Today marks the end of another year, and just like we do every year, we spend the last two papers of a year looking back at our top stories.

There’s usually a lot of memories made through a year, and 2008 was no different.

The year began with a resigning of a Class 6A football coach and ended in similar fashion. In the closing weeks of January a big-time college commitment came from William Green. When Green gave us the scoop that he was headed to Florida, he said he wanted to win a national championship. He suits up next week in the national title game on special teams.

In wrestling, we saw a passing of a torch from two-time champion Steven West to his All-American little brother, Tanner Moon. In basketball, a number of teams made strong runs in the area and regional tournaments to close the 2007-08 season, but even more are posting big wins to begin the 2008-09 season.

During the spring, Pelham looked to be the prize on the diamond in baseball and softball, but the baseball team fell short in round one and the girls finished one win short of the title game in Montgomery. Cornerstone continued its dominance in AISA softball, and is on track to extend its streak to 150-0 this spring.

A number of professional events came to the county through the year. These sports memories will always live with those who were apart of them and many more great sporting opportunities like them will come in 2009.

Here at the Reporter, 2008 has been one to remember. In personal matters, we’ve had staff members come and go, three got engaged, one got married and two added a child to their family. In professional matters, we had a successful run of awards to celebrate 2007, including best weekly newspaper, best Web site, best advertising, best sports pages and best special sections.

As we move into the 10th year of this millennium, we aim to serve you the same we have in year’s past — providing the best local coverage we can and capturing the sports that create stories in your communities.