By Cyote Williams | Times Vedette
Best of Guthrie County
The Best of Guthrie County event was held on Tuesday, Sept. 9, at the Guthrie County Events Center to great success. As someone who has now attended two Best of Des Moines events, I can already see the similarities building. There are of course, differences, too. The hometown feel of the event was clear, and the hugs, handshakes and celebrations shared throughout the night showed me that this should be a well-attended and enjoyed event for years to come.
If you saw a man walking around in a white button up with a camera that was so heavy, for seemingly no reason, straining his neck, attempting to take candid photos, you saw me. One person was not too shy to say hello, and that was Chris Arganbright. She complimented my column, and I chose not to correct her on how to pronounce my name. It was great. Plenty of people call me coyote these days — several of my friends have called me that for years. It’s starting to make me think I should have gone by that since the beginning. It’s certainly a lot cooler than “Cody.”
I also chatted with Betty Cooper and Mark Reno, the wonderful photographers who capture ACGC and Panorama sports. I already had a great appreciation for how quality their work is, and after taking photos for several hours for the first time in a long time, I have yet another lens to view their incredible work through. I’ll need some tips from the both of them for next time, as a few of my photos turned out blurry.
A final congrats to all the winners and runners-up at the 2025 Best of Guthrie County event, and good luck to all next year.
Pablo Torre
The name above belongs to who I believe is single handedly bringing back the essence of what sports journalism can and should be. On his podcast/show, “Pablo Torre Finds Out (PTFO),” Torre has been breaking news and grabbing scoops over the past few months. If you are a fan of investigative journalism, his show is worth a watch or a listen.
Torre has often leaned toward the sillier side of investigation including Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game (and that he intentionally missed free throws to win fans free chicken), the “Holy Grails” of NFL secrets, and Bill Belichicks ongoing saga with his 24-year-old girlfriend and how it might be affecting his coaching at the University of North Carolina. The latter prompted a response from one of sports medias biggest voices, and massive Boston sports fan, Bill Simmons.
“I’ve never seen anybody dine on a stupider story for a week and a half while pretending you’re a journalist,” Simmons said on one of his podcasts.
Torre would go on Simmons’ podcast to hash out their differences. Neither were too bothered, and it was an enjoyable listen. That was in early June. Since then, Torre has been on one of the greatest hot-streaks by any journalist, period. He discovered an NBA twitter fan account that was deeply entrenched in one of the league’s ongoing betting scandals. He nearly took down the entire hierarchy of the NFL players’ union and potentially exposed several owners of colluding to secure owner-friendly contracts with their players. Just last week, Torre broke a story about how the Clippers allegedly circumvented the salary cap by helping land star player Kawhi Leonard a $28 million deal with Aspiration, a sustainability-focused financial technology company.
For a guy who won a Peabody award for his journalism last year and has been serving more scoops this summer than the Casey Creamery, I would say Torre is doing a great job pretending to be a journalist.
Reach out with comments, complaints and story ideas to cyote@dmcityview.com.