It has been a refreshing week for me as a sports editor as after what has seemed to be a couple of long months with very little sports happening in the area aside from the Elizabethton Twins trying to win another Appalachian League title.

The last week has seen three media days come and go with four more scheduled at this writing to work toward another great high school football magazine that will be coming out before the start of the 2019 football season.

In a lot of ways, it has been like the start of a new spring when the first Easter Lily and tulip first pop out, you know that winter is coming to an end and a rebirth of nature is about to take place.

The same holds true for when school creeps closer and closer to kicking off another academic year and athletic teams begin to come out and prepare for their new seasons.

It has been refreshing seeing not only football teams but soccer, golf, cross country, cheerleading and volleyball getting in their last few pre-season practices before opening a new season in earnest.

Not only has it been the high school level programs but no matter what school one passes on any given day there are middle school teams also preparing to enter a new year of competition.

Add on top of that the youth league teams that cover the landscape from Happy Valley to Elizabethton all the way up to Roan Mountain.

All of these activities reminded me recently of why athletics are such an important part of a community regardless if a team is competing for a championship or at best mediocre.

The bottom line is that athletics represent life in the community and while folks may enjoy a week of vacation during the off season, the truth of the matter is when the sound of pads popping or a soccer ball being struck fills the air, then new life is breathed into those who support each of the five high schools in the Carter County area.

If you don’t believe me start listening to the talk in the community in which you live. It’s about how are the Highlanders going to look this year or who is going to replace Carter Everett and Corey Russell at Elizabethton.

Will the Bulldogs win the conference or how far will the Rangers go in postseason? Is Happy Valley going to be able to make a deep run in the playoffs? What about that Lady Cyclone volleyball team with all that height!

Just listen and you will hear a freshness starting to come back in the air after the hot days of summer.

It helps parents and grandparents to puff out their chest and say that’s my boy or that’s my girl out there. Fans are ready to turn off the television full of reruns and fill the stands pulling for their team to be in the running for a championship berth.

And for the athletes and coaches, it signals the time that all the off-season workouts and conditioning is getting ready to be put to the test.

We are blessed to live in an area that has many different opportunities to support our athletic teams and the schools they represent.

One of the most beautiful things from a writer’s perspective as well is when a team has an off week to look into the stands and see players from other county schools filling a seat to watch their counterparts.

You see even though we may wear different colors, when the rubber meets the road, we are a community and athletics has a way of pulling Carter County together.

Regardless of what one may think, athletics acts like glue and keeps making Carter County a special place to live and play.