As a reporter, one of my favorite things to cover is when our area athletes sign college scholarships. We’ve sure had a lot of them lately, which I’m always glad to see because we have so many deserving athletes.

There’s one particular question I like to ask them when they put pen to paper, and that is how they feel at this crossroads in their life … the ending of one thing, the beginning of something new.

We here at The Herald have been at our own crossroads recently. We’ve had a change of scenery with the move to our new office at the Piggly Wiggly Shopping Center, located at 1460-E West Main Street off of Hwy. 411 in Centre.

We’re certainly proud of our new “digs”, and to help celebrate our move, we’re having an open house for our readers and customers this Wednesday from 1-3 p.m. We hope to see you there.

But me being the nostalgic guy I am, I couldn’t help but reflect back on the past five years since I’ve been your sports editor.

As we were packing up our things from our old building on 107 West First Ave., I took one last walk around before I left for the final time. Memories came flooding back at almost every nook and cranny of the place, everything from when then-editor Kathy Roe had me in for an interview to the many late nights I sat at my desk after covering countless games.

Not once have I regretted coming here, because I’ve gotten to meet a lot of special people in this community, including those I work closest with in current editor Terry Dean, secretary Brenda Burger, layout designer Laure Clemons and advertising director Vickie Robinson.

Like all of our sports teams, this team does its best every day to bring you a product each and every week in which you can be proud. I sincerely hope you all are.

Just like our athletes who sign those college scholarships, I believe our best days are yet to come.

*****

Former Cedar Bluff and current Piedmont track and field coach Mark Mitchell was recently selected by the National Federation of State High School Association as Alabama’s 2011-12 Coach of the Year in boys track.

Mitchell, in his first year at Piedmont, led the Cedar Bluff boys track and field program to six consecutive Class 1A state championships. He spent the past nine years at Cedar Bluff before accepting a position at Piedmont last July.

Mitchell will receive his award at the Alabama High School Athletic Association’s annual coaches meeting this summer.