Thank you, Baldwin County sports fans.

I have been blessed to not only call Baldwin County my home but also cover the incredibly talented high school teams for almost three years. But by the time this column reaches Friday’s print edition, my time at Gulf Coast Media will have come to a close.

April 16 was my last day at the paper and April 17 was set to be the first day of my stay-at-home adventure with my 4-month-old daughter, 3-year-old bonus son and girlfriend Michaela.

While I am sad to be leaving, I am incredibly thankful to our publisher Vince Johnson, executive editor Kayla Green and chief digital officer Micah Green for taking a shot on me and trusting me to handle the sports section. I know they and Gulf Coast Media are going to continue to do great things in covering the incredible student-athletes from Bay Minette to the beach.

They gave me the opportunity to work my dream job where my lone responsibility was to cover sports and, man, were there sports to cover. I always say that the athletes make my job easy since they win so much and earn so many accolades so I was rarely at a shortage of things to write about.

From telling the stories behind high profile recruits to shedding light on everyday community members making waves in athletic arenas to covering unique sporting events that can only happen in Baldwin County, Alabama.

I was grateful to help document the sports happenings on the high school scene where Blue and Red Maps — as well as the very first Clear Map — returned to Lower Alabama in fall sports including football, volleyball, cross country, cheerleading and swimming, winter sports including bowling, indoor track, and wrestling and spring sports including baseball, softball, soccer, outdoor track, tennis and golf. Since the spring of 2022, the only AHSAA sports that Baldwin County didn’t see a state champion or runner-up in were basketball (despite multiple Final Four trips), eSports and flag football (only added this past fall).

I will forever maintain that community journalism is the backbone of towns and cities across the world and what Gulf Coast Media is doing — in the seventh-fastest growing county in the United States no less — is incredibly important and I will continue to be a big fan. Sports is just an added benefit of the newspaper and my goal was to include as many faces and names as possible to help represent the hard work put in from every corner of the county.

I’ll always cherish the memories from the sidelines where relationships were developed with student-athletes and coaches and I’ll always be appreciative of our readers and supporters who followed us along the way.

And of course, a huge thank you to all the staff at Gulf Coast Media, I know I worked hard in the sports section but we’ve got incredibly talented reporters and editors and behind-the-scenes staff who have been doing the same in their respective arenas. I felt like a key piece on an all-star staff and again I know they’ll continue to do great work.

I won’t be going too far away as I’ve laid down some roots here on the Eastern Shore so don’t be a stranger if you see me out and about. I sincerely look forward to outwardly being a fan of all Baldwin County sports teams and wish nothing but continued success to everyone involved.