A few weeks ago it was announced that The Oxford Sun would end with this issue. I will miss the opportunity that this job has given me to meet people in Oxford. Being new to the area, it was a great way to meet people and the reason I took the job.

I have a full time job as the Financial Controller with Union Foundry so I will have more time to relax at the house. I do the P.A. for the basketball games at Oxford, so I will get to hang around the basketball teams at Oxford.

I also do the play-by-play for the football games in the fall, so I get to hang around the football teams. I guess I will have to figure out a way to get involved in the spring in some way.

I have always tried to do whatever I could to help out as I was covering events for the Sun and other papers I have written for in the past. There are a lot of hard-working coaches, players, parents and administrators out there that are giving kids a chance to grow and learn and the people of Oxford do it the right way.

They spend countless hours after working all day just helping and working with kids and could use a break or a pat on the back every now and then.

I really admire the programs at the Middle School and over at Trinity Christian Academy where they do not get the publicity of the High School programs at Oxford. I have tried to put in a few good words for them over the last 17 months.

What a job Oxford High School has done in moving from 5A to 6A in recent years. You can see the athletic programs getting better each year and they will continue to do so in the future.

I have appreciated the help of all those coaches that I would pester all season long for information on how their games came out.

Some of my memories would be:

• Oxford winning the state baseball championship in Montgomery. A gut-wrenching loss in Game two of the best of three series made it nerve wracking. The 5-0 deficit in game three made it even moiré interesting, but you knew the Jackets were going to come back.

• There was the state semi-finals in football a year ago in Hoover when we led 9-0 late in the second quarter and I thought we were on our way to a state championship game at Bryant-Denny.

•Watching 6- man football at Trinity Christian and seeing coach Jeff Smith’s team have an undefeated regular season in 2011 and then being saddened when they could not field a team this year.

• The Jackets’ basketball team winning the Calhoun County Tournament.

• Watching Jordan Simpson have an undefeated state championship wrestling season

• The girls’ basketball team putting some wins on the board last year in the second half of their season and watching Coach Peoples bring out the best in those kids.

• The girls’ softball team had a great year last year and how well they played in some of their games.

There are many other memories. I will still be involved somewhere I hope. I just will not be writing them down anymore. So go out and see a game and give the kids your support and thanks for all of the help you have given me.