West Brunswick honors Doug Rutter

West Brunswick High School officials presented Doug Rutter with a plaque of appreciation that also encased a clock before the varsisy baseball game against Hoggard Friday night.

Rutter, a longtime sports editor for The Brunswick Beacon, became a Brunswick County magistrate in March.

His wife, Susan, and daughter, Olivia, looked on as West athletic director Marcia Heady presented Rutter the plaque.

On the award is inscribed: “Thank you, Doug Rutter, for being a friend to the hundreds of coaches and athletes from West Brunswick High School over the past 20 years. April 18, 2008.”

Rutter is the reason the Beacon has a sports section, taking it from a couple of pages in the back of a news section to a stand-alone product. He wrote and took pictures for the Beacon for 20 years.

Current and former West coaches and athletes joined the Rutter family on the field. Prior to the presentation, press box announcer Keith Hatcher read a tribute written by Yogi Hickman on behalf of the athletic department. Hickman was formerly head football coach and athletic director at West and now is head track coach and assistant football coach.

The tribute read:

“It is with a sense of gratitude that we honor Doug Rutter tonight. In his role as sports editor of The Brunswick Beacon for 20 years, Doug has been in attendance at perhaps more West Brunswick High School sporting events than anyone in history.

“Through all the sports, through the changes of seasons, through the highs and lows that are always a part of high school athletics, Doug has been a constant. Very rarely was Doug not in attendance at a West Brunswick game.

“Doug has covered the young people of our school with a sense of compassion and fairness, maintaining his objectivity while at the same time recognizing the fact that the people he was writing about were high school athletes who shouldn’t be subjected to the same public scrutiny as college or professional athletes.

“Doug has also provided us with updates of our graduates who have left us for college or professional athletics, allowing us to follow them with a sense of pride.

“It is very hard to imagine that Doug has written his final article about the West Brunswick Trojans. For many of us, he is the only reporter we have ever known. We will miss his insights into West Brunswick athletics, but most of all we will miss his presence at nearly every game that we play.

“So, thank you, Doug, for all that you have done for us, but most of all thank you for being a friend to the hundreds of athletes who are proud to have played for the West Brunswick High School Trojans over the past 20 years.”