Certainly one of the great benefits of my job, and probably the aspect I treasure the most, is the relationships I’ve developed with coaches and athletes in our community over a 20-year period.

It’s loads of fun to cover our area’s top athletes, wonderfully gifted kids playing out their senior years, such as McCallie’s Jay Fullam, Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe’s Kayla Weaver, Marion County’s Joe Muir, Ooltewah’s Haley Horsch and Sammy Seamster, North Jackson’s Tana Patrick, Tennessee Temple’s Jeremy Sexton and Grace Academy’s Josh Blake.

But it seems the kids I remember the most after each school year are the ones who aren’t necessarily the most highly recruited. To be able to tell their stories is something I take great pride in, and as graduation approaches for our area schools, I found myself thinking back to a few of the more inspirational seniors I wrote about during this school year.

I still get chills thinking about the character of Baylor’s Tevin McKinney, who played the basketball game of his life just two days after his dad died from a stroke. Because it was just the two of them living together, Tevin and his dad Archie were extremely close, sharing a lifelong love for basketball. Which is why Tevin decided the best way to honor his dad’s memory was to play in the game right after Archie’s death.

Baylor trailed top-ranked Ensworth by 11 points in the second quarter when Tevin entered the game. His tenacious defense, constant hustle and 11 points helped bring the Red Raiders back for an upset win.

“It was like watching a Disney movie,” Baylor coach Austin Clark said at the time. “It really was like he was playing with an angel on his shoulder.”

McKinney competed in track this spring, running the 100-meter dash and helping on the 4x100 and 4x200 relay teams. He finished second in the long jump at Thursday’s D-II sectional, which could qualify him for next week’s state meet. He will be a pre-law major at Alabama this coming year and said he’s certain his dad would be proud.

“Life is getting back to normal a little bit now,” McKinney said. “At our basketball banquet, Coach Clark gave me a copy of the tape from the Ensworth game. That’s something I’ll always keep.

“It meant a lot to have so many people wish me well after hearing about my story. I’m excited to get adjusted at Alabama and meet new people now.”

If ever there was a movie script waiting to be written about an area athlete, it would be Buikai Massaqui’s life story. I met him last fall and was amazed by his determination.

When Buikai (pronounced boo-waki) was 4 years old, he and his older brother Benjamin huddled helplessly in their house as rebel soldiers murdered their parents inside their home in Monrovia, the capital city of Liberia. Benjamin, who was 14 at the time, carried and led his younger brother more than 650 miles to a refugee camp in the West African country of Ghana.

After seven years in a place where food and hope were scarce, the boys were eventually allowed to emigrate to the United States through an outreach program sponsored by the Episcopal Church. They wound up in Chattanooga and Buikai eventually attended St. Andrew’s-Sewanee, where football helped him overcome his social insecurities of feeling like an outsider.

He also ran track this spring and said he will miss the friends and surroundings of the tiny mountain campus.

“I’m going to work this summer, and in the meantime I’ll figure out where I’ll go to college,” Buikai said. “I’ve been thinking a lot lately about having to leave school and my friends, but I guess that’s what happens at the end of the year. Sometimes it feels like it went by too fast.”

Even with the Spring Fling on next week’s horizon, I couldn’t agree more as another prep season comes to a close.