One last look back on the last two years before I depart

As I am sure most of you have noticed, there has been a new person in the sports department here at the Greene County Daily World the past couple weeks. While I was on a mini vacation a couple months ago I attended a couple Peoria Chiefs (Chicago Cubs Class A minor league team) and ran into another sports editor at a paper in the area. One thing led to another, and just like that yours truly will no longer be here and Rick Curl will be taking my place.

Before I get fully into, what sports editor B.J. Hargis calls my "farewell column", I want to first give thanks to Mr. Hargis and General Manager Chris Pruett for giving me the opportunity to do what I love to do, here, for the past two years. Eventhough B.J. would always seem to put the most God awful pictures of me in the Sullivan paper when I was an athlete at Sullivan and he was the sports editor over there, it has been a pleasure learning the ropes from one of the best sports reporters in the area.

Now on to the farewell part. When I first started here, I really didn't know what to expect with just two sports reporters having to cover six different high schools. But coming over here one of my many flaws was cranking out numerous stories on deadline. Working here has definitely helped me with that. Now as I move on another flaw I will have to work on is trimming down my story -- something B.J. would always give me a hard time about here.

It has been an absolute pleasure in getting to know some of coaches, athletes and even some readers on a personal level. I have made some great friends here, both work related and outside of work.

Before I leave, I would just like to share some of the memorable moments/event over the past couple years. I am sure I will leave something out that some of you may think are noteworthy so feel free to leave feedback, by other comments on the web site or through e-mail. I may bounce around from one event that happened one year and another event that may have happened either before or after so just bare with me.

One of the first basketball games I covered here was at the Graber Post Buildings Classic over the Christmas break. Eastern Greene was playing their second game of the tournament against Cloverdale. The back and forth game ended up in overtime.

A banked home trey by gave the Clovers a one-point lead with a handful of seconds left in the game. The Thunderbirds missed a shot on their ensuing possession but a luck bounce out of bounds gave the T-Birds one last chance with six-tenths of a second left on the game clock. The Thunderbirds center, Ben Arthur, took a lop pass from out of bounds from a few feet away from the rim and drop home the game winning bucket over the Clovers defense just as time expired. It was a great finish and a great way to start this journalists week off at a new place.

Another memorable moment came in the spring of last year when the Shakamak Lakers baseball team was finally able to get over the hump and claim the schools first ever state championship. When I first came to the paper, all I had heard about -- aside from all the talk about the Miners football team -- was how I needed to cover the Lakers baseball team.

Since it seemed to be against the law to play the varsity contests at Shakamak before 7 p.m. I was never able to cover a complete game until the post season started. But once the post season started I was with the Lakers every step of the way en route to their title. There were some memorable come-from-behind wins in the sectional and regional. But aside from watching the celebration after claiming the title, my best moment would have to have came during the Semistate -- that seemed to take like two weeks to play cause of all the floods and rain.

I ended up staying with the team in Indy as more rained halted the start of the championship game. It was during this time I got to interact a little more with the team and players during dinner and our hotel stay. Some of those players from that team are now apart of the softball scene that I was apart of during my stay in Greene County so I am fortunate for that as well.

Last fall I nearly experienced my second trip to the state finals, as the Miners football team made their post-season run. Before their dream ended, earlier in the season I covered the Union (Dugger) and North Daviess game. The visiting Cougars broke the Bulldogs heart by going for a two-point conversion late in the game for a 22-21 win over the Bulldogs. At that time it was probably the best played games I had covered.

Then game the Semistate game for the Miners against Indianapolis Ritter. Just when the Miners seemed like they had their state finals ticket punched, the Cardinals made a miraculous comeback in the fourth quarter to dash away the hopes of the Miners perfect season. Even being a Golden Arrow, I felt just a tad bit sad for the Miners. That game was the best high school game I have seen in person or a select few that has been televised.

In the spring, the Lady Miners softball team made their magical journey through the post-season and just fell short of a state title as they fell in the Class 2A championship game. I also had the pleasure of covering them on their ride.

Staying with the State Finals theme, I was able to cover Shakamak's Drew Gambill in the 800 -- an event I also ran in high school. Anyone who has seen or knows just how hard Drew works at running, it was no surprise the then junior ended up on the podium at the awards ceremony after a fourth place showing. It was Gambill's season-long goal to reach the podium, and this year his goal is to stand at the top spot on the podium.

There are many more highlights I would like to share, but the advertising department was unaware that I was planning on writing a full page column so they did not sell enough ads to cover the extra room, lol.

But I have had a great time here. I am honestly going to miss covering the teams, talking with the coaches, arguing with readers on my "expert opinion on EVERYTHING" as one reader put it, and working with some great people in the office and everyone else I have met here.

I just hope I didn't offend anyone too bad during my stay here. Thanks for all the memories, and I am sure some of you will see me at some events from time to time in the near future.

Travis David can be reached by e-mail at sportswriter21_7@yahoo.com