It’s been a year since COVID-19 sent our world into uncertainty.

With the world screeched to a halt by the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, many of us are coping with these unsettling times in different ways. In the sports realm, it’s fun to look back. It’s fun to reminisce about old games and great athletes. 

The Jackson County Basketball Tournament once again delivered plenty of entertainment and excitement.

The Jackson County Tournament is one of the biggest events — not just sporting events — in this county each season.

Friday night will be the 15th Battle of the Valley that I’ve covered for the Sentinel. Seeing how this is 32nd meeting between archrivals Scottsboro and North Jackson, my math skills tell me I’ve covered nearly half of those meetings. 

The North Jackson softball team surprised with a third-place finish in the 2018 Class 4A state softball tournament, then followed it up with another third-place finish in 2019.

The Scottsboro cross country teams took last weekend off. 

SEC Media Days were held in Hoover — for the final time perhaps —  and they were light on news and heavy on speculation, predictions and perceptions. Alabama was the media’s pick to win the SEC Championship, predicted to defeat Georgia in championship game. 

In today’s Sentinel I started the annual high school football schedule analysis series. For the next six weeks we’ll look at each local team’s 2019 schedule and all the facts, factors, history and possibilities that lie within.

Woodville varsity boys basketball head coach Bubba Smith tried to block out who his team was playing against and focus solely on his team’s performance.

At 15-21-2, the Skyline softball team’s record isn’t extacly pretty.

The majority of Scottsboro fans gathered just off the still-wet Gilbreath Stadium field at Oneonta High School in the now drying asphalt track.

One of the loudest roars from the fans in the Trammell Stadiums stands last Saturday morning was directed at Scottsboro eighth-grader Maddox Hamm.

Glen Hicks’ hall of fame coaching career began like no other’s.

When the first Alabama Sports Writers Association softball rankings were released on March 14, the Class 1A “others nominated” category included a winless team.

As my daughter Oakleigh looked out the window at the ever-falling rain, the popular children’s song suddenly spring forth from her lips.

When I worked at The Weekly Post years ago, a former weekly in Rainsville, anonymous football columnist Bum Pickens used to call the North Sand Mountain area around Higdon the “Big Woods.” Next week, the Jackson County Basketball Tournament comes to the “Big Woods” starting Monday and ending…

As we trek along through the first month of 2019, the high school basketball postseason is fast approaching.

The year 2018 was chock-full of memorable and monumental sports news in Jackson County.

When the varsity basketball schedules this season began trickling in to my inbox, one game that caught my eye takes place on Monday.

The Scottsboro cross country program produces championships.

Don Webb’s final conversation with his high school football coach, John Meadows, occurred last week.

Northeast Alabama Community College head golf coach Darrell Kirk is still an “old school teacher” at heart.

The first time I noticed Verne Middleton was, unsurprisingly to those who knew him, was at the AHSAA State Cross Championships.

With SEC Media Days going down this past week in Atlanta, reporters did their best to get coaches to reveal as much information as possible and talk about storylines for the coming season.

The sun had cleared the small mountains surrounding Frazier Field, and the tempertures at the Woodville High School football stadium was already at a sweltering level.

While writing the game story in the press room last week after Pisgah defeated Lauderdale County 62-59 in the Class 3A Girls Basketball state championship game, I remember thinking how close the Eagles were to perfection when I typed their final record in the story: 31-1.

The Scottsboro wrestling program put the rest of the teams in the Class 1A-5A division on notice —it’s back.

Section girls basketball coach Stormy Stevens did not want to wait any longer.

The Jackson County Tournament is a fun event I get to cover each year. 

The Jackson County Basketball Tournament is one of the county’s top sporting events each year.

When I was working at The Weekly Post in Rainsville in 2003, Plainview High School found itself looking for a new head football coach.

The Alabama High School Athletic Association reclassifies its schools every two years, and the event is highly anticipated each time.

The first time I ever talked to Drew Davis was the summer of 2007. 

“Walk.”

The Scottsboro softball team started the 2017 season as strong as any team in the state, piling up impressive wins by the handfuls.

In this football crazed state of Alabama, there has always been a recurring statement/joke that a head football coach could get elected governor. 

With the 2017 Jackson County Tournament tipping off on Monday, it's time for me to make my annual tournament game predictions. Here goes:

Glen Hicks' Fort Payne boys basketball team had just posted a 26-point win, but you wouldn't have known it from the look on his face. That's because his team had just defeated his son Cole's North Jackson team. 

Arab head football coach Adam Gilbert is impressed with his team’s opponent tonight.

Last two games in the Scottsboro-North Jackson series have been, for the good of the series, thrillers.