The question came up as I visited the area’s three high school offices over the past two weeks.
And it came up again Feb. 6 when I helped represent the Dickinson County News at the 2025 Iowa Newspaper Association Convention.
“What are you guys going to do without Matt?”
“Matt” of course is DCN Sports Editor Matt Heinrichs, who has covered your high school kids since January 2014.
The bearded guy with the camera. Yeah, that’s him.
So, what are we going to do?
The pragmatic answer is: I’m really excited about CJ Eilers joining our staff as the first new DCN Sports Editor in 11 years. CJ officially began Tuesday, but I know he banked some interviews over the weekend to hit the ground running for you. His introduction is on our front page. I can’t wait for you to see his photography.
I also have an emotional answer to the Matt question.
It’s going to be hard. I worked with him for seven of his 11 years.
He texted me at the start of year 12 asking, “Is it OK to give you a call or are you busy?”
Matt’s not a phone call person — few of us are these days. I knew in those uncomfortable moments between the text on my screen and the sound of my Android that I might not get to work with my friend much longer.
No fair.
I returned to the DCN at the start of winter sports season and Matt gave me what any incoming editor could only dare hope for — you never had to worry about the sports pages. Fellow publishers and editors will nod in agreement: A great sports editor makes the job so much easier.
Matt was great.
Remember that convention I mentioned at the top where his peers in journalism were asking about him? They honor quality work to cap off the gathering.
Matt had his best year ever with 12 individual Iowa Newspaper Association honors and a career-high nine first-place awards.
After about the seventh or eighth time I got up to accept a first-place plaque on his behalf the presenter said “I hope you’re giving him a raise.”
His sports pages won Best Sports Section. The DCN came within two points of “Iowa Newspaper of the Year.” Matt was a big — really, really big — part of that success.
To borrow a photography phrase, we need to zoom out and look at his career as a whole too.
Matt earned 74 individual awards for his camera work, social media conversations and writing. In his 11-year career, no one in the state has won more. In all honesty, it’s not particularly close.
Hold on, our publisher would rightfully remind us, “winning awards is rewarding, but we are far more interested in winning readers to our newspaper.”
Matt tried his very best there too. I promise you that folks. I saw it every day from him.
Our guy who doesn’t like math put out some incredible numbers. In the full 52 weeks before his last day, Matt had 685 bylines.
And, if you want to throw the challenge flag, Matt, I would allow it because I erred on the conservative side. I did count your athletes of the month pages and the seasonal sports preview tabloid stories.
It doesn’t fairly reflect your 400-mile round trips to Cedar Falls and Des Moines because, man, this area has some great kids. And you shot big events for the company’s other locations too. And there are golf guides. And Winter Games assignments. And, and, and …
But the week of May 2 stunned me. I made little hash marks in a spiral notebook for each time I saw a Matt Heinrichs byline.
Counting is math and managing editors don’t like math either. Matt generated 52 little hash marks during the adventure that is “spring sports season” for that week. I feel comfortable saying Matt will miss a lot, but he won’t miss that.
We’ll miss him, though. We’ll even miss the slightly-disturbing European (skull) and turkey fan mounts in his office.
My outdoors friend was a smart, talented, stubborn and likable presence who sets high standards for himself. He stayed organized and leveled up when the moment called for it. No one had to prod him.
Those qualities are so increasingly rare that it brings us back to the original question: “What are you going to do without Matt?” We have a few more answers if you’ve made it this far.
We’re going to celebrate that he’s staying in the area.
We’re going to be glad he has more time for the people he loves — and more time enjoying nature.
We’re going to hope he stops by to visit an old journalism buddy now and then.
We’re going to remain grateful for everything he’s done.