I guess it must be a sign of getting older when you look up and realize that another school year has flown by and another year of junior high and high school sports is slowing ebbing down to an end.

Next week’s Spring Fling in Murfreesboro will officially put an exclamation point on the 2018-2019 sports calendar with baseball, softball, track, boys’ soccer, and tennis wrapping up by crowning state champs in each sport.

At the writing of this Sports Chatter, the Elizabethton boys’ baseball team and Unaka Lady Rangers will be squaring off in Friday sectional with a return trip for both weighing in the balance.

There are also a handful of track and field athletes from Happy Valley and Elizabethton who will make the trip looking to bring back the gold medallion from their respective event including Happy Valley’s Natalie Newsome in the pole vault and Jasmine Roberts of Elizabethton in the shot put.

It was a pretty good year for the county schools in most sports with all the football teams making the playoffs and basketball followed up with a solid year as well.

Volleyball teams took to the court with the Lady Cyclones showing a lot of promise that the next school year may yield a robust finish with a host of returnees to the team.

Golf and girl’s soccer found their place as well in the fall season with swimming and cross country not to be forgotten.

This time of year marks the time in the year that sports writers, like myself, can reflect on what we did right, what went wrong, and how to become even better when the new year begins.

It will be an exciting summer for me as I will be getting with all my correspondents to make sure that the next school year will be better than ever from a coverage standpoint.

I did want to take time to thank Bryce Phillips for allowing me to help him when he sat in the chair I now occupy as the Sports Editor and also to thank all those who have lent a hand in making sure that your son and daughter, grandson and granddaughter, nieces and nephews, and next door neighbors were covered throughout the school year.

Many thanks go to Allen LaMountain, Nic Miller, Danny Blevins, Austin Alexander, and Carter Everett for being on the beat to put all those events into ink.

Also, I cannot forget those who have brought those sporting events to live through the end of a lens like Larry Souders, Earl Neikirk, Brandon Hyde, and Sydney Goodsell.

Lastly, I want to thank you our readers for keeping us on our toes and providing information to us that we wouldn’t have had without you taking the time to reach out to us.

It takes an army to cover sports and I think I have one of the greatest teams out there.

One cannot forget as well to mention our General Manager, Delaney Scalf, and his love for the kids of this community and allowing all of us to do what we love to do the most.

And there is one more person behind the scenes who don’t stroke a lick writing a story or snaps the shutter of a camera and that is our paginator, Robin Johnson, who absolutely amazes me how she can take a bunch of words and photos and put them in order so they come out every day for the enjoyment of our readers.

There are still a lot of things going on in the summer as we will once again be following the Elizabethton Twins on the trail of yet another Appalachian League banner as well as youth league baseball and American Legion baseball

We might even find some dandy features to spotlight during the break as well.

But like I started my article, the way time goes, it won’t be long until we hear the favorite words that many fans look forward to hearing, “It’s football time in Tennessee.”