Fifty years of covering more than 700 high schools like they were the only school, writing about thousands of athletes as if they stood alone.<\/p>\n
\u201cLos Angeles is so big, I try to treat it like a small town,\u201d Sondheimer said. \u201cAnd I love writing about that town.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fifty years on messy sidelines, in crowded bleachers, facing angry coaches, locked in ancient stadiums, juggling impossible deadlines, all for the sake of writing deeply buried stories that might be read by only family and friends.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut when a parent comes up to me and thanks me for writing about their child, it\u2019s the greatest feeling in the world,\u201d Sondheimer said.<\/p>\n
Fifty years of childhood tales about countless young athletes, stories about future Hall of Famers, he was their first interview, stories about anonymous benchwarmers, he was their only interview, stories filling dusty scrapbooks and crooked picture frames in parents\u2019 houses all over the Southland, stories about teenage John Elway and whiz kid Tiger Woods and some anonymous sprinter from Taft.<\/p>\n
And, now, finally, a story about him.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s all join in a big pep squad cheer \u2014 gimme an E! \u2014 for Eric Sondheimer\u2019s 50th anniversary covering high school sports in Southern California.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just love telling people\u2019s stories, especially those that might not get told,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He celebrated this story as one might expect, driving all over creation last weekend to cover two league media days, then driving to Las Vegas this weekend to cover St. John Bosco\u2019s opener against Bishop Gorman.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy job is my life,\u201d says Sondheimer, 67, who has been the chronicler of the sporting lives of three generations of athletes from San Clemente to Santa Barbara.<\/p>\n
![\"Eric](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787491212_20_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Eric Sondheimer shoots a video with his cellphone from the scorer\u2019s table while covering a basketball game.<\/p>\n
(Nick Koza)<\/p>\n
For the last 30 years, The Times has been the beneficiary of those efforts, as former Valley and Ventura edition sports editor Mike Hiserman smartly grabbed him from his long prep tenure at the Daily News in 1997 and eventually turned him loose on a region that is the greatest athletic factory in the country.<\/p>\n
The results can be found today in professional locker rooms around the country, today\u2019s stars never forgetting the 5-foot-4 bulldog who gave them their first headline.<\/p>\n
This columnist first realized the scope of Sondheimer\u2019s impact during the 2006 World Series, when a group of Hall of Fame baseball writers gathered around St. Louis\u2019 Jeff Suppan, a former Crespi ace who once delivered newspapers and had a well-known appreciation of journalists.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho is the greatest sportswriter ever?\u201d one of the legendary scribes asked him.<\/p>\n
\u201cEric Sondheimer,\u201d he quickly answered to a scrum full of quizzical looks.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s been that impactful. He\u2019s been that enduring. Even today, a quick glance at The Times\u2019 library reveals an almost supernatural ability to blanket a beat.<\/p>\n
Since joining this news organization, he has averaged about 266 bylines per year. Considering the high school year lasts about 10 months, that\u2019s nearly 27 bylines a month during those seasons, or nearly one story per day.<\/p>\n
\u201cEric is a Los Angeles sports legend,\u201d said Terry Barnum, Harvard-Westlake\u2018s athletic director. \u201cHe is the voice of high school sports in this city and has been for generations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barnum, who has been covered by Sondheimer since he was a prep running back more than 30 years ago, added, \u201cThe history of high school sports in Los Angeles can\u2019t be written without Eric Sondheimer. And that\u2019s because he wrote it.\u201d<\/p>\n
To understand the depth of this history, one need only to read Sondheimer\u2019s first story for the Times in 1997. It was about the possibility that West Hills brothers Jim and Randy Wolf, both in the minor leagues at the time, could one day be together in the big leagues as umpire and pitcher.<\/p>\n
It was a typical Sondheimer scoop long before it happened. Both eventually made it big in the big leagues, Jim still umpiring after 27 years and Randy pitching for 16 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe writes about all these athletes before they become great, he sees it all before anybody else sees it because he goes to so many games,\u201d said Randy Thompson, the Bishop Alemany athletic director and baseball coach who has been covered by Sondheimer for more than 40 years. \u201cHis work ethic is incredible. I used to joke about his gas bill.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is no more gas bill, because Sondheimer drives a Tesla, but he does rack up a couple hundred miles in a weekend while covering all the bases in an area roughly bigger than at least two dozen states.<\/p>\n
![\"Air](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787491212_161_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Air Force Capt. Randy Redell, a former quarterback at Crespi High, and Eric Sondheimer prepare to board an F\u201316 fighter jet for an 82-minute flight from Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter, S.C.<\/p>\n
(Scott A Nichols \/ U.S. Air Force)<\/p>\n
All of this, while working a beat that is considered an entry-level job at many larger news organizations. While prep sports is the lifeblood of smaller news organizations, the goal for many young sports journalists in bigger cities is to cover professional and college sports, and many consider prep coverage as the flimsy bottom rung on the ladder to success.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re wrong. Prep coverage is the most important stop on any upward path. This columnist\u2019s three years in the trenches were the toughest yet most enlightening three years of my career.<\/p>\n
And Sondheimer has done it for a half-century?<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you can do high school sports, you can do anything,\u201d said Sondheimer. \u201cThe first thing I look for when I see somebody hired for a big beat \u2026 have they covered preps?\u201d<\/p>\n
Although some larger high schools now run their athletics departments like college programs, the basic issues in covering a prep sports event remain unchanged.<\/p>\n
You sit in the bleachers or walk the sidelines. You keep your own stats. You decipher your own roster. Afterward, you chase down the coach for a quote, then rush to file your story on a computer on your lap before the maintenance crew turns out the lights and locks you in for the night.<\/p>\n
Sondheimer has bloodied his hands climbing over a fence to exit a bolted stadium. He has strained his eyes writing stories in the dark in a deserted gym.<\/p>\n
![\"Eric](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787491213_743_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Eric Sondheimer works in an empty gym after Loyola hosted Harvard-Westlake in a boys basketball game.<\/p>\n
(Nick Koza)<\/p>\n
An athletic director once threatened to call the police if he didn\u2019t leave their sideline. His car has been vandalized while crammed in unsafe parking lots. An angry reader once came to his home.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s interviewed coaches in bathrooms. He\u2019s filed countless stories from Starbucks. He\u2019s sprinted through crowds and accidentally bumped fans to reach players for postgame quotes, only to discover that the player didn\u2019t match the rostered number or the spelling or the position, all part of Friday night deadline frights.<\/p>\n
Yet Sondheimer has endured all of this without fanfare, without a regular TV appearance, without a radio gig, without a regular podcast, without any of the trappings of today\u2019s media stars.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s never been offered a chance to cover the Dodgers or the Lakers or even USC or UCLA, and yet it\u2019s never bothered him.<\/p>\n
In his dwindling spare time he can be found at the race track, where he\u2019s been part-owner of six horses in nine years. He\u2019s named only one of those horses:<\/p>\n
\u201dDreaming of Hope\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course.<\/p>\n
![\"Eric](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787491213_744_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Eric Sondheimer interviews Garfield coach Ruben Torres after a City Section championship game at Dodger Stadium in 2022.<\/p>\n
(Nick Koza)<\/p>\n
The kid who began writing prep stories for the Daily News while still in high school at Sun Valley Poly in 1976, and continued writing prep stories when he attended Cal State Northridge and beyond, says he\u2019s still right where he\u2019s wanted to be.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not trying to sell myself,\u201d he says. \u201cI like being local. I like staying local.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several years ago he became increasingly frustrated with the professionalism that has overtaken the larger Southland high schools \u2014 he has been outspoken against the constant stream of transfers \u2014 so he had an idea.<\/p>\n
What if he cut through all the negativity and submitted a small positive story about high school sports each day? And so the immensely popular \u201cPrep Talk\u201d was born.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe told me, \u2018I have to do something to help and this is it,\u2019\u201d said Iliana Lim\u00f3n Romero, Times assistant managing editor for sports. \u201cThe daily dispatches shine a light on a wide range of often overlooked good news in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n
One recent Prep Talk was 11 paragraphs about Val Moreno, a man serving his 33rd season on the Servite football chain crew. One of his final Prep Talks last spring was about a Sylmar pitcher and Carson quarterback honoring their single mothers.<\/p>\n
Every Prep Talk is accompanied by a photo \u2026 taken by Sondheimer, of course.<\/p>\n
\u201cEric \u2026 has never wavered in his commitment to covering up-and-coming athletes, greeting each day with seemingly endless energy and curiosity,\u201d said Lim\u00f3n Romero. \u201cHe is quick to push back against those he thinks are getting in the way of athletes having a fair opportunity to compete, but he is wary of putting too much negativity into the world at a fraught time.\u201d<\/p>\n
In other words \u2026 what Jeff Suppan once said.<\/p>\n
In case you\u2019re wondering, 20 years after his proclamation of Sondheimer as the GOAT, Suppan stands by his statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cCongratulations, Eric, on an incredible career and an incredible run,\u201d Suppan said in a text message immediately after being contacted for this story. \u201cI\u2019m grateful I got to be a small part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fifty years, small parts, one giant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fifty years in the shadows, gently nudging Southland kids into the light. \u201cIt\u2019s not my story,\u201d said Eric…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441242,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[174860,6948,8950,217,174857,951,174858,48,52,51,11836,47,50,49,174859,11586,3044,1791,2335,8074,72],"class_list":["post-441241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-angry-coach","tag-athlete","tag-athletic-director","tag-day","tag-eric-sondheimer","tag-high-school","tag-jeff-suppan","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-light","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-prep-beat","tag-sondheimer","tag-story","tag-times","tag-today","tag-world","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}