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Things happen for a reason · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Things happen for a reason. Written by Kevin Hyeronymous. This
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  Speaker 1: article is being read by an automated voice brought to
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  Speaker 1: you by Everlet. I've done a lot of reflecting as
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  Speaker 1: my time here at the BCR has been winding down
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  Speaker 1: this past month. I keep coming back to the words
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  Speaker 1: of the wisest man I have ever known, my dad,
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  Speaker 1: doctor Emlyn Hieronymous. It was March of nineteen eighty six
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  Speaker 1: when I landed what I believed to be my dream
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  Speaker 1: job as sports editor of a brand new newspaper in
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  Speaker 1: Saint Louis at the age of twenty four after working
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  Speaker 1: two years in Morton. The MLB season was set to
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  Speaker 1: begin and I was going to cover the Saint Louis
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  Speaker 1: Cardinals on a regular basis. Life was good. Not so fast.
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  Speaker 1: On the opening day of the nineteen eighty sixth season,
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  Speaker 1: I was thrown a curveball. That new newspaper, the ill
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  Speaker 1: fated Daily News, folded after just two weeks, and before
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  Speaker 1: I could say Whitey Herzog, I was out of a job.
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  Speaker 1: About it as quickly as I started it. While I
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  Speaker 1: was able to land a correspondent position writing feature stories
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  Speaker 1: for the Cardinals magazine for six or seven years, it
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  Speaker 1: was not going to pay the bills. That's where the
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  Speaker 1: words of my dad come to mind that has stuck
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  Speaker 1: with me all these years, telling me things happened for
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  Speaker 1: a reason. Son, They sure did. The good Lord led
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  Speaker 1: me to Bureau County. About six months later. I heard
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  Speaker 1: about the job opening at the BCR, but I didn't
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  Speaker 1: really know where Princeton was. Princeville had a regional championship
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  Speaker 1: basketball team at the time in the Peoria News, and
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  Speaker 1: I remember that's where I first thought I was going.
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  Speaker 1: I was offered the job on the day of my interview,
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  Speaker 1: Thanks Jim Dunn. My answer to why things happened for
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  Speaker 1: a reason came to light. My coworker, Stephanie Peterson de Maay,
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  Speaker 1: arranged for me to meet a cousin of hers by
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  Speaker 1: the name of Cammie Hildebrand of Lamoil. I married that
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  Speaker 1: local farm girl. Then came our two girls, Brook and Brinn,
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  Speaker 1: and that reason was complete. You were right, Pop. As
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  Speaker 1: a growing up in the sports hotbed of the little
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  Speaker 1: central Illinois town of Atlanta, it was sports twenty four
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  Speaker 1: to seven for me and my hometown buddies, Kip Cheek,
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  Speaker 1: Scotty Noleman, John Thompson, Kellyfoznik, Brett robabas On, Scotti Wickoff,
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  Speaker 1: Stan Lowry, Rick Miller, Matt Compton, Joey Applegate, and Kirk Egems.
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  Speaker 1: If we weren't playing basketball in my driveway, we were
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  Speaker 1: shooting hoops in the hayloft out at our family farm.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe it was a game of football interception as we
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  Speaker 1: called it, with a quarterback, receiver and defender. Or we
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  Speaker 1: were playing baseball or whiffle ball at the school yard
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  Speaker 1: or ballpark. When we got the call from Randy Kindred
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  Speaker 1: to play with the older kids in town at his
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  Speaker 1: barnyard field, it was like getting called up to the
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  Speaker 1: big leagues. It was the fastest parade of boys on
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  Speaker 1: bikes you would ever see ride through town. Those games
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  Speaker 1: were what a great childhood was made of. I always
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  Speaker 1: dreamed of playing for the Saint Louis Cardinals one day,
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  Speaker 1: but never made it past the Corn Valley base League
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  Speaker 1: in Bloomington Normal. So I plotted a course to become
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  Speaker 1: a teacher and coach one day. Wanted to be just
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  Speaker 1: like my grade school coach Storm and Norman Mueller coaching
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  Speaker 1: grade school basketball or high school baseball. If you would
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  Speaker 1: have asked me what I was going to do for
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  Speaker 1: a living. Then that would have been my answer. But
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  Speaker 1: at the same time I answered an ad for a
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  Speaker 1: sports writer in the ISU student newspaper, the Daily Vedet.
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  Speaker 1: My trial assignment was covering rugby. While I knew nothing
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  Speaker 1: at all about rugby. I must have done good enough
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  Speaker 1: to get the job. I think covering something new made
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  Speaker 1: me a better reporter having to ask many questions about it.
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  Speaker 1: My first job interview for teaching, believe it or not,
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  Speaker 1: sent me to Ohio High School. Had I got that job,
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  Speaker 1: as I recall, I was either going to be the
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  Speaker 1: girls' basketball coach or Lloyd Johnson's boy's assistant. Wouldn't that
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  Speaker 1: have been a fun ride with Lloyd's nineteen eighty five
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  Speaker 1: and nineteen eighty six Bulldogs. I continued to pursue a
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  Speaker 1: job in both fields, teaching as well as sports writing,
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  Speaker 1: landing my first job at the newspaper in Morton. Got
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  Speaker 1: off to a great start, covering the Potters nineteen eighty
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  Speaker 1: four state baseball champions and Washington's nineteen eighty five state
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  Speaker 1: football champions. Three years later, I returned to Bureau County
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  Speaker 1: after that Ohio interview, landing at the BCR. Things do
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  Speaker 1: happen for a reason. Becoming a sports writer is for
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  Speaker 1: guys like me who love sports but aren't good enough
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  Speaker 1: or get too old to keep playing. There's not a
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  Speaker 1: lot of pay and there's a lot of late nights,
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  Speaker 1: but the rewards exceed any shortcomings. Over the course of
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  Speaker 1: the past forty years at the BCR and forty two
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  Speaker 1: years overall, I've met a lot of great people, from kids, coaches, officials,
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  Speaker 1: school administrators, parents and other media members. I've maintained relationships
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  Speaker 1: with some of those first kids from Morton and the
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  Speaker 1: early days at the BCR, like the Tiger Style run
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  Speaker 1: in Wild kids, to the current crop of kids. Just
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  Speaker 1: when I thought I had written my last story, I
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  Speaker 1: was pleased to be able to write one more time
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  Speaker 1: sharing about PHS Senior, Bella Clevenger's cancer journey. It's kids
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  Speaker 1: like Bella and their stories that have made my journey
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  Speaker 1: so meaningful. This will be my final Hieronymous Hypothesis sports
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  Speaker 1: column in the BCR. I thank you for all of
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  Speaker 1: you supporting and inviting me into your homes all these years.
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  Speaker 1: Things most certainly happen for a reason. God bless you all.
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  Speaker 1: Kevin Hieronymous has proudly been the BCR Sports editor since
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  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty six. He is retiring at the end of
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  Speaker 1: the month.