Colburn comments
Sports reporter
The Guinness Book of World Records is a jam-packed joyride through obscurity, featuring record-holders in oddball categories from vertical bowling ball stacking to longest strand of spaghetti blown out through one's nostrils (a record I have no plans of trying to break anytime soon).
Instead, I'm going to apply for my own boring little niche in the mix: longest time between regular installments of a weekly newspaper commentary. "Colburn Comments" last appeared in the Marion County Record in 1977, when this reporter still had a full head of hair and visions of a career in journalism that gave way to other pursuits.
So much has changed. Gone is my typewriter, and the hole where the Compugraphic phototypesetting equipment once sat seems cavernous and strange. I miss the smell of the hot melted wax we used for paste-up co-mingled with Monty Avery's ever-present pipe smoke. Most notably absent is my journalism mentor, Bill Meyer, though he's never far away.
Yet some things remain constant. My desk is still in a corner in the back room — as wise a decision today as it was three decades ago. Melvin Honeyfield is still here and remains one of the nicest and most helpful persons I've ever met.
But the greatest constant, evident after just two days on the job, is the commitment of the staff of the Marion County Record to bring you the best community journalism has to offer. I believe the role of a community newspaper is to be a good citizen, to be meaningfully engaged with its coverage area, and at the end of the day to have helped make life in its community better than what it might otherwise have been. The Marion County Record has remained true to this mission throughout its long history, and it's clear my new colleagues embrace it as well.
I'm proud to again be part of something like that, and I'll try to do my bit to make the Record a continuing, meaningful part of your lives.
And for old times sake, well, perhaps I'll just have to light up a pipe someday soon.
Looking Ahead to District Play
While I've often puzzled over the district system used to determine Kansas high school football playoff entries, this year the process is tailor-made to benefit a young Marion Warrior squad.
The system de-emphasizes records and conference championships by placing three playoff-determining district games at the end of the regular season. A young squad such as the Warriors has the chance to develop and gel as a team without being penalized for early losses. For all practical purposes, everyone enters district play 0-0.
More than a quarter of the 2005 Class 3A playoff teams entered the bracket with a losing record or just one game above .500. Getting six games under their belts before crunch time allowed many of those teams to develop into playoff-caliber squads in a system designed to give the edge to teams playing their best at the end of the regular season.
Marion's draw for district competition — Hesston, Hillsboro, and Remington — doesn't look easy.
Based on early results, however, the next four opponents the Warriors face could provide just the right opportunities for challenge and success that will cause this team to come into its own right as district play begins. If Marion's players can keep their focus on getting better each and every game for the next four weeks, regardless of wins and losses, they could well be in position to turn some heads in district play and make a serious run at the playoffs.
