The last few weeks were a marathon for those of us who love covering high school sports.

You see, if you want to do the best you can to represent all student athletes competing in spring sports from Utah Valley, state tournament time is a whirlwind of epic proportions.

My month meant going from girls golf to boys soccer to softball to boys lacrosse to track to baseball to softball to boys lacrosse to track to boys soccer to baseball to softball to girls lacrosse to softball to boys soccer to softball to boys lacrosse to softball to boys lacrosse and finally to baseball.

Are you dizzy yet?

May is the craziest time for me because all of the sports get crammed in during the final weeks of the school year, creating the hectic insanity I just described.

And yet I still wish I could’ve seen more teams and recognized the efforts of more athletes and coaches. I just haven’t found a way to be everywhere yet (if you have that figured out, I could use some pointers).

One of the things I do wherever I go is take some time to look at the crowd.

Sometimes that is just a few dozen people; sometimes the numbers are in the hundreds or even the thousands.

The cynical would note that high school sports don’t get the huge numbers like you see at college or professional venues and say that indicates they aren’t as important.

Others would point to the fact that college recruiting is done at the club or camp level for most sports, which to them means the high school competition isn’t as relevant.

While I can’t argue the numbers or the recruiting methods, I think anyone who said those things would be missing the point.

High school sports aren’t solely about attendance or skill — and thank goodness they aren’t.

In a sports world driven mad by greed, I see high school sports as one of the last strongholds of what athletics should be.

It’s about athletes, doing the best they can to put the needs of the team over the needs of the individual.

It’s about young men and women getting one more chance to compete with the friends and neighbors they grew up with, sometimes going back to playing pickup games in backyards or driveways.

It’s about coaches who monetarily get a tiny pittance for the time, energy and stresses of their jobs but do it anyway as they look to guide athletes to be the best they can be for the team.

It’s about the students who take time from other activities to be in the stands, cheering on their friends and peers.

And perhaps most importantly, it is about representing a small geographic area of people and taking pride in being part of that community.

Now I know those idealized points aren’t completely accurate.

Plenty of prep athletes (and often even more so their parents) are more about themselves than the team.

Plenty of young men and women have to move for non-sports-related reasons, while far too many leave just to pursue athletic goals.

Plenty of coaches don’t give it their all or get embroiled in other challenges that hurt their teams.

Plenty of students never show up at home games, let alone road games or state playoff competitions.

And plenty of people in the communities don’t care about their high school teams.

But I heartily applaud those who do.

I love seeing the photos and videos of the fire engine rides for the state champs as they triumphantly parade through their hometowns.

I love seeing community social media support for teams that win — and love it even more when I see support for those who don’t win but gave everything they had.

We live in an age where things like technology, busy schedules and even different points of view divide our communities and make it so we don’t feel connected to those around us.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

I see high school sports frequently sealing up some of those cracks and providing one way to appreciate the places we live as well as each other.

I hope greed and fear never ruin high school sports.

I hope communities continue to be there for their athletes and coaches, to cheer on the good times and lift them up when things are rough.

That connection has the potential to keep us grounded, to encourage us to be there for each other.

It’s something I always love to see and look forward to those experiences when everything gets started again in August.

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