By Adam Drapcho and Julie Hart, The Laconia Daily Sun

On this episode of The Granite Beat, Julie and Adam talk with sports journalist Joshua Spaulding. He’s worked 20 years as a sports editor for the Salmon Press, which publishes weekly newspapers throughout central and northern New Hampshire, and currently directs and produces sports coverage for 11 newspapers. Over the years he has chronicled the stories of promising young athletes, some of whom have risen to professional or even Olympic competition. If you played high school sports in the Lakes Region or Northern New Hampshire within the past two decades, it's almost guaranteed that Josh has published your name at least once. 

Adam Drapcho:

Were you originally interested in journalism in general, or was it sports journalism particularly that interested you? How do you feel being known as a sports guy now?

Joshua Spaulding:

I don't think I was necessarily interested in either of them. I was an English major, but the opportunity to write sports came out of nowhere. I think because I know most sports (I still don't understand field hockey), I found that easier to jump into than I probably would have if I had been covering selection meetings or school board meetings or things like that, that I wasn't as familiar with. I was able to kind of jump into that a little bit easier than if I just covered the regular journalism areas. And being the sports guy is 1000 times better. Sports people report on people's accomplishments, while oftentimes news journalists will report on things that go bad for people. Sports journalists are almost always talking about people's good accomplishments, the good things that they're doing. And to me that's 1000 times better.

Adam Drapcho:

How many games do you go to in a year?

Joshua Spaulding:

A school year? One year I counted them and came up with 250 or so. But that was the year I went to the Olympics, so I missed two and a half weeks. Traditionally there's a game every day, with the fall season going from the end of August to the end of October, the winter season from the middle of December to March, and spring going from April to June. So at least one game every day, six days a week. Sometimes there are days where you go to two games, because there's one at 4 and one at 6 or something like that. So yeah, I would guess somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 to 250.

Adam Drapcho:

As Julie mentioned in the intro, you've watched several promising locals develop into world class athletes. I wonder if there's anything you've noticed that they have in common? Are there any characteristics that a young athlete might display to mark them as someone to watch for in the future?

Joshua Spaulding:

I don't know if there's a single characteristic. Unbelievable talent is helpful – I think if you have that, you can pretty much go as far as you want to take yourself. Probably one of the big things is drive, the willingness to put in whatever work needs to be put in to do it. I think that probably the most defining characteristic of people that I've seen move from high school to college and beyond. And I think that if you're willing to put in the time and the effort, that if you have that drive, that's going to help you a great deal and your talent will obviously take you the rest of the way.

Adam Drapcho:

Are there any particular athletes you'd like to hold up as exemplars of that kind of drive?

Joshua Spaulding:

Three of the people that I've seen that have made it the furthest are Jeff Locke, who pitched in the major leagues for a number of years and was an All-Star. I remember watching Jeff pitch, and that first game of his senior year they had about 18 or 19 scouts standing behind the backstop. The game was moved to a JV field because the varsity field wasn't ready, so it was this old dilapidated field on the underside of the railroad tracks and it's dreary, and the coach didn't want to start Jeff because he didn't want him to get hurt but couldn’t not start him because of all the scouts there to see him. Then Leanne Smith who was a three sport athlete in high school and was an Olympic skier in 2010 and 2014. While she excelled at skiing, she was also a very good soccer goalie and a great shortstop on the softball team. She was in skiing clubs all over the United States, but made time to ski for Kennett because she wanted to be part of a team – she made the time, she had the energy and the ability to make the time, to say hey, I want to do this. And the other one is Sean Doherty, who is now a three time Olympian in the biathlon, and he was a cross country skier. He was one of those kids. In cross country skiing he was just minutes ahead of everybody, and once you put the shooting part into it you can probably go a little bit further in those sports that are a little less recognizable. If you're willing to put in the time to work on those types of sports, it's probably going to help you.

Julie Hart:

We are fascinated by your coverage of the Olympic Games. I know that many, many local journalists have watched the Olympic broadcast and wish there was a way that they could be covering it, and you figured out a way to make that happen. Could you tell us when you first proposed covering the Olympics and how you got the approval to do it?

Joshua Spaulding:

I didn't propose it so much as I just said I'm going to do it. In 2012 I got myself on the press list for the US Ski Team, and they sent out an email saying credentials were open for Sochi for 2014. I figured Leanne was going to be there, and at the time Sean was a long shot to make it but there was a possibility, and I said, why not? It doesn't hurt to apply. So I did, and I got a call from a woman who worked for a newspaper in Buffalo, and she she asked me a bunch of questions about what I was going to do, what my plan was, what was going to happen when I was there, who I was covering, what I was covering – all sorts of questions. The weekly newspapers are pretty far down on the list of priority, so I'm like, I'm probably not going to get it. But I got it. I think it probably had something to do with being in Russia, maybe some other people weren't so keen on going. So when I got selected for Sochi 2014 I said to my bosses, you know, I have this opportunity, I have to take it. And I was going because this was my thing, this wasn't their thing. I set out that I was gonna raise the money to do this and pay it on my own and figure out a way to do that. There were a lot of fundraisers and people donated money, and then the company matched everything that I raised up to $5,000. I raised enough money with that matching to actually pay for the second trip to the Olympics. I never counted on the company paying my way. And at the same time, I also do my normal job while I'm there, so I have to write stories about what's going on here, and then write what's going on in the Olympics. I spend a lot of time just writing while sitting in the media center.

Julie Hart:

What are some of your favorite memories you'd like to share, particularly around cultural experiences during your international travels?

Joshua Spaulding:

I think the biggest thing that will forever stand out is going to the DMZ between North and South Korea. They offered these tours to the media where they put us on a bus and we drove up to enter the DMZ. We stopped at the DMZ Museum and then went out to this big lookout point, and from there you can just look out – it's still the wallpaper on my computer – and you can look right out and you can see the guard stations up in the mountain coming down, you can see right where the line was between North and South – they’re like that mountain is in North Korea, and miles of beautiful beaches with fences all around. And there was a big program going on at the pavilion where there was some woman playing the cello with bare feet, and some guy who drew United Korea on a piece of plastic and pushed his way through it with shaving cream. It was very weird. But being there was probably the most cultural thing I’ve seen.

This article is part of The Granite Beat, a project by The Laconia Daily Sun and The Granite State News Collaborative, of which Laconia is a partner. Each week Adam Drapcho and Julie Hart, will explore with local reporters how they got some of the most impactful stories in our state and why they matter. This project is being shared with partners in The Granite State News Collaborative.