The Michigan High School Athletic Association postseason officially began on Thursday with the first of two days of regional tennis competition for our local teams.
That means that officially, we are starting the last leg of the 2009-2010 sports year.
I cannot believe how fast this year has gone.
There have been a lot of great stories over the past school year, and there are still a few left to be written before we put the final touches on the spring season.
If you have paid any attention to the columns I have written over the years that I have been with Leader Publications, you know that I am huge fan of high school athletics.
Not just because that’s what I get paid to cover, but because I have always enjoys playing sports, watching sports and covering sports.
Sure it’s fun to cover Notre Dame, Michigan and Michigan State football. It’s been great covering NASCAR events at Michigan International Speedway. Yes, it was big fun going to the American League Championship Series, the National League Championship Series and the World Series in 1984, my first year as sports editor at the Dowagiac Daily News.
I spent several decades as just the sports editor at Dowagiac.
Then I added the responsibilities of covering Cassopolis and Edwardsburg athletics for the Vigilant and the Argus.
And just a few years ago, I took over as the Niles sports editor.
I have always felt like I had a pretty good working relationship with all the coaches and athletic directors from around the area and especially the ones at the schools we cover here at Leader Publications.
But what I have most enjoyed is getting to know the young men and women that I have had the privilege to cover all these many years.
When I first started my career as a sports writer I had dreams of someday working at a place like the Detroit Free Press.
But it didn’t take me long to figure out that I belong at a great local paper like the ones we have here at Leader Publications.
Why you might ask would I not want to work at a ‘big city’ newspaper?
I will tell you with all honestly, it’s because I feel like I would not have gotten to know all the coaches, players, athletic directors and fans that I have met along the way and got to know pretty well.
I love being able to go to a sporting event and not only cover it, but interact with them before , sometimes during and after games.
I have met so many wonderful people along the way that I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything.
I have covered so many great local sporting events that I can’t begin to tell you about them all.
But there are several that come to mind quickly when I think back over the years.
Covering state championships for Dowagiac football and Niles softball are right there at the top of the list, as well as tournaments runs for Buchanan softball, Brandywine baseball, Dowagiac softball and Cassopolis softball that ended up in Battle Creek in the state finals.
While those are some great sporting events to be a part of, I also relish covering the every day games. Great rivalry games like Buchanan-Brandywine, Cassopolis-Edwardsburg and Niles-Dowagiac.
Every day is a new challenge here at Leader Publications and I enjoy coming to work and trying to meet those challenges.
So as we wrap up another school year, I am looking forward to the next couple of weeks of the postseason and then I will begin looking ahead at the 2010-2011 sports calendar because before you know it, it’s going to be August and time to start all over again.

Scott Novak is sports editor for Leader Publications. He can be reached at scott.novak@leaderpub.com