The last six months of covering sports in Shelby County have been fun, but it is time once again for me to turn over a new leaf.

I will be turning the sports editorship over this week to a new, younger sports editor. I am moving on to a new position in charge of getting all those records people like to read such as police reports, land transactions, marriages and divorces.

Serving as sports involved a lot of fun mixed in with the work, and I had a blast doing it.

I made many new friends and renewed many old acquaintances.

I remember Jerry Hood, head football coach at Oak Mountain, and Larry Vann, parks and recreation director in Alabaster, giving me grief whenever I predicted against the Eagles or the Warriors.

I remember Pelham Mayor Bobby Hayes light-heartedly telling me after certain predictions that I could not drive through, fly over or use any services in his city. I often joked that I had to slip past the police to cover ball games there.

By the way, in addition to head football coach DeWayne Kervin at Shelby Academy, who won a state football championship in AISA Class IA, I think Pelham&8217;s Brett Burnett did one heck of a job taking the Panthers to the third round of the playoffs. Thompson&8217;s Brian Maner and Shelby County&8217;s Ryan Herring also had great years.

I have enjoyed concession stand food at football games and hospitality room food at basketball tournaments all over the county.

I have enjoyed jawing with coaches and fans over my predictions, which were actually right, much to my surprise, 74 percent of the time.

The players and their coaches in Shelby County always impressed me on both the boys and girls side of things.

Shelby County is truly blessed. Athletics and academics are held to high standards and the results are the proof in the form of championships and academic achievements.

While everyone may not have always agreed with my opinions, I respected everyone who has taken the time to speak or write to me and I felt that I was respected in return.

I wish our new sports editor all the best and hope everyone shows him the same courtesy and cooperation they did for me