I've had a great first month and a half at the Ledger-Enquirer getting to know coaches, players and readers, and I'm, of course, always looking for ways to do more to get you, the reader, into the conversation.

Something that we're going to try this week to fuel the conversation is a prep sports chat, which will be held on the newspaper's website between 4 and 5 p.m. on Friday before the football games. Fans are encouraged to join in to discuss the best matchups, predictions and ask questions concerning football in the Bi-City area.

And we don't just have to talk high school football. I'd love to hear from softball and volleyball fans, college sports fans and even baking enthusiasts. While I doubt we'll get much participation from the latter, the point is that I'm open to talk about whatever is on the mind of my readers.

I'm going to continue to promote the chat all week, and really hope that you, the reader, will respond.

One thing we tried at the beginning of the athletic seasons, however, was a separate honor roll for our fall sports: football, volleyball and softball. But, some things don't always pan out as planned. We weren't able to get the participation that we needed, unfortunately, and the publication of the honor roll has, for now, gone away.

We're very appreciative of our participating coaches and hate that it has to go away. Something that I wanted from the beginning was to spread coverage and recognition to as many players and teams as we possibly could.

I still want to do that.

As I said in my inaugural column, however, it's important that we get more people involved in the conversation. Otherwise, it becomes a monologue, and even I get tired of my own voice on occasion.