With the end of the 2018-19 sports year coming to a close, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the coaches and athletic directors for their assistance this season.

With a limited staff, it is important that coaches help get results to me when we cannot be at the games. Some coaches have gone above and beyond, while others are still working on their system of getting results to the newspaper.

I can live with that.

But the vast majority of the coaches from Brandywine, Buchanan, Cassopolis, Dowagiac, Edwardsburg and Niles have been tremendously helpful throughout the fall, winter and spring sports seasons. I know most of them either are teachers or have other jobs outside of coaching, so I appreciate them taking the time to help out.

There was a time when Leader Publications had three sports editors. The Cassopolis and Edwardsburg weekly papers had someone to cover sports, while the Daily News and Daily Star had their own sports editors. Those days are long gone.

It began in the 1990s and early 2000s when newspapers were struggling, and in some instances, closing or going online only.

My thanks go to our parent company Boone Newspapers and all the publishers and managing editors who had the foresight to know that print was not dead and would rebound. But, changes still had to be made.

So, we consolidated the daily and weekly sports departments into one under my direction. From there, I was able to put together a solid group of freelance photographers and writers to help with the coverage of our six high schools. That group has been an ever-changing roster.

I have been fortunate to have worked with some really talented people over the years. They have all had the same passion for high school sports that I have. I could not have done this job without them.

However, times change and so has our roster of freelancers, which unfortunately has been depleted over the past 18 months due to new or current jobs, or parents whose children are now becoming active in sports.

We have been working hard to keep you up to date despite those changes. It has been a challenge, but I still feel we are providing the best local sports coverage in southwest Michigan and will continue to do so in the future.

Right now, we are in the middle of making some changes to the sports roster. I should have some news about that very soon. I am excited about the changes and I hope that you will be, too, as we head into the summer months, and before you know it, high school sports will be back in mid-August.

I am also excited because this is my favorite time of each sports season: the playoffs.

All of our baseball, softball and golf teams open up the postseason this week, while some of our soccer teams will begin play or continuing play this week.

Unfortunately, Brandywine and Edwardsburg have already been eliminated in soccer, while all of our tennis teams with the exception of the Eddies and Brandywine will compete for state championships this weekend.

The same is true for our track teams. Every one of our six schools has at least one athlete competing in the state finals on Saturday at various sites around the state. I want to wish each and every one of them good like as they try to capture gold.

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