This has been quite a year for sports in our county. Several schools won at the sectional level, we have had state championships in wrestling and swimming, and recently the Frewsburg Girls Basketball team and the Panama Boys Basketball team brought home state championships.

Sometimes we get overly obsessed with our smallness and remoteness as a community. When we are out-of-town and asked about where we live we often say: “Oh, a few miles south of Buffalo…” thinking that the inquirer may assume that we are from New York City and that Buffalo is the only upstate place that anybody has ever heard of.

Nine times out of ten though, the person asking the question will respond: “Oh, I know where you live, I grew up in Tonawanda, or Rochester, etc.” Or, you will often hear, “I used to go to Chautauqua Lake as a kid, and my grandparents still have a place at Chautauqua.”

In other words, we are not as small and remote as we sometimes think we are.

Now, we will have other reasons to become more well-known. “Isn’t that the place where the great sports teams come from? Your kids won two state basketball championships last year as I remember.”

And so, there you are. We are back on the map again!

In the case of the Panama team, the local headline said that this was the final year of their coach coaching the team. What a way to end his career at Panama – state champions!

I have mentioned before in this space, the great changes that have happened since I was a kid as to girls’ sports. Back in those days, girls played basketball but with different rules. I think that they were thought of as less tough, or, perhaps, that they could get injured somehow if they participated in the rough-and-tumble of boys’ basketball.

Whatever the concerns were, they were over-blown. Girls can run the full length of the court, make jump shots, and drive for the basket just as easily as guys can. And, their games can be just as exciting to watch; think of Catlin Clark’s last year of college basketball at Iowa.

There is another aspect to local high school sports that I find encouraging. They are leading in their communities in creating cooperative endeavors. If a school doesn’t have enough players for a particular sport, they will combine with another school or schools to put a team together. (If only the schools themselves could start to think like that, just think of the possibilities!)

But, back to the athletes. Congratulations on your wonderful achievements of being champions and for bringing these trophies back to Chautauqua County!

Rolland Kidder is a Stow resident.