I’ve always considered myself pretty lucky to be a sports writer.

Sports editor by title, professional spectator in actuality.

Being the sports scribe for a community newspaper was exactly what I wanted to be when I went got into this business, even though journalism wasn’t my first choice when I went off to college.

Sure, covering professional football or Division I college basketball would have been fun, but you don’t get the same sorts of stories or get to build relationships with a community like you do at a small-town newspaper.

My first assignment as a sports intern was a boys soccer game at Hamilton Heights High School all the way up north in Arcadia.

I knew next to nothing about soccer and asked Derrick Dean, who’s still the soccer coach there, a lot of dumb questions trying to figure out how the Huskies beat the Western Panthers 2-0.

I’m sure a lot of the coaches I’ve interviewed over the years would attest to how dumb my questions were and the obviousness of the answers.

Dean was pretty patient with me, as was my editor, who corrected a myriad of mistakes in my very first story and bothered to walk me through them after deadline.

He had to deal with a lot of my mishaps, including editing down a 1,000-word girls soccer story.

I still jokingly blame him that it’s his fault I got into this business, though I don’t know why I say it like that because as I said, I’ve been pretty lucky to be doing this.

Over the years, I’ve gotten better at doing this — at least I think I have — going from simply recapping a game to writing features about amazing prep athletes.

I still wish I was better at the latter.

Along this journey, I’ve won a handful of awards, but that’s not why I do this, even if they serve as a nice reminder that I’ve done some good work.

After writing as a freelancer for a few years, I had my first full-time writing job plopped in my lap at The Hendricks County Flyer.

I loved working for that paper and hated witnessing it wilt away as reporters left and were never replaced until eventually it was shut down.

The newspaper business is struggling to find its way in an ever-increasing digital world. I didn’t want this column to be a soap box for “why journalism matters,” but if you value the service The Tribune provides, then I urge you to support it.

I was lucky enough to find a sports job down here in Seymour. I have a lot of family ties to Jackson County, my last name being a dead giveaway.

I kind of always envisioned this being my last stop in the journalism business, and as of today, it is.

Though I never really planned on departing this early, covering sports in Jackson County reminded me of why I got into this in the first place.

The passion.

The love and admiration this county has for its high school sports is second to none.

That was best shown during the volleyball state championship run when fans from across Jackson County packed Worthen Arena for two state title games. I’ve seen a lot of communities show out for their teams, but nothing quite like the way fans around here did.

Amidst that passion was a lot of patience. I appreciate a lot of you for letting me make mistakes as I got my legs here and were polite with your criticism. I know not everything met what you’re used to, and I made some changes that weren’t initially well received.

I can only say that I tried to do my best in my short time here, and I thank each and every one of you for letting me tell stories in Jackson County.