It would be my hope that those who follow local and regional sports activities — both scholastic and recreational — are aware and appreciative of the comprehensive coverage presented here in the Daily News.

An ability to write, photograph and be in more than one place at the same time (well, almost, it seems) calls for one who is possessed of an almost indefatigable work ethic. One who has an enthusiasm for the job, and does it days, nights and weekends. And does it well. It is fair to say, also, that those who ply the waters of journalism, both print and electronic, most certainly are not among the richly rewarded, monetarily. An understatement.

My time as a sports editor of a daily newspaper, and as sports director for a television station, fully acquainted me with long hours, days and nights, weekends, thus leaving precious little time for personal and family matters. That’s not a lament, it’s just an honest assessment.

On the recreation sports front, the expanded seasons — i.e., all-stars, travel teams (a whole ‘nother matter) — simply add to an already overloaded reporter’s workload.  This is especially so for a small newspaper that employs only one full-time person to cover such a diversity of sports activities.

As I opined in the opening paragraph, “It would be my hope that those who follow local and regional sports activities — both scholastic and recreation — are aware and appreciative of the comprehensive coverage presented here in the Daily News.

While Dave Cucchiara does an excellent job in his coverage of so many different sports activities, his knowledge of soccer is remarkable, and this comes through in his writing.

More specifically, I hope people appreciate all that Dave does in his role as sports editor.

He is one hard working dude.

And a nice fellow, too.