A Fond Farewell

Steve Deshazo was friend and colleague to many at the Advance; he was the best friend that the 540's high school and college athletes had for 39 wonderful years. Here's his fond farewell.

By Steve Deshazo
GUEST COMMENTARY

Editor’s Note: The Advance is honored to run Steve Deshazo’s farewell column. We at the Advance were fortunate to work with him, and wish him well as he transitions from the Free Lance-Star to the next phase of his life.

YOU HAD ONE JOB.

One fascinating, fulfilling, occasionally frustrating labor of love for 39-plus years at The Free Lance-Star.  The only professional position I have held as an adult. One that required passion, devotion and a lot of late nights and weekends but provided exponentially more joy and satisfaction for a kid from Fredericksburg who grew up consumed by sports.

That journey ended involuntarily this week. Just as NFL teams face cutdown day, I’m among the latest casualties in a vitally important business where, like sports itself, the bottom line has become the basis for judgment. Newsrooms have shrunk dramatically in the past decade, and providing the quality and quantity of coverage that readers deserve has become increasingly challenging with decreasing resources.

Despite that, I’m immensely proud of the product we were able to present for the past four decades to the readers of Fredericksburg, who witnessed remarkable growth and memorable athletic performances. And it was a privilege and a thrill to be there to chronicle many of them.

I was proud to be in Atlanta in 1996 where Jeff Rouse finally won the individual Olympic backstroke gold medal that had barely eluded him four years earlier. It was also where his fellow Stafford High School alumnus, the late Mark Lenzi, capped a whirlwind comeback from retirement by adding a diving bronze to the gold he claimed in Barcelona.

Generation Z may not believe it, but there was a time when Washington’s NFL franchise was really good. I was there in Minneapolis on a snowy Sunday in January 1991 to witness its most recent Super Bowl victory. And I personally endured a lot of Dan Snyder-inspired ineptitude in the successive decades. It’s a little bittersweet to see the potential of Jayden Daniels and this year’s team just as my tenure is ending.

I got to cover the Capitals’ home playoff games during their 2018 Stanley Cup run and the Nationals’ unexpected World Series odyssey a year later. (My clothes still wreak of alcohol following the wild-card clubhouse celebration that year.)

I was in the Superdome to see Michael Vick’s breakout performance in Virginia Tech’s national championship loss to Florida State in 2000, and sat courtside for Maryland basketball’s 2002 national basketball title and George Mason’s improbable 2006 Final Four run. (I missed out on Virginia’s 2019 title as resources were starting to dwindle.)

There were dozens of bowl games, ACC and NCAA tournaments and games at Virginia Tech, Virginia, Maryland, George Mason, VCU, Richmond and elsewhere. I had the best view in the house for Charlotte Smith’s game-winning shot in the 1994 NCAA women’s basketball final at the Richmond Coliseum and was back three years later to see Darvin Ham shatter a backboard with a dunk.

Still, I never forgot that The Free Lance-Star primarily serves the readers of the Fredericksburg area, whose diverse rooting interests include plenty of college and professional teams, but also the local stars.

That meant 39-plus years of Friday night high school football, with late-night deadlines designed to bring the readers all the scores and highlights every Saturday morning. There were multiple state titles at Courtland, James Monroe and Spotsylvania, along with some memorable near misses. I got to watch future NFL players like George Coghill, Torrey Smith, Jermon Bushrod, DeAndre Houston-Carson, Joey Slye and Yetur Gross-Matos.

As sports editor, I tried to make sure women and girls got equal coverage whenever possible. So I was there for field hockey state championships for JM, Stafford and Chancellor, Louisa’s most recent softball state title and plenty of other playoff games, as well as the University of Mary Washington’s women’s basketball trip to the 2007 Final Four.

Of course, as with sports itself, the news isn’t always good. There were sad stories to tell.

Those included Lenzi’s too-soon passing in 2012; the shooting death of Baylor basketball player Patrick Dennehy, when Fredericksburg native Harvey Thomas’ name kept surfacing in rumors (though he was never implicated); and former Stafford swimming standout Devin Bateman’s tragic paralysis in a 2022 spring beak diving mishap.

My hope is that I (and we) handled those with respect and professionalism.

They keep stats in sports, and I long ago lost track of my number of bylines. My best guess is 2,500 columns in the 34 years since I assumed that role. I’d also estimate having driven well over 2 million miles to cover games and spending the equivalent of nearly two weeks of my life standing at attention for national anthems.

All of that pales compared to the honor of establishing relationships. I made lifelong friendships with upstanding folks like Rouse, Tony Beasley, Kurt Glaeser, Jimmy Jones and others too numerous to mention. Thanks to all the athletes who shared their time and stories and to the coaches and administrators who made my job easier.

I wish only the best to my longtime friend and colleague Jeff Schulze, our newest sports writer, Alex Murphy, and clerks Tom Leiss and Brandon Roberts as they carry on the good work at The Free Lance-Star.

Now it’s on to the next chapter, still to be determined. It’s been a hectic week, full of senses of loss and uncertainty. But I’m looking forward to having weekends off (at least for a while) and to occasionally shedding the objectivity required of a journalist to watch games as a fan. My 11-year-old car can use a rest after commuting from Arlington over the past seven years.

But I still plan on writing on sports (and other stuff) here. Feel free to read and share your feedback.

A sincere thanks to everyone who read, who reached out with praise (or criticism) over the past 39 years and who made The Free Lance-Star a great place to work for most of that time.

My name won’t be seen in print or online anymore, but I hope this isn’t goodbye. Let’s call it wait ‘til next season.

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