As of Wednesday morning, we are now officially out of spring and into summer. In my world, summer is the start of fun times with my children as they move up one more rung on the grade level ladder. Hard to really conceive, but my son, Elijah, enters the sixth grade at Perry Browne Elementary School in the fall, and he was a wee infant of two months when I began my career at The Evening Sun, and with so many close friends and tremendous athletes moving on in their lives, I find myself in a state of reflecting on the years gone by as a sportswriter and editor for our local daily newspaper.

Among the athletes, Sara Chrystie, headed to Oneonta State to continue her athletic and academic career in September, has had perhaps the longest-running relationship with our sports section dating back to her third grade year. While her older brother Mike– by five years – was breaking records and setting new standards on the gridiron and track, Sara’s coming was touted. She did not disappoint becoming her school’s all-time leading goal scorer in field hockey, and the school’s all-time scoring leader for basketball.