And allow me to chime in momentarily.
Right now, we are absolutely buried in news about the Olympics. Pablo does a great deal of research, but he's not going to be in-the-know as much as the people here in Indiana are. From a national angle, he covers the bases and we (AWN) try to promote and preview as much high school wrestling as we can. On a national level, you won't find more information on such a broad range anywhere.
That being said, I did not have adequate time to fully edit the preview. Pablo is a volunteer, he is not a writer by trade. His efforts are for the sport of wrestling in altruistic terms. Is he a seasoned writer? No. Do we as a magazine have the budget to hire writers from around the country to provide specific insight on every state? No. Pablo writes these because he loves the sport.
He's a great guy who has used wrestling to pull himself up. He's not a journalist. He writes capsule-type previews and has a few contacts, but other than that, the broad scale preview is for the broad audience. You guys have IndianaMat for all your Indiana news, so naturally, people will disagree with what's being posted.
That being said, we've been working with him on improving his writing -- the guy busts his butt to put as much information out as he can in a written form -- a format that isn't just a list of credentials. He's been rough around the edges, but he filled a gap for us in a pinch and he's done a lot of work to not only improve, but to recognize a lot of wrestlers nationwide who don't fall in the realm of "elite."
I hope some of you can understand that in rebuilding a brand such as AWN, there will be some growing pains. I typically edit the content submitted, but rather than have this sit in my inbox untouched and be outdated, I did a quick troll of some things and posted it.
If it were going into the print version, I'd have cleaned it up something fierce.
Pablo isn't a writer, but he is doing the best he can and improving every day. I'd challenge the masses to try to do what he does on a weekly basis and see if they can have a grasp on so much information. In a bubble, yeah, there are better writers, but when that bubble covers the entire country and you're producing 5-6 web articles a week simply for the love of the sport, I find most would buckle under the challenge.
Pablo doesn't complain, he is eager to learn how to write better ... no outlet has put out more HS wrestling information than we have this year and Pablo's work ethic is tremendous, provided English isn't his first language either.
I'm all about feedback, but just wanted to put that bit of info out there.
JB