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Louisiana Says Farewell to a Beloved High School Sports Journalist

Ron Brocato reflects on the countless changes he has witnessed since he fell in love with high school sports more than 70 years ago
Gary Adornato|
After 59 years of covering high school sports in Louisiana, Ron Brocato said farewell to his readers in his final column for the Clarion Herald.
After 59 years of covering high school sports in Louisiana, Ron Brocato said farewell to his readers in his final column for the Clarion Herald. | Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame

In a farewell column, published on June 16, Ron Brocato of the Clarion Herald, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, reflected on a 70+ year love affair with high school sports.

As Brocato reported, he has been a professional sportswriter for 59 years, a career he will now step away from as the Clarion Herald has decided to discontinue high school sports coverage as a regular feature in it's publication.

Brocato stated that he fell in love with high school sports after witnessing the excitement and pageantry of a high school football game as an 11-year old boy in 1952. It motivated him to compete as a high school student athlete and then to serve as an "oberver from the press boxes and sidelines."

In his final column, he reflected on covering athletes in the 1960s and then later having the privilege to cover their sons, daughters and the generations that followed. He "watched with interest as girls’ athletics gained equal notoriety as the boys’ sports" and witnessed "the end of separate athletic organizations for white and African-American athletes in 1970."

Brocato also opined on the transformation of equipment and facilities, commenting that he "watched cinder tracks transformed into artificial turf and all-weather surfaces."

Brocato departs with an incredible legacy, having been inducted into two Louisiana Hall of Fames, publishing, through the Clarion Herald "The Golden Game: When Prep Sports Was King in New Orleans, scripting a television documentary about the New Orleans Catholic League, and helping create the Walls of Legends at Ye Olde College Inn.

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Gary Adornato
GARY ADORNATO

Gary Adornato is the Senior VP of Content for High School On SI and SBLive Sports. He began covering high school sports with the Baltimore Sun in 1982, while still a mass communications major at Towson University. In 2003 became one of the first journalists to cover high school sports online while operating MIAASports.com, the official website of the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association. Later, Adornato pioneered market-wide coverage of high school sports with DigitalSports.com, introducing video highlights and player interviews while assembling an award-winning editorial staff. In 2010, he launched VarsitySportsNetwork.com which became the premier source of high school media coverage in the state of Maryland. In 2022, he sold VSN to The Baltimore Banner and joined SBLive Sports as the company's East Coast Managing Editor.

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