The Takeaway Check, Issue #100
Keeping it 100: How this newsletter started and where it's gone
Former ESPN host Tony Reali posted a note on Substack on January 11 about being a “content creator.” He noted he’s always been in that industry, but for it to mean something, the creation aspect has to be as important as the content.
He wrote:
“You can make a video, a show, a newsletter — anything — but the point isn’t just to fill space and hope it goes.
The point is to make something that moves someone.
That’s why platforms like Substack can grow in a real way: not because of hacks or algorithms but because something lands with a person and they carry it forward.
That’s when it stops being content and starts being creation.”
I’ve always hesitated calling my works “content” because of the negative connotation that it’s something churned out for a quick click or like. But I love the way Reali positions it alongside his take on creation.
When I started this newsletter in February 2024. I wanted a place of my own — outside of social media — to build an audience and share my work.
My original idea was to share whatever lacrosse media I enjoyed that week — an article, podcast episode, video, or other — and write about why I thought it was important or what part of it stood out the most. My takeaways, if you will (a phrase I can’t say to myself without thinking of Dusty Rhodes). I also figured it would be a fun way to share quotes from my interviews that I liked but didn’t fit in the story I was writing, a sort of “deleted scenes” DVD extra.
That quickly evolved, however, into stories of my personal experiences as a writer, a coach, a teacher, and a parent.
I know some of my audience arrived here because of my work writing about lacrosse, and I’ve had some fun trying to write outside the box, pondering the first retired number for each PLL team or who would be the pairings for an NBA-Jam style PLL video game. Breaking down the best pro lacrosse draft classes and impactful pro lacrosse trades were nostalgic hits.
The newsletters that have gotten the most engagement, however, are the personal ones. Theres the one about the crucial lesson I learned watching Bluey. There’s the one about my son competing in a halftime diaper derby contest. There was the one about my first practice coaching my daughter’s co-ed U6 soccer team. There was the one about appreciating the sibling bond my young children have.
Those were the ones people emailed me about. They were the ones people said hit home, the ones they said they shared with their kids that just had their own children, the ones they said they enjoyed getting to know me as a person better.
As I now hit 100 posts here, on my birthday, I want to say thank you. Thank you for subscribing. Thank you for reading. Thank you for sticking around even if the issue on a given week wasn’t your favorite subject or content.
Some weeks, it isn’t the easiest to keep up with this newsletter. Maybe I just have a lot of my freelance writing due or papers to grade, and I should use the time on those things. Or I should get some sleep. Or I just have writer’s block and am not sure what I want to say.
But getting your feedback and knowing that at least one person is truly feeling something because of what I’ve created motivates me.
Here is to 100 more posts.
Recent Stories:
“Prep Spotlight: Why Middlesex is primed for a bounceback year’” (New England Lacrosse Journal
“‘He’s a real competitor’ — Australia’s U20 star Hudson Robb makes the senior team with an eye on the 2027 Men’s Championship” (World Lacrosse)
“Offensive leader Dylan Molloy re-signs with Redwoods” (Premier Lacrosse League)
Social Media:
@PShore15 (X, Bluesky, & Instagram)
Find more of my work:
