I never participated in athletics, but as a writer for many, many years covering high school sports, I鈥檝e seen the literal 鈥渢hrill of victory鈥 and 鈥渁gony of defeat.鈥

I have witnessed the raw emotion of state championship victories鈥and losses鈥and nothing hurts worse than losing in a state championship game, especially in the last few minutes. I can empathize with the players and coaches and the fans, but I can鈥檛 really feel what they are feeling.

That brings me to the story published at in which we ran a story from one of our sports writers covering the state championship between Shiner and Muenster. The sidebar story ran with the headline, “Shiner gets a taste of its own medicine in state title game.”

While the story jibed in context with the headline, meaning it wasn鈥檛 inaccurate, I understand that it was taken as insensitive, especially for a team that had worked so hard to get where it was Wednesday night. And as the managing editor of the Advocate, as they say, 鈥渢he buck stops here.鈥

I approved the headline and I allowed it to publish on our website, not fully seeing at the time the effect it might have on the players, the coaches, the parents and the town itself. It was late at night when the story was put into our system, but that is no excuse for my not being more sensitive to what the headline might mean to the people of Shiner.

And for that, I would like to take the time to sincerely apologize to everyone in Shiner and to the fans of the Comanches football team for allowing that headline to be published. I understand the players have put in long hours of hard work at practice and had a tremendously successful season and run through the playoffs.

For that to be tarnished by a headline like that is not fair to the team or anyone associated with it. Everyone in Shiner deserved better, and for that I am humbly sorry.

I did receive phone calls from irate fans, and deservedly so. Your anger is justified, and I hear you. Again, I鈥檝e seen the raw emotion from past teams I鈥檝e covered, and I realize just how important football is to the culture of Texas.

People make mistakes, and we in the newspaper business are certainly not immune to them. We鈥檙e human, too, but we should also own up to our errors and try to learn from them. I am asking for grace from everyone involved with the team either directly or indirectly.

The Advocate had already planned to do a season follow-up, win or lose, and it will still do that. Shiner鈥檚 second-place finish in the state of Texas deserves to be richly celebrated, and it is.

The team deserved a better fate. Not just in the state championship game, but also from The 足交视频 Advocate. Congratulations on a wonderful season.