The "A Stressful Month" Story

The 2014 Manheim Township High School
 Blue Streak Baseball Yearbook

It was an oridnary day.  Looking at the finished result from my efforts over the past month.  During that time I was busy working on the annual Blue Streak Baseball Yearbook.  Have been doing it since 1988 when my oldest son played for the high school team.  Back in '88 coach Dave decided that the Manheim Township High School team needed a support group, primarily parents, so he started the Dugout Club.  Naturally I had to be a member and since I taught printing at the school I was asked to print a yearbook that we could sell at games to raise money for incidentals that the team might need.  First year I did everything on the book, except sell it.  I did the bios on the players, composed all the pages, sold some ads, designed the cover, ....... I think you can see what was involved.  This year I had help from Dan whose son is a senior catcher on the team.  He saved me a bunch of time and I thank him for that.  He sold almost $3,000 worth of ads as well as gathered all the info from all the players for their bios.  Adam, a junior in college studying computer science and a former student and baseball statistician for the Blue Streaks, composed all the bios as well as updated the team records which appear in the yearbook.  I worked on the coaches bios, schedule page, patrons pages and a variety of other pages.  Then I made a visit to the school to take individual photos of the players and coaches.  Designed the layout using InDesign CS5 and popped the photos into my layouts.  For the past three years a local national printer had volunteered to print the 64-page book for free, so I gladly relinquished that job.  The book looks at great as ever and I'm sure they will sell the majority of the books printed.  I still enjoy my involvement with the school where I graduated as well as taught for many years, but I am finding the yearbook to be a rather large task.  That is until I see the final result and realize I am a part of it.  Not sure what my plans will be for next year, but when the time rolls around I'll probably be ready for another stressful month until the yearbook is once again published.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.