As I reignite my sports writing career with AZPreps365.com, I feel need to explain where I’ve been all this time.

It’s kind of like a gap in your work history when someone is looking at your resume and there is nothing listed for X amount of years. The question is bound to come up in the interview – so what happened between 2018 and 2025?

The best I can explain is life.

It became so much, all at once, that I even created the #ReinventingJPS hashtag to document it all.

Trust me when I say if I could have kept writing all of those years, I would have never left this space.

From 1993 to 2018, I worked in five different states at large papers like the Dallas Morning News, Orange County Register and Arizona Republic and national sites like MaxPreps as the Arizona content editor and the Associated Press as the Cubs beat writer during spring training.

To be honest, though, where I thrived the most and connected to the work most came at the smaller papers like the Medina Gazette (Ohio), Ahwatukee Foothills News and East Valley Tribune.

There were also start ups that went nowhere in CoachesAid.com (national) and MyNewsMesa.com (local).

I tried to get back in here and there. There was a short time at ArizonaVarsity.com thanks to Ralph and Chilly, but life was full of transition back then I couldn’t give it the attention it deserved to the premier high school site in the state.

I also worked previously for AZPreps365.com on the Friday night show for a couple of seasons with Mike Grose but that stopped once COVID hit.

The reality was my personal life was changing because of a failed marriage and I suddenly faced a mortgage and raising a daughter without the help of a rather large second income.

That meant piecing together income through freelancing, or radio gigs once a week for 10 weeks or so wasn't going to cut it. I had several jobs during that time, but nothing that was a career. Nothing that got me out of bed in the morning that fulfilled me like writing about sports.

One of those jobs, however, was working at the now defunct Not Your Typical Deli in Gilbert. Place was amazing, and not because of the Reuben or turkey club. About 70 percent of the staff at the deli were individuals who were on the spectrum and I have always connected well with those with special needs.

My connection with some of those fellow employees was noticed by a consultant at the Deli who happened to be the Gilbert school district special education coach and she pushed me to apply for special education teacher jobs. She guaranteed I’d be hired.

So I clicked on anything SPED and English figuring my writing background would help.

About four months later, I received a text that didn’t have a name saved in my contacts and it read:

Hey Skoda,

Do you still want to be a teacher?

It came from a fellow softball parent who happened to be principal at a Gilbert elementary. Our daughters played together years earlier.

Next thing I know, I am interviewing to be an educator.  

At the end of the interview, I found out having a bachelor’s degree wasn’t enough. So not only was I taking on a new career at 48 while going through a divorce, I also had to go back to being a full-time student for the first time in 25 years or so.

It didn’t exactly leave time to write as a hobby or side gig so I kind of pulled away from the high school scene but kept tabs as best as I could.

Then as I graduated from Rio Salado (with 17 As and one frigging B) and finished my second year of teaching, it coincided with my daughter entering high school. As she was deciding what high school to attend we went on a tour of Williams Field.

Out walks the principal – a former wrestling coach that I interviewed several times over the years – and the next thing I know, he and three of his colleagues are interviewing me.

So my daughter and I both became Black Hawks. What a true blessing that I was able to be in the same school as her and then also be in the same dugout for all four years in what was a glorified scorekeeper/coach.

I assumed after she aged out of little league my time of being able to support her, watch her intercact and celebrate with teammates were over and I'd be that parent in the stands watching her do her thing.

Instead I was able to see every single at bat, be on the bus rides and watch the program grow into one that set the school record in wins and her into an all-region player all from my little corner - The Best Seat in the House - of the dugout while sitting on a bucket.

I will cherish every moment for the rest of my life. Amazing blessing that 99 percent of parents don’t have that privilege. Very thankful for those four extra years I had with one my one and only child.

While all this was happening, I managed to keep myself in touch the Arizona high school scene as I started the journalism program with a large focus on sports for some reason.

In order to keep in touch with his journalism background, Jason Skoda started the journalism program and school newspaper at Williams Field.

Then in 2023 I started teaching Intro to Sports Reporting at Arizona State, which happens to have a partnership with the AIA and AZPreps365.com. There were some talks of possibly joining the writing staff, but I knew it wasn’t going to happen until after my daughter’s playing career ended, which happened when the softball regular season came to a close in May.

And before I knew it, I was helping out with postseason coverage a few days later and did like 10 stories in 14 days. I was rusty, and made a few mistakes, but it fired me up and put me back into the flow of writing about high school sports.

It’s what I was meant to do. It may have taken me a bit to get back to it, but in the back of my mind I hoped this day would come someday.

So here we are. And I do mean we. The high school sports media in Arizona is a pretty special. Thankful to be part of it again

And now I can close that gap on the ole resume.