A time for new beginnings

A new year is upon us, and with a new year come new beginnings.

On the vast majority of Thursdays for the better part of the past six years, the left-most column of the Daily Inter Lake sports section was filled with the anecdotes, takes and musings of my former colleague Joseph Terry.

As regular readers of his column know, Joe departed for greener pastures — literally — in early December. (In the interest of full disclosure, I’m not quite sure how green the pastures are in Arizona this time of year, but I’m willing to bet they’re currently greener than the snow-covered landscape in the Flathead Valley.)

Joe’s venture to warmer and sunnier lands has left a void in the sports department that will not easily be filled. I can only hope occupying the physical space he left in this far-left column each Thursday, as I will do for the foreseeable future, will be much simpler.

I’ve given much thought to what I’d like this column to be, and my mind continues to wander back to a portion of the infamous speech delivered by legendary basketball coach Jim Valvano at the 1993 ESPYs.

“If you laugh, you think and you cry, that’s a full day,” he said. “That’s a heck of a day.”

The same could be said for a column worth reading.

My hope is that, at one point or another over the life of this column, I’m able to amuse, induce reflection and trigger emotions.

That’s a heck of a column.

I also am hopeful this column will evolve as I do.

I’m young, green and learning every day, both as a journalist and a person. This column may begin as one thing, morph into another and continue changing as I do.

That’s OK. In fact, pliability is one thing I’m shooting for here.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, I hope this column will be interactive.

I don’t want this space to be an abyss where a wandering sports writer comes weekly to air his grievances. I want to hear from you, and I want to write what you want to read.

Have a suggestion for a future column topic? I’d love to hear it. Want to offer feedback, voice dissent or simply discuss something you’ve read here? I’m open to it all.

My contact information will be below this column each week, and I hope you’ll take advantage of it.

The new year is sure to hold many intriguing sports stories — some uplifting, others heart-wrenching and still others just downright absurd. We’ll dive into plenty of them in the future, but for now, I simply wish you and yours a joyous and prosperous 2018.

It is a time for new beginnings, and I hope it’s the start of something great for us all.

Evan McCullers is a sports reporter and columnist for the Daily Inter Lake. He can be contacted by phone at (406) 758-4463 or by email at emccullers@dailyinterlake.com.