When words just aren’t enough

All good things must come to an end.

I was a small child when I first heard these words, and they came from my father. It surprised me when I first heard them because, for the most part, my father was an optimist.

He always believed in a better tomorrow, that if you had the courage to face the next day, there might be something better waiting for you. That’s a mantra that has guided me for much of my life.

If you just keep moving forward something good is bound to happen. After all, that mindset led me here.

But it is also true that things do end, but that also means things have a beginning too. When I first came to the TP Printing Company some four and half years ago, I was a total stranger.

I’m leaving it with so many friends and memories. In my time as a reporter at the Tribune-Phonograph and The Record-Review, and whatever other sister publication I was working for, I covered just about anything and everything you could possibly imagine.

I cherish the memories of seeing the Athens Bluejays winning their second straight WIAA D-4 state baseball title in 2018, of seeing the Colby Hornets hold aloft the state title for football in Camp Randall just last fall.

I witnessed other moments in that great stadium, games played by the Edgar Wildcats and Stratford Tigers. I saw state champions from Stratford crowned in the Kohl Center, watched the Colby Hornets girls basketball team make history by earning their maiden trip to the WIAA D-4 girls state tournament in 2019.

I also weathered a global pandemic. COVID-19 came out of the blue, and the world stood still. Except for me. I got busy writing stories, covering current or former student-athletes from around this part of the state.

I had plenty to work with from Colby, Abbotsford, Loyal, Stratford, Spencer and beyond. Week after week I put their stories in my sports section, shining a light on their exploits, and how their time at Colby High or Abbotsford High or Stratford High made it possible.

But as proud as I am of keeping my sports section going through COVID-19, as proud as I am of the awards I’ve won, what I am most proud of is the impact my stories made in the lives of the people who read them, of the big and small moments I was able to capture.

The response I have received in my leaving has been overwhelming. I will forever owe debts of gratitude to so many, starting with Kris O’Leary and Kevin Flink, who took in a raw journalist. I owe thanks to Kevin O’Brien and Peter Weinschenk who taught me so much about what being a journalist is all about. Then there are the coaches, the teachers and above all else, the students, who are too numerous to list in this short space.

No matter where life takes me, Colby and Abbotsford will be with me. And a piece of my heart and soul will forever be here. Thank you. For everything.

M USINGS AND G RUMBLINGS

ROSS PATTERMANN REPORTER