A Word from the Publisher
Introducing Mississippi’s Youth Sports Magazine!
Many of us have enjoyed great times on youth sports fields in the
Magnolia State. Sports mean a lot to our children’s (and our own)
physical, emotional and spiritual development.
That is the motivation behind this fun, uplifting new publication—The
Sporting Spirit.
The Sporting Spirit will cover Mississippi youth sports statewide
concentrating on recreational and select baseball, softball, and soccer.
We’ll also cover some tennis, golf and cheerleading.
The Sporting Spirit will drop 20,000 copies monthly at dozens of sports
complexes statewide plus key traffic areas in larger cities.
Youth sports fields today are the front porches of yesterday. Neighbors
once gathered on front porches each evening to chat and watch children
play in the yard; all that happens now at the baseball, softball and
soccer fields. And it’s a much better use of our time than TV!
I have children playing baseball, softball and soccer. As a father of
five—age 8 through 15—there are few places I’d rather be than a youth
sports field. My partner, David Adams, feels the same way about spending
time with his girl and boy.
The Sporting Spirit wants to work alongside parents, youth sports
organizers, and parks and recreation directors to celebrate the best in
our state’s youth sports culture. We hope you’ll find our pages
informative and character-driven.
For instance, The Sporting Spirit …
• Will write about the actual children, parents, coaches and sports heroes;
• Will run “how-to” and “who’s who?” articles;
• Will run advice on handling hot game days, eating right, and other
matters;
• Will run rankings, gear updates and columns by top trainers and coaches.
Your participation is invited! We welcome article ideas and submissions.
Send us your child’s photos at www.thesportingspirit.com. Your child can
also take our website’s players’ polls—voting on favorite teams.
Let me know any way we can improve. Thanks to many of you who’ve already
pitched in with photos and advice. We truly hope each of you will
consider The Sporting Spirit your magazine.
Joe Maxwell
Publisher and Editor
joe@thesportingspirit.com
About us:
Joe Maxwell, 45, has 19 years of full-time journalism experience with
two Chicago newspapers and three national magazines. He freelances for
many publications, has authored several books and teaches journalism at
Belhaven College.
David Adams, 41, has 19 years of sales, sales management, and marketing
experience and has won industry recognition in all. A former scholarship
football player at Vanderbilt University, Adams has a growing
photography business which can be viewed at www.dbaart.com.