A personal thank you

For the past two seasons I have had the privilege of covering Union County sports.

I say privilege because that is exactly what it has been. I honestly cannot recall a bad experience I have had at a game, awards ceremony, or in dealings with a coach, parent or athlete. I have thoroughly enjoyed this part of my job, and I'm grateful that it has provided a great start to my career.

Unfortunately, nothing lasts forever, and the Forsyth County News presented me with a career opportunity that I could not pass up.

Although this will be my last issue as editor of the Union Sentinel, this is not really an end for anyone.

Long before I was covering sports here, people like Rainer Arnold, Cindy Brown and Thor Duryea had already been providing Union County with the best sports coverage it had ever seen out of a local newspaper.

I have done my best to continue that tradition, as providing high quality, consistent sports coverage has been one of my top priorities.

It seems like every year, the bar for success in the media is raised. So needless to say, I was proud of the fact that the Union Sentinel was the only newspaper in Union County to win awards from the Georgia Press Association this year.

I was equally proud of the fact that we were the only newspaper in Union County to win anything higher than a 3rd place award in any press association this year.

So I have done everything I can to encourage the Sentinel ownership to continue to provide Union County with a sports section that offers positive, quality coverage.

Last, but certainly not least, I would like to say a few things about the people that rarely get the recognition they should.

I personally owe a lot of thanks to a lot of people for helping me along the way. There are far too many people to name, but I would especially like to extend a thank you to Terry Rogers, Jim Hughes, Tim Hunter, Todd Peugh, Jessica Stewart, Jackie Hughes, Chris Robbins, Mike West, Robby Roxbury, C.T. Hussion, as well as all the assistant coaches and cheerleading sponsors, the Union County Recreation Department, parents, athletes and statisticians for making my job so much easier.

In this job you get the opportunity to work with people in situations away from the limelight of games or other public view.

In those situations there is always the chance to be disappointed by what you see. This is definitely not the case here.

These are all first rate people, and I hope this community realizes how lucky they are to have them. They have been nothing but a pleasure to work with, and I can say with complete sincerity that they have the best interests of the youth of Union County at heart. I wish them all the success in the world, and I will greatly miss working with all of them on a regular basis.

They deserve your respect and your support, so please do whatever you can for them while they serve as positive role models in your children's lives.

- Jared Putnam