Wausau Pilot & Review
Starting this week, Wausau Pilot & Review will once again provide high school sports coverage for varsity teams in the Wausau metro area.
Since our launch in early 2017, we’ve been hearing steadily from readers who want more coverage of their favorite local sports teams. That effort came to fruition in 2018, thanks to a partnership with Central Wisconsin Sports’ Brian Kalish, who provided outstanding coverage during his tenure.
In 2020 when schools shifted to virtual learning, sports contests stopped altogether, and so did our coverage. We hoped to resume in the fall but when our sports director moved on to a new career path, we were left with few options. Initially, we signed on with a company that used artificial intelligence technology to generate sports stories. That was, to be frank, an unmitigated disaster, and we very quickly learned that no one covers sports better than actual people.
Now, we’ve teamed up with Paul Lecker, who provides robust sports coverage in the Marshfield area with MarshfieldAreaSports.com. Paul has been covering sports in Wisconsin since 1992, when he worked at the Oshkosh Northwestern. He was previously sports editor at the Kaukauna Times before taking over as sports editor at the Marshfield News-Herald in March 1999. Ultimately, Paul launched MarshfieldAreaSports.com to fill the increasing gap of providing local high school sports coverage to area fans who are not getting it elsewhere – exactly the situation we’re facing in Wausau. In 2019, he joined up with Zaleski Sports and has been working with the team since, expanding their coverage area this fall to include 22 schools in central Wisconsin.
Coverage will initially include Wausau East, Wausau West, D.C. Everest and Newman Catholic varsity contests, though you’ll also see roundups from other area teams. Paul is busy reaching out to athletic directors and coaches, and we’re looking forward to reading his work.
We’re incredibly excited about this partnership and we know it’s just one more way to connect our readers with the community we live in.
Want to sponsor our coverage? We have several opportunities available. Contact our advertising executive, Christina Kimball, at [email protected] for pricing and details.
Your membership dollars also support this coverage. Become a member today and enjoy a range of benefits – and know that you are supporting the work of local journalists who are on the ground, covering the stories that matter most to you.
Wausau Pilot and Review is a nonprofit, independent, online publication that focuses on local news and offers in-depth public service reporting in the community.
