When the Yelm High School football team celebrated its 3A state championship with a parade on Jan. 23, 2023, Yelm resident and Tornados fan Greyson Jewell was featured on the front page of the Jan. 26 edition of the Nisqually Valley News alongside his family.
The thrill of seeing himself on the front of the local newspaper sparked his interest in newspapers, as the 10-year-old buys one almost every week.
“We would go to Safeway or Walmart, and he would ask if he could run to the front of the store and look at what the cover of the Nisqually Valley News was,” Greyson’s mother, Whitney Jewell, said. “The big kick for him was the sports page because he loves following Yelm Tornados football. If he saw Brayden Platt or Onyx Carter on the front, he would be very excited and ask us to buy it.”
Jewell now keeps a couple of quarters with him to buy each issue. According to his mother, he owns a collection of 13 newspapers since the family moved to Yelm five months ago. His collection grew so large that his aunt, Rachel Essenburg, got him a newspaper dispenser and plastic protective sheets to organize his newspapers.
Yelm football always grabs Jewell’s attention first, but he also enjoys reading about the Yelm basketball team and other sports.
“It’s fun to see the football players from the high school playing basketball, too,” Jewell said.
He enjoys reading the comics, as well, namely “The Far Side” and “Garfield.” Jewell’s mother, who homeschools Greyson, is happy that her son found something that he loves to read.
“It encourages that love of reading. As a homeschool mom, it sometimes was difficult getting him to enjoy learning how to read,” she said. “But when he read ‘The Far Side’ comics, he’d say, ‘Mom, what is this word?’ I think it kind of nurtures them into wanting to read more, which is fun.”
Greyson Jewell, a sixth-generation Yelm resident, began playing football last year for the Thurston County Youth Football League, lining up at running back and linebacker. His great-grandfather, grandfather and father all played football for YHS, and he proudly wears a 1980s’ Tornados football jersey to games. He said he hopes to grow up and continue the football lineage, but he isn’t opposed to being a sports reporter one day, either.
“He definitely has a passion for football, but he also loves Yelm as well,” Whitney Jewell said. “I told him that he could be like a sports writer or a reporter one day if he combined writing with his love of the newspaper and his love of sports. He does like writing stories. Last year, he typed something up about the Tornados, and he likes stats. So we’ll see where that goes.”
