when the printed product was all we knew. Today, we must connect with readers on a variety of platforms and in ways no one (with the possible exception of Al Gore, who invented the Internet) could have imagined.

Karl, my first boss in the business, died a year ago. He is the person most responsible for me being here. But if not for Mike Sparks, I might never have gotten into this labor of love. I hope, wherever he is and wherever life took him, he has enjoyed the ride as much as I’ve enjoyed the one that brought me here.

Ed Puskas is the sports editor at The Vindicator. E-mail him at epuskas@vindy.com.