At the start of this year, a former Technician sports editor sent me a text telling me how jealous he was that I got to run the show this year. The football team was the dark horse to win the ACC and Wolfpack Nation had worked itself into a fever pitch two months before the season even started.

People seemed to be cautiously optimistic about basketball, reasoning that the last time the team came in with expectations that low, it beat Carolina and had a 20-win season.

Both soccer teams had been performing well and both semi-revenue sports, women’s basketball and baseball, l imped off the court/field last year but looked to be getting their stuff together.

We writers are supposed to feign objectivity, but I’m sure almost anyone in the biz will tell you it’s much easier to cover a winning team. I was excited. Weren’t you?

Those dreams soon came crashing down. Tom O’Brien’s young squad forgot how to play defense and wound up with a 5-7 record and no postseason. Basketball was obliterated. Men’s soccer performed very well but face-planted just 40 minutes before securing the team’s first ACC title. And let’s not even talk about what a roller coaster ride this baseball team – which can only seem to beat ranked teams – has given us so far.

There were great moments. But for the most part, all Pack got was more heartache. I may not have lucked out and had the best seat in the house to watch State finally return to athletic glory like everyone thought it would, but at least we have reason to be guardedly hopeful again. With Nate Irving healthy and Russell Wilson sticking around for the foreseeable future, football has a chance to try that whole breakout season thing again, once more and with feeling.

There’s a trio of angels coming to town, and their names are C.J. Leslie, Ryan Harrow and Lorenzo Brown. Kellie Harper is doing great things with the women’s basketball program. And let’s not forget that State’s much maligned Athletic Director, who has been buried under a mountain of fan-provided flack over the past several years (deserved or undeserved? I’ll invoke that whole “objectivity” thing now) appears to be on his way out in a deal that suits both parties.

This year wasn’t what I – or anyone else – hoped it would be. But this past week has provided such an absurd embarrassment of riches that it’s hard not to think there’s nowhere to go but up. Unfortunately, it all happened at the end for me. Typical. I’ll be around campus one more year, cheering alongside you guys, and Technician Sports will be in much larger and more capable hands with Tyler Everett at the helm.

Thanks, and I’ll see you in the stands.