Year 1 of the Post was one for the ages

As the year wound down, it seems like everyone is always at a point of reflecting on the year and preparing for a hopefully better new year.
If you’ve followed the Post’s story, you know the past six months has been an absolute whirlwind.
It takes a special breed of person to want to deliver community journalism at the highest level and I’ve got to hand it to our crew—they’re the best in the business, bar none.
For years, I’ve never really thought of myself as a seasoned veteran in the industry, but this wraps up my 14th year being a sports journalist.
After this past year in particular, I feel like I can say we’ve seen just about everything there is to see.
I moved to Shelbyville in 2011 to take the next step in my career and at the time, it was the best move I’ve ever made.
I fell in love with the state of Tennessee, but more importantly, this community.
I realized really quickly that people here are special.
I remember one of the first games I covered, the athletic director at the school I was at introduced himself to me, walked to the concession stand and handed me a soda.
Small things like that made me feel at home from Day 1 of me being in Bedford County.
That’s a big reason why I put so much pride into my work.
As the years carried on, I’ve seen staff reductions, changes in production, coworkers leave and others pass away.
I feel an obligation to delivering the best news coverage possible and as long as I’m able, I will continue to do so.
As I said, I feel like after now 12 years of working in Tennessee and almost 14 covering sports at various newspapers, I know quality journalism and I know what the best looks like.
I’m humbled to my core to be able to continue working here, with the best journalists in the community, delivering the best, most complete and comprehensive news for this community.
I’ve always likened the type of work we do to what I saw when I was in school.
I remember a less-than-adequate balance of coverage in our three county high schools.
You’d see the typical coverage of high school football, up and down coverage on basketball and very rarely any consistent spring sports coverage.
One thing in particular stood out to me and that was when I signed my letter of intent to run cross country in college.
The only coverage I got was about a 250 word brief my mom sent into the paper.
No picture. No interview. Just something pushed to the back page of the sports section.
Ever since I’ve started my trek in the journalism industry, I’ve made it a mission to not let our communities see such disservice.
In fact, It’s inspired me to tell the best stories I possibly can.
I’m lucky enough to have the best support in the world to help deliver the best news for this community.
I’m lucky enough to work in a community where the readership continues to support us and give us a market to deliver news to.
It certainly has been a year for the ages, and at one point, we weren’t sure our team would be able to stay together and continue serving this community.
But, certainly one of the biggest things I’m thankful for is the ability to continue doing what I love, working with the people I love, serving the community I love.
It’s been just over four months since we began our great adventure at the Post and I’m hopeful of many, many more years of delivering the best quality news that this community deserves.
Chris Siers is sports editor of the Bedford County Post. Email him at csiers@bedfordcountypost.com.