Bill Khan: Livingston County's people made this special place to work
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I didn’t want to be here.
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Now, it’s hard to walk away.
My master plan was to keep working as a sports writer at The Flint Journal for 50 years, like colleague Len Hoyes did from 1950 into Y2K. Fifty years would've taken me to age 68, so I wouldn't have been that old.
But while working in the daily newspaper business has been an absolute blast for me since I started as an 18-year-old college freshman in 1981, it has offered zero job security for about the past 20 years as readership and advertising have declined.
I survived the first bloodletting at The Journal in 2009, but was a victim of massive cuts at the end of 2011 just as I reached my 30-year anniversary.
Suddenly, I was a free agent.
At the time, I was working part-time in a running store in Flint to offset a large pay cut I got in 2009. I was running seriously at the time, so there was no place else I would rather work if I wasn’t writing.
Five months later, I was here at the Livingston Daily for the first of what would become three stints. My first go-around lasted only three months, the second 14.
I never really felt at home either time and I wasn't thrilled with the office-centric nature of the job. In my heart, I longed to be back in Flint at my old job covering familiar schools and calling my own shots. I continued working in running specialty on a full-time basis and would've been content to keep doing so if the pay was better.
When Tim Robinson was set to retire as sports editor here in 2015, he messaged me that the paper would be hiring a sports writer. The conditions of the job would be different in ways that made the third time far more appealing.
The editors took a chance that I wasn’t a flight risk and hired me in September 2016 after a drawn-out hiring process.
Since then, it’s been all I could have hoped for and so much more.
Livingston County hasn’t just been a place to work because Plan A didn’t pan out. It’s a place with which I’ve fallen in love at a deeper level than I ever expected.
Yes, it’s helped that the county happens to be strong in two sports I’m passionate about, cross country and hockey. I could justify all the time I devoted to those sports because the teams were often among the best in Michigan. Trips to MIS and USA Hockey Arena were highlights of my year.
But it’s the people I will miss the most as I leave the Livingston Daily for the final time, this time to retire in beautiful east Tennessee. I share many of the traditional values held dearly by many of the folks in Livingston County. Y'all are my people.
This is a special place, an oasis in this part of the state. Don’t let the media or anyone else tell you differently. People aren’t flocking here for no reason.
Parents instill in their children the values of hard work, treating others with respect and being good human beings. I’ve had the opportunity to interview hundreds of the young people raised in this area and, overwhelmingly, they are kids any parent would be proud to call their own.
I will miss my interactions with them. They not only help keep me young, but restore my faith in today’s youth. It has been a privilege to chronicle their achievements at an age when winning a championship or beating a rival is the best day of their life.
I can’t bid farewell without giving a shout out to two men who have made game nights special for me and greatly elevated our sports coverage, Tim Arrick and Dan Zeppa. Both are extremely talented photographers who have shot the majority of the events I’ve covered, especially over the past few years. They have also become two of my best friends. I will miss them immensely now that I’m living nine hours away.
Both of them photograph high school sports for the right reasons, seeking to capture memories for the kids. They both work extremely hard for very little pay, always coming through when I nag them for a photo at the last minute. While I’m retiring, readers and athletes in Livingston County will still benefit from having the photographers dubbed “1A” and “1B” behind the lens. Zeppa named the three of us “The Band.”
I never would have had a sports writing career if it wasn’t for Cy Leder, my journalism instructor at Mott Community College, or Dave Poniers, my sports editor my first 20 years in Flint. Both men have a special place in my heart.
As word of my impending retirement leaked, I had some wonderful interactions with parents, coaches and athletes who have wished me well.
When Hartland lost to Rockford in the semifinals of the girls soccer state tournament on June 9 in Grand Ledge, I knew that was the last game I would ever cover. My first was in 1979 as a high school junior at the old Fenton Independent.
So, I was already feeling emotional when several Hartland parents came up to me on my way out of the stadium to express their gratitude for my coverage over the years. I could not get back to my car soon enough, so nobody saw the tears welling up in my eyes. I'll always cherish that moment. It felt great to be embraced and feel appreciated for simply doing my job.
While I still feel energetic and love what I do, it’s time to move on and devote more time to my wife, Theresa, who has had to deal with her husband’s crazy schedule of working late nights and weekends.
I get to exit on my own terms, a privilege which isn’t afforded many journalists these days. Friday, July 31, was my last day, but you'll still see some of my fall top-five lists for the next week or so.
I hope you will continue to support the sports coverage at the Livingston Daily. This is the only media outlet in Livingston County consistently covering local sports. If the Livingston Daily goes away, so does media coverage for the area’s young people, especially those who don’t play football or basketball. Remember that when someone complains on Facebook about paywalls. We are not a charity or a nonprofit.
Thank you, Livingston County, for welcoming me as one of your own. Being here was not my plan, but I’ll be forever grateful my path led me here.
Contact Bill Khan at [email protected]. Follow him on X @BillKhan
This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Bill Khan: Livingston County's people made this special place to work