Hillyard: Saying farewell to “my” local teams

Published 7:18 pm Tuesday, July 18, 2017

The time has come for me to say goodbye. After two years and five months of sharing the stories of local athletes’ conquests, I am leaving the Daily Citizen-News and northwest Georgia to return to metro Atlanta, where I had exclusively lived for the first 26 years of my life.

I went back and forth about whether to write this column. Two and a half years doesn’t seem like an awfully long time for me to be deserving of saying goodbye. But I’m a sentimental guy, and the opportunity to pen my thanks and appreciation and share a few memories was too much to turn down.

I arrived in Dalton in February 2015 with several years of experience as a writer, but little knowledge of the area or of the daily grind that is the newspaper industry. I had written for mostly online publications and covered high school sports for my local paper back home in Gwinnett County. But I was eager at the opportunity to cover sports for a living, which had been a dream of mine for a long time.

My first night I was sent to Ringgold to cover a Dalton High School baseball game. It was wet and cold, with a wind chill in the 20s and very little protection from the elements in the cinder block press box. I couldn’t believe they were playing baseball in that weather, but as I quickly learned with spring sports in northwest Georgia, you play when you get the chance.

My first few months in Dalton were very exciting. Just two weeks into the job, Dalton State College’s basketball team won the Southern States Athletic Conference regular season title. Then two weeks later the Roadrunners made their run to a national championship. Less than a month in as a full-time sportswriter, but I’d already covered a national champion.

Two months later, Dalton High School’s boys soccer team won its third consecutive state championship. The Catamounts produced one of my favorite stats of all time when they scored 32 goals in those 2015 state tournament games, which was one more than they allowed total during their three-year run of dominance from 2013-15. As a soccer fan, getting to watch all the local teams was a constant treat. It’s fitting that one of the last events I covered was Southeast Whitfield’s first state championship.

The following fall I got my first taste of area high school football and it didn’t disappoint. Gwinnett County has some of the best football talent and teams in the nation. I grew up watching Brookwood, Buford, Grayson, Norcross, Parkview and Peachtree Ridge all win state championships. But while the level of skill is certainly higher, the passion and support from the local community doesn’t match northwest Georgia. My alma mater, Duluth, has more than 2,000 students but is lucky to get 1,000 people at a football game. Even some of the better programs rarely if ever fill up their stadium.

So when I went to Harmon Field to cover a Dalton game against Scottsboro in the season opener, and then the next week traveled down to Calhoun for the rivalry game against the Jackets, I was blown away by the entire production. The same was true when I went to Murray Field for the first time when the Indians hosted the rival Mountaineers. For a guy from metro Atlanta it was something I had never experienced.

During the next two years I saw a lot of great games and spectacular performances. There were too many to count and I don’t want to leave any out, so I won’t try to list them. But my favorite memories from my time here involved sharing some of the more personal moments that developed by building relationships.

I will forever be impacted by the story I wrote about Rana Mashburn, a Southeast Whitfield student who passed away from a rare autoimmune disease, by how she never lost sight of how her story could impact others, and how the entire community rallied around her and her family.

I never grew tired of Dalton State basketball coach Tony Ingle’s endless sayings and how he can take a question about the kind of defense he ran and turn it into an inspirational musing about overcoming adversity.

I will smile when recalling how Dalton High football coach Matt Land answered questions in outline format, with several numbered points that sometimes even included sub-sections.

To the athletes who entrusted me with sharing their stories, I wish you nothing but success. To the coaches who answered (nearly) every request and were always so patient and forthcoming, I am grateful. To all the people who wrote to me to offer praise or criticism, but in the end always offered appreciation for the efforts of the Daily Citizen-News, I give my sincerest thanks.

I am going back home to be closer to family and work in a start-up business with my older brother. I hope to continue to write occasionally for this newspaper and others as I seek to fulfill my itch for writing about high school and college sports.

Friends have asked me what I will miss about Dalton. There are a few places that come to mind, but what I will miss most is the people. I will miss having local teams that I am responsible for covering. I’ll miss calling my brother to tell him about something extraordinary that one of “my” local teams did. I’ll miss the friendly banter in the press box and on the sidelines with so many of you.

I know that this change is a step forward for me personally, but I leave Dalton with a wealth of experiences and so many wonderful friendships that I hope will continue. Thank you all for welcoming me into your community and for letting me tell your stories.