My Goodbye to the Clovis Roundup

One of my favorite memories was the 2021 spring high school football season, capped by a 5-0 Buchanan High championship team featuring safety Camryn Bracha (Photo: Elon Paige)

After two years and seven months writing for the Clovis Roundup, I am stepping away from the newspaper that gave me my first chance in journalism and will forever hold a special place in my heart.

The timing felt right for this move. As I aim to finish college strong and graduate from Fresno State in May with a degree in broadcast journalism, the next chapter of my life is nearly here.

I could not ask for a better college experience than the one I received writing for the Clovis Roundup. The newspaper owner, Donna Melchor, and editor-in-chief, Billy Xiong, took a chance on some kid fresh out of Edison High School with zero – I repeat, zero, zilch, nada – experience in journalism.

I made my fair share of mistakes and learned on the job, but nothing would have been possible without the patience of Donna and Billy. Writing for the Clovis Roundup was never something I had to do; it was something I got to do.

I got to interview current Georgia Bulldog and National Champion running back Kendall Milton while he was at Buchanan High School. I got to watch Cole Anderson scorch basketball nets at Clovis West before he took his talents to UC Santa Barbara. I got to cover one of the most loaded baseball lineups in recent Central Valley memory, the 2021 Buchanan Bears. Most recently, I got to do something I never dreamed of when I took the job in August of 2019, which was to cover a high school basketball team all the way to the state championship.

The 2022 Clovis North boys’ basketball state playoff run was memorable and the fitting end to my time writing for the newspaper. They represented everything great about Clovis. Resilience. Toughness. Pride. Even after they came up just short, they held their heads high because nobody expected that scrappy group of Broncos to reach the big stage and bright lights of Sacramento – except themselves.

That team left their mark on me. But they are not the only ones. Every single coach who allowed me at practice, every single player who granted me an interview, and every single parent who welcomed me into their community – they all left a profound impact on me. I never knew I loved high school sports until I met those people, and that would not have been possible without the Clovis Roundup.

Because of that love, I am not leaving the Central Valley high school sports scene. I will still flood your Twitter timelines with stats, scores, and updates on how your team is doing. My high school sports coverage will not stop, just merely shift from writing for the newspaper.

In closing, I want to thank everyone who read and followed along with my coverage for the Clovis Roundup. I hope I made high school sports as enjoyable for you as you made it for me.

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Gabriel Camarillo has written for the Clovis Roundup since August 2019 and follows high school athletics, Fresno State football and former Clovis Unified student-athletes. Gabe also writes for The Collegian as a staff sports writer and works at One Putt Broadcasting as a board op for 940 ESPN radio.