My name is Peter Silas Pasqua and I am the new sports editor at the Bogalusa Daily News.
The newspaper has made me feel so welcomed in my first week in the Magic City.
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I had the unique opportunity to cover my alma mater, East Ascension, along with Dutchtown and St. Amant and a startup up program, Ascension Christian, at my previous employment and Donaldsonville and Ascension Catholic before.
I reported on every sport imaginable including football, basketball, baseball, softball, volleyball, swimming, cross country, soccer, wrestling, track and field and tennis.
Along the way, I got the chance to follow teams to four state title games. I covered individual state champions in track and field, swimming, and wrestling, but through five years, my beat has never delivered a team state championship.
I have seen many students sign athletic scholarships and move on to colleges anywhere from LSU to Alabama, Southeastern Louisiana, McNeese State to LSU-Eunice.
Now, I am taking on a completly new host of schools in a world two hours from home that I barely knew existed before interviewing for the position.
Bogalusa, Franklinton, Pine, Varnado, Bowling Green, Mount Hermon and Ben’s Ford now have my entire focus and I can’t wait till the new seasons begin.
My love of sports probably comes from the blood. There were many fanatics in my family growing up and my grandfather even once owned a racehorse.
The bug really got bad about the age of six during a New Year’s Day gathering at my aunt’s where five TVs were set up to different channels to be able to catch all the college football bowl games at once.
It intensified with the sucess of the New Orleans Saints in 1991. My passion led by chance to writing a piece on an old computer my dad had salvaged from work that ended up being published in the weekly newspaper. I continued to write a column etitled “How bout dem Saints” for the rest of the season.
I played football in high school but was undersized and dreams of making a living playing the game died.
Upon entering college at LSU, visions of becoming a veterinarian arose, but I flunked chemistry twice. Then, I recalled the thrill I felt as an 11-year-old to see my name in the paper for those stories I wrote and I found my calling.
I wrote for two student publications in college covering football to gymnastics and for the past five years have made a living following the game.
As much as I am excited at the opportunity before me, it’s somewhtat bittersweet. My grandmother passed away my first day on the job and we laid her to to rest Thursday.
She kept every article that I ever wrote that was published and I often wrote about her in my column.
She had six grandsons and we served as pallbearers, forming what could have been quite a formidable offensive line because for once, she needed us.
Ma Rose was 90 and ready to meet the Lord, everyone told themselves, but I don’t think anyone thought her passing would be that hard to take.
She was my only grandparent over the past 20 years and was there for anyone with what was needed. I went to see her with news of my job two days before she passed. She was conscious, but I felt so helpless.
As selfish as we all are, sometimes a point must be made that sometimes we really don’t need anything except maybe a hug.
I hope to be as good at providing you with what you need at The Daily News as she did in her life.
Peter Silas Pasqua can be reached at dnsports@wickcommunications.com.
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