Checking off the days toward the end of my tenure here at The Daily World brought back plenty of memories as I mapped out this final column of my sports writing career.

However, it also brought a massive case of writer’s block and anxiety. What am I going to write about and how am I going to make it good? Who should I thank? What should I talk about? What do I leave out?

As you read this on Saturday afternoon (or Friday night online), I will be a student. That, I know as I type this. After that, it is a crapshoot. I’ve gone through several versions of this column, from the super humble-brag to the grateful and emotional to a short and simple thank you. I could fill this entire section with them.

Yet, I sit here with time running out. It is a self-imposed deadline.

So, I’ll go through the memories here and we will see what comes out of it, part 9.

Stormy Glick offered me the chance to drive his 360 sprint car around Grays Harbor Raceway during a tune-and-play day on the clay oval. It was my first experience in first-person journalism on the Harbor. I remember it was a lot of fun, but the cramp in my right foot from keeping the throttle down lasted two days afterward. However, the experience allowed me to see what the drivers see every weekend on the track. That is invaluable information.

The best conversations with coaches came when we talked about anything but why we were standing in the middle of a muddy field in the rain on deadline. I talked science fiction and fantasy movies with Montesano’s Pat Pace. I debated the finer points of baseball and the NFL with Hoquiam’s Fidel Sanchez. I took a CPR class with Aberdeen’s Larry Fleming. Conversations with Elma’s Scott Rowland when he called in baseball scores were more than a half-hour long, even for rainouts. And when the gym was clearing out, Elma’s Lisa Johnson and I would still be talking, especially about the game and other particulars.

Wishkah’s Tove Reibel and I couldn’t get through any call-in, because either I’m mispronouncing some of her players’ names in a thick Boston accent (“pawk dah kah, Tove!”) or she has Jeopardy on television a little too loudly to be ignored and we’d try to get the questions for Alex Trebek’s answers in between who had an RBI for the Loggerettes. So much laughter from one phone call.

Of course, if I ever needed to find Grays Harbor College’s Christine Nelson, all I had to do was call Casa Mia. When she coached Hoquiam volleyball, we learned she was too late to call because of, well… hunger.

One of the toughest aspects of the job was talking to the athletes and the coaches after a particularly tough or emotional loss on the field. At times, discretion was the better part of valor. Other times, a conversation after what happened helped. Talks with Wishkah’s Johnny Boggs and Nick and Nathan Marsh after the Loggers’ 64-62 1B state title game loss to LaCrosse-Washtucna in 2008 was one of those times, even through the sadness and frustration. Sometimes, when the loss is so fresh that you can’t see straight, like at the Mat Classic, a small wave spoke volumes. This happened plenty of times at plenty of other places.

There were so many great athletes who were playing during my time here. It is a long-lasting testament to the local programs that helped them develop and learn the games. It takes a village to raise an athlete, to borrow a phrase, and Montesano’s Adam Bighill and Tera Novy, Hoquiam’s Kelsey Klein and Nolan Hoiness, Elma’s Jaime Rakevich, Kyle Basler and Brandi Thomas and Aberdeen’s Erich Schmidte, Hannah and Abby Jo Tometich and Jaime Miranda are proof. That is just a small sample size because each school on the Harbor has at least 2-3 great student-athletes who excelled here and elsewhere over the last 18 years.

And, that’s the point. It takes a village, a community, to bring everyone up to excel and be successful. I am not an exception to that. It took many people to help me get to this point, both here and elsewhere, and I can’t thank everyone enough for that. I am grateful, truly grateful, for their guidance, help and encouragement.

I learned the basics and the hard truths about sports journalism from my professors, especially Mike Fitzgerald, at California State University, Sacramento. I learned how to apply those basics and grow from them even when you screw up from Mike Lerseth, Jack Bungart and Ted Ward at the Vallejo Times-Herald. I got a chance to do it myself in several other stops, but really learned my craft here in Aberdeen.

Rick Anderson was a great editor to learn from and to work alongside for all of these years. His shoes were tough to fill, but I tried anyway. His knowledge of sports — local, regional, national and historical — still amazes me and his writing was always fair, balanced and crisp. Rick and Ray Ryan were both great to listen to and talk sports with. Even former editor and publisher John Hughes is in that group as well, especially his idioms, which all have the added benefit of being true.

Brendan Carl was the perfect assistant with my work as sports editor. His photography helped fill the pages with color and his features were must-reads. Also, his banter inside the newsroom kept everyone moving along with laughter, even though his knowledge of movies (which Rick and I both share a large memory bank of) was lacking in several areas, especially Star Wars and sports comedies. He can be forgiven for that. His knowledge of local and collegiate football, most notably his beloved Nebraska Cornhuskers, made up for it.

Past and present colleagues Mike Plaster, Jeff Burlingame, Lisa Patterson, Paula Horton, Bill Lindstrom, Kathy Quigg, Kevin Hong, Macleod Pappidas, Louis Traub, Aaron Lavinsky, Ryan Teague Beckwith, David Wilkins, Terry “Looney” Loney, Dan Jackson, David Haerle, Angelo Bruscas, Dan Hammock and Kat Bryant have made working here as much fun as you can possibly have in a newsroom.

Above all else, to you, the readers — thank you. You’ve allowed me to be a small part of your lives and that is not trivial. It has been my honor and privilege to have been your sports writer and sports editor. As I take my next steps toward a new venture and path, I am grateful for everyone and everything.

And now … my time is done. The deadline is here. Thank you.

Rob Burns: His only regret is he never got a blue check mark as a verified Twitter account — @RobRVR