This space has been used before to lament the fact that I’ve never had the privilege to cover a state tournament or meet involving one of our local teams.

It’s not that we haven’t had teams that have made it that far. Four local teams—Billingsley, Chilton County, Isabella and Thorsby—competed in their respective state track and field meets this past weekend. We’ve even had a wrestler, CCHS’s Jamedius Peake, make the state tournament. It’s just that things have never worked out for me to go. How could I justify driving to Gulf Shores for four track teams, for example, when six local softball teams were competing in their regional tournaments in Montgomery on the same days?

But it looks like the stars have finally aligned. With a second place finish in one of the aforementioned regional tournaments, the Maplesville softball team has earned itself a berth in the state tournament, to be played at the same location, Lagoon Park, on Friday and Saturday. This situation represents the perfect combination of local interest (people in Maplesville, a town in Chilton County, will surely be interested to know how their softball team fares), a reasonable drive (not only is Lagoon Park less than 50 miles away from our office, but I made the trip just last week, meaning I just might be able to find it again), and a lack of competition for my services (with all other local baseball, golf, tennis, softball, soccer, and track squads done for the spring, there is no excuse for me not covering the Red Devils in their quest for a state championship.

Wait, what’s this? According to my calendar, Verbena will host Billingsley and Montevallo for a spring football jamboree Friday night. And we all know that football is king, right?

With Maplesville’s first game scheduled for Friday morning, maybe I can cover both. Or get some help from another Advertiser staff member. But nothing can ruin my first chance to cover a state-level sporting event.

– Stephen Dawkins’ column appears each Wednesday and Weekend editions of The Clanton Advertiser.