This coming weekend will be very special to me.
Saturday morning I will be leaving for my brother Tom and sister-in-law Cheryl’s home in Sharpsburg.
While there, I will be attending a very special event: the Catholic baptism of my recently born great niece Lola Ann Crine on Sunday morning. She is the daughter of my dear nephew Billy and his dear wife Amelia.
Lola Ann’s two-year-old sister Evangeline Mary Crine is really excited about having a new little sister. A framed picture of the two little girls sits prominently on my desk. It is one of my prized possessions.
My niece, Jennifer, mother of my six-year-old great nephew Samuel Lincoln “Lin” Roberts and my nephew Matthew Crine, are also very special. I am proud of all the members of my family and I thank them for always being there for me.
I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful family. They have always been there to support me in anything I do. The late Georgia Governor and Post-Searchlight publisher Marvin Griffin, publisher Sam M Griffin Jr., assistant publisher Mary Ann Griffin, publisher Jeff Findley, managing editor Ashley Johnson and all the other fine people at Boone Newspapers have allowed me to cover Bainbridge and Decatur County youngsters in their sports endeavors, a job I truly have loved, for 43 years.
Jones-Wheat Elementary School principal Dr. Larry Clark, one of the greatest role models for young people that we have in Decatur County, was a starting defensive back on coach J.B. Rolind’s 1970 Bainbridge High School Bearcats football team, the first Bearcats team I covered in 1970.
We ran a picture of Dr. Clark intercepting a pass and I wrote a corresponding story about him signing a football scholarship with Moorehouse College. Dr. Clark went on to lead the highly successful Bainbridge High School Bearcats track team for many years.
High school sports writers feel fortunate if they have an opportunity to cover a state championship team in their career, I have had the good fortune to cover two.
In 1982 I covered former Decatur County School Superintendent and Decatur County Sports Hall of Fame member’s State Class AAA championship Bearcats football team and in 2010 I covered the State Class AAAA champion Bearcats track team coached by Larry Cosby, Dr. Clark’s hand picked successor as Bearcats head track coach.