Feels Like School Spirit

This past weekend found my wife and I in Chattanooga Friday afternoon. I will admit that the trip was mostly pleasure, a chance to see my brother for the first time since Thanksgiving. At the same time, it was also work-related, as I was down there on assignment for THE DICKSON HERALD, covering Lady Cougars Softball for the newspaper.

Over the past three years, I have lost count as to how many athletic contests or scholarship signings that I have covered for the newspaper----not to mention the thirteen years of covering sports for WDKN, the former "Voice Of The Cougars." It's something that I have enjoyed a lot over the years.

You might think that Dickson County High School holds a special place in my heart, and you would be right. Though, I will have to admit to you----the amount of school spirit that runs through my veins over the years has increased over time.

I won't say that my High School years were the worst of my life. They weren't. But basically, the only proof that I was a student at the school from 1989-1992 is my name on a diploma. I just wasn't that interested in school for the most part---unless you count those members of the opposite sex that I never had a chance with! By the middle of my junior year, I was already employed at the radio station, and that was the part of life I was concentrating on.

Then, in 1996, I began to cover sports broadcasts at the school, and it quickly became one of my favorite parts of the job. I became amazed that the same teachers that I thought were so different as a student were actually....human! I remember one night, I was interviewing Coach Eve Hamilton at a ballgame on a night where inclement weather was about to move in. I asked her at the end of the interview, "I bet you're not hoping for snow tonight, are you?" I was serious. She was too, when she said "Are you kidding? We want out as much as the students." I guess people over the age of 18 actually like sleeping in on cold mornings as well.

Now, I know better.....and becoming friends with people like Coach Eve, Kevin Tuck, Bobby Burgess, Jackie Bledsoe, Dennis Fussell, Shelby Rye, Jerry Pearson, and my last broadcasting partner for Basketball at WDKN, Jay Powlas....is something that I feel blessed for. Shane Buchanan, softball coach on Cougar Hill, told me this afternoon when I was interviewing him for Wednesday's HERALD how much he and Coach Newberry appreciated me being there to cover the tournament. That meant a lot, but....Coach Buck....The pleasure was all mine!

I say all this because I want to say "Thanks" to everyone at Dickson County High School. Over the past thirteen years, I have made some of the most cherished friendships of my life with many of you, as well as many of the parents and grandparents over the years! You have made me feel like family, which is exactly what a graduate of a High School should feel like....except try telling that to an eighteen year old! Now, if only I could earn a letter jacket.....