Merry Christmas to you all, and as always, thanks for making sports so great around here

What a year it’s been. And, with the weather we’re experiencing right now, it’s going out with a bang — and not in a good way.

However, as frightful as it may be out there, it’s still Christmas time, and I want to take a moment to not only wish all of you that read our paper a Merry Christmas, but, say thank you to the entire community.

And by community, I mean anywhere and everywhere our paper reaches. And since this column is on the sports page, it of course, is about sports.

Sports in our community are incredible, and they are transcendent. Much like so many communities, big or small, sports bring people together. They bring the kids and young adults who form the teams together, they bring coaches and colleagues together, and they bring, literally, the towns that support them together.

There are many, many examples of this, but, perhaps no better example is the annual District 9C tournament. They say that, in many of the 9C towns, the only people who aren’t in Havre are the mail man and the fire department. Everybody else is up, down, or over in Havre supporting their teams. It’s an incredible display of how sports unite an entire community.

Of course, there’s many different examples of sports unity I could site, because, whether you’re a Blue Pony, a Light or Skylight, a Sugarbeeter, Pioneer or Wildcat, you love your teams, you support them unconditionally, and it shows. It’s never gone unnoticed by me, and that is probably one of the things I have enjoyed the most about covering sports all these years.

And I’m reminded of that again this Christmas season.

I’m reminded about how lucky I have been. I’m reminded, this Christmas that, I have had so many great moments and memories in my career, and it’s because of all of you. I’m grateful and thankful for that. There’s literally no better place to do what I do than here.

So, with that, Merry Christmas to all of you, to the players, the coaches, the officials, the fans, to all our readers near and far, to my friends and family, have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year.