Cal Poly athletics / Submitted photoCal Poly’s Shannon Fouts dives during a sand volleyball match this season. Fouts, a 2013 Sisters High graduate, is one of two Central Oregonians playing the emerging sport this season.

We are sealed off from the world at nights.

When the doors close behind us, when we sit at our desks and soak in the glow of our computer screens, we sports reporters are essentially quarantined. Only a few windows offer us a peek at the outside world.

We are responsible for covering 13 high schools across Central Oregon that combine for 60 varsity sports teams — which can mean upward of 20 events on a given busy evening. Ideally, we will staff one game, maybe two, each day. But reporting resources are limited relative to the broad range of prep sports we attempt to cover.

The odds of touching on every program on the High Desert seem bleak.

Then a phone rings. Then another. And another. Coaches are calling in their results. The odds have moved in our favor.

Welcome to the sports department at The Bulletin, where, because of the steep teams-to-staff ratio, high school coaches and statisticians are relied upon greatly to help us get prep sports reports in the paper. Thanks to those coaches’ calls, in the next morning’s newspaper you will read about how your favorite local high school team fared.

Coaches and stat keepers often serve as our eyes, allowing The Bulletin to be a presence at each contest on any given afternoon or evening. They relay information and answer our questions before we construct an account that we hope tells the story of a particular contest. But without that call, we have no building blocks.

Fortunately, there are coaches like Miki McFadden, now in her third season leading Sisters volleyball.

“I just finished watching a game and have impressions — clear, recent impressions — about who did a good job in their positions,” says McFadden of how she puts together her phone report. “It’s just fresh on my mind.”

Fortunately, there are sources like La Pine girls soccer coach Scott Winslow, who in his 11th year at the helm has guided the Hawks to a 4-0-1 record — more victories than the last four years combined and the most single-season wins in program history. Yet even during those down seasons, Winslow was reliably prompt.

“Part of it is, I’m a teacher,” Winslow says. “Every game should be a learning experience. Getting that in the paper, having the kids realize that the final score may not be what we wanted but the effort on the field was your best … you know what? It’s in print. We can sit here and see that we are 4-0-1, and that has never happened.”

For some coaches, those reports are more than just printed scores and highlights. Just ask Ron Kidder.

“It’s our connection to the greater soccer community and sports fans in general,” says Kidder, the ninth-year Summit boys soccer coach. “That’s the greatest asset (of those reports). It’s a very strong connection to our community. … We might not have a huge turnout (for games), but I do talk soccer quite a bit with friends, co-workers, people I meet around town. A lot of what they learned, our successes and scores, come from those reports.”

Invaluable to us are those calls. And we especially appreciate the extraordinary efforts coaches sometimes make to get through to us — like persistently battling poor cell service on a road trip, making repeated calls until, finally, we connect. Win, lose, draw or drubbing, they are there to assist. Not only are we able to report a score, not only can we include statistics and a recap of an event’s highlights and/or key plays, we are able to get coaches’ reactions. We are able to get the story of a game, meet or tournament. And at times, we are able to uncover a story worth digging deeper into — one we might feature in a future edition.

But perhaps more important than how many goals were scored in an Intermountain Conference soccer match, arguably more significant than Crook County’s volleyball record in the Tri-Valley Conference, is the “who factor” of each phone call.

Because as you read about another Sisters volleyball win, you are seeing not just how many kills the Outlaws racked up but also which players led the way. You are reading the names of high school athletes whose efforts and exploits deserve some recognition.

“High school sports is not necessarily where kids get recruited (to play), but they can shine in their school environment with their friends and families,” McFadden says. “They care. You want to spread it around. It’s important they come back and feel good and special.”

“I think when they see their names in print, it just solidifies that,” says Winslow, who concedes that he enjoys seeing even his own name in the paper. “It’s huge. It’s a big boost. Everyone wants something positive coming from it, win or lose. Seeing your name in the paper is just a huge boost.”

Most days, we reporters are sealed off from the world once midafternoon rolls around. We keep tabs on Central Oregon teams better than anyone else — often with the help of the Internet and social media.

We are in the business of crafting stories. For 13 high schools and 60 varsity teams, that cannot be accomplished without the assistance of coaches and statisticians. We work diligently to provide timely, accurate and insightful reports, which are constructed upon foundational building blocks — the dozens of coaches and stat keepers who take it upon themselves and make it part of their routine to phone in their reports.

Our hats are off to you.

—Reporter: 541-383-0307, glucas@bendbulletin.com.