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It was such a great feeling to attend a live sporting event again, which I was able to do two nights in a row last week by covering football games at Thorsby and Maplesville.

It had been awhile since the COVID-19 pandemic cut the spring seasons short, and I had seen plenty of sports on television since the professional leagues and racing series restarted in recent months.

However, nothing compares to being at a game firsthand. The experience is like nothing else.

It is a combination of emotions with the feelings of triumph and dejection being traded back and forth between the two fanbases in attendance throughout the contest.

A sporting event is one of only a few things that can stir up such varying emotions.

There are plenty of events that take place in the world where everyone who attends shares in the same emotion, but that is rarely the case at a sporting event.

Walking around at both games, it was obvious that there was a sense of excitement in the air that football was back and a sense of cautious hope that the season will be able to play out in full.

Both Thorsby and Maplesville moved up their senior nights to the home opener, which turned out to be a very smart decision in my book.

With such uncertainty of how the future schedule will pan out, it is best to make sure the senior fall athletes do not miss out on their night to be honored.

It would be a shame for them to be another casualty of the pandemic as the spring sports seniors last year had been.

At the end of the day, football is back, and we must embrace every minute of it.

Be sure not to take it for granted and root on your favorite team harder than you ever have before, because this sport we love so much is precious and the pandemic has reminded us how big of a role it plays in our lives.