Over the last 40-plus years, if a Minersville area athlete had a big game or set a record, or if a team has brought home a championship, there’s a good chance Jerry Sitkus has been there.
He’s had a front-row seat for some of the area’s biggest athletic moments and has kept the scorebook for many of them.
On Tuesday, for his decades of service in that way, Sitkus was recognized as Minersville Citizen of the Year for 2026. Sitkus is a Minersville native and a member of the Class of 1975.
“It means a lot; it really does. I don’t do it for the recognition. It means the Borough and other people appreciate what I do,” Sitkus tells Coal Region Canary. “It’s an honor to be recognized.”
He says he started in Minersville area sports as a coach of 7th/8th grade girls basketball back in 1982. Sitkus also coached youth softball for more than a quarter-century. And his time coaching naturally led to him starting to keep the scorebook, first for JV and varsity basketball games and then other sports over the years.
“I just kept doing it. I enjoy it so I just keep going out. It’s good to still be around the game,” Sitkus says. “I get to see so many good players and not just from Minersville but from everywhere. I get to see a lot of good games. It’s fun.”
In addition to doing the scorebooks for softball and basketball games in Minersville, Sitkus has also operated the scoreboard for Minersville Area football games and he recently started keeping the book for volleyball games.
As scoring technology has advanced, he says he still does it the proverbial old-fashioned way, with pen and paper, though he does appreciate some new tech that makes it easier for him to report scores to the local media.
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