From the Fringe ... Thank you all: I got to live out all my dreams these last 22 years

All good things must come to an end, they say. They also say, it's hard to say goodbye.

Well, I'm here to tell you, in my case, it's all true.

Come Sunday, my wife, Amy, and I will be leaving Havre. For a plethora of reasons, family, friends, careers, the Blue Ponies, and this just being our home, it was the hardest decision I've ever been faced with. And that includes leaving my current position at the Havre Daily News.

I've spent 22 years at the HDN in many different capacities, from sports writer, to sports editor and publisher, among other things, and words cannot express just how much building my career at my hometown paper, doing what I absolutely wanted to, and love to do, in my hometown, has meant to me. It means everything, and I wouldn't trade what I've done or been part of the last 22 years for anything in the world.

I've been so blessed to work with so many incredible people at the Havre Daily. I obviously can't name them all. But I'd be remiss if I didn't mention those who were so instrumental in my journey, including former publisher Harvey Brock, who gave me my start, a true mentor in Karen Datko, who taught me so much about my craft, and my longtime colleague and great friend, former publisher Stacy Mantle. Without those I just mentioned, and so many more I didn't, I would not have had the career, or would not be the journalist I am today.

I also have to mention Ryan Divish. Our journalism careers took decidedly different paths, but we started this whole thing together. In 2002, we set out to change the way sports were covered at the HDN. Not to say that there was anything wrong with the way it was before we got here, but we wanted to essentially make sure we covered everything we possibly could. It's called hyper-local and that's what we started together.

Ryan left me to go it alone in 2005, but I was never actually alone. I was so fortunate to be able to bring in some people to work with that helped me and my vision for HDN sports. Chris Peterson, Daniel Horton, Colin Thompson and Kason Clark, I owe a sincere thank you to all of you. The sports section at the Havre Daily is everything I ever hoped and wanted it to be, and you guys are a huge, huge reason why. I could not have done any of it without you. So thank you so much. Thank you for putting in the long hours, the weekends, the road trips, the phone calls, the late nights and early mornings, thank you for everything that goes into putting out a sports section like we have at the HDN.

It may have been my dream and my vision, but it wouldn't have been a reality without all of you.

That reality of creating a fully local sports section, the reality of covering every local game, with photos, game stories, feature stories, special sections, web and social media content, and everything else that went into it, it was only a reality because of our incredible sports community.

I've written it a thousand times, but it's so true, Havre, and the Hi-Line, is a sports journalist's dream come true. So to the thousands of athletes, coaches, officials, administrators and fans that have helped create this incredible environment I've had the opportunity to showcase for 22 years, thank you.

Because of how awesome the sports are to cover around here, it's never really felt like a job. Instead, it's just been one, big, amazing career filled with getting to go to games and cover sports for a living. I often pinched myself, because many times, it just didn't feel real. Instead, much of the time, it felt surreal.

Covering sports, and eventually being the publisher at the Havre Daily News was a privilege, and it was one I took very seriously, it was something I never took for granted. How often do people get to serve their hometown and region like I got to for 22 years? My goal, whether it was in sports, or the paper as a whole, was to bring the community the very best that was possible. Was it perfect? No. Did everybody agree with everything we do and did? Of course not. Did all our readers agree with my columns, opinions? Definitely not. But I always gave my best. And I always felt I had our paper's, our reader's and the community's best interests at heart. That mattered to me very much, and always will.

Each and every day, for many, many years, each and every night, I gave the Havre Daily, the community and our readers everything I had to give. I just wanted to do the best I possibly could, and when I look in the mirror at night, I'm pretty darn proud of that.

And, from afar, I'm going to continue to try and do that, as I continue to write sports and more for the paper, and the community that has given me so much over the years.

But, sadly, I won't be at those games anymore. I will so very much miss places like Blue Pony Stadium, the Armory Gymnasium and Hoon Field, to name a few. I will so very much miss events like the 9C Tournament, All-Class State Wrestling, Cat-Griz, or most of all, Friday and Saturday nights in Havre and all over the Hi-Line. I can't even come close to putting into words how much I'm going miss it. I'm going to miss it all, the games, the players, the fans, the schools, the communities, the friends.

I'm going to miss it all so much.

But even when I started this journey so long ago, whether it was my career at the Havre Daily, or coaching high school sports, I knew it would end, or at least change some day. That's life. And Amy and I are taking a new direction in life now. But before I go, I just want to say thank you to all of you. Thank you to the current HDN staff, I couldn't have done any of this without you. Thank you to everyone I have had the honor of working with all these years, I respect you all so much. Thank you to my family and friends. Thank you Havre. Thank you for reading what I wrote all these years.

Thank you everyone. I will miss you, I will miss this, more than you will ever know.