First year full of Kodak moments

By Staff
Kim West
Franklin County Times
If you asked me to pick the greatest moment from the past year, it would be hard to choose just one because of the sheer number of ball games and sporting events I've seen, ranging from track and trap shooting meets to playoff games, youth league tournaments and volleyball matches.
In the past 12 months, I have had the opportunity to watch a variety of sports played by local athletes of all ages who provided plenty of Kodak moments during a banner year for Franklin County sports.
I'll never forget covering Russellville's run to the Class 5A boys basketball state championship game, Red Bay's undefeated football season and the county tournaments or writing about Russellville tennis players T.J. Drake and John Tyler Hardin and Vina runner Emily Davidson's individual state championships and the dozens of outstanding scholar-athletes from the eight local junior high schools and high schools.
I started this job full-time last May and caught the tail end of Russellville baseball's run to the school's first-ever appearance in the state semifinals against Cullman.
Before that I worked part-time for a few weeks and went to a handful of athletic banquets, spring football practices and county baseball games. This allowed me to locate most of the high schools and figure out how to use a professional camera for the first time in my life.
I still don't consider myself a professional photographer, but the past year has shown me that the saying, "A picture is worth a thousand words," is true when it comes to sports.
We get a lot of readers who call, email or come by the office, and more often than not, they want a particular article that ran in a recent edition. While my co-workers and I take pride in writing stories, I have no doubt most articles wouldn't be as coveted if they weren't accompanied by a picture.
Summertime is considered by some people to be a dead period for sports, but I disagree because there will be plenty of T-ball, American Legion, softball and Little League games to cover, and I'm looking forward to the return of our "Snapshot Friday" youth league feature.
The next couple of months will also be a great time to run feature stories about past and present athletes from Franklin County. If there's a subject or person you'd like to read about, please give me a call or send an email.
Kim West is sports editor for The Franklin County Times. She can be reached at kim.west@fct.wpengine.com or (256) 332-1881, ext. 30.