Daily Skiff

This is why the phrase bittersweet was created.

When I was first asked to write a column about sports for the graduation issue, I thought about declining because that would mean my time here is officially over.

This has been the best five years of my life and I am going to miss this school with all of my heart.

So much has changed since I started here in the fall of 2004.

When I got here we had the old bookstore, the old student center, the old Frog Fountain and the old residence halls and now we have updated versions of all of those things.

As far as my most memorable moments of the past half-decade, I have to start with watching the old bookstore burn to the ground. But just about all of the rest of my favorite memories here revolve around sports.

In fact, sports played a major role in how I got to this school. I won tickets to a Horned Frog football game at a Texas Rangers game my senior year of high school. That was the first time I set foot on this campus and it set the tone for the next five years.

I love all sports, but going to football games here and hanging out with everyone in the student section is where some of my favorite memories were made.

Whether it was going to Oklahoma to watch us beat the Sooners my sophomore year, watching us beat Brigham Young University this season, seeing myself on SportsCenter after our overtime win against Northwestern at my first football game as a student here or watching our football program go from a novel BCS buster to now a perennial national title hopeful, they have all been among my greatest joys here.

But my time here has not been centered solely around the football program. Watching the baseball team dominate the Mountain West Conference has been great to see. Now we have a top-ranked, respected program getting some of the nation's top recruits.

The women's basketball team has had arguably the best five years in the program's history and every year has a chance of getting to the NCAA tournament and making waves.

The men's basketball team has been down for a couple years, but I see head coach Jim Christian doing big things with the program and I think we will be conference title contenders within the next three years.

The volleyball team is ever-improving and honestly, those games are just as fun as the football games. If you are reading this and will be back next year, go to more of the volleyball games. That team gets very little respect and the games are always exciting.

The rifle team and equestrian teams are competing for national championships every year. And I spent a lot of time at tennis matches and swimming and diving events.

This has been the time of my life, I am going to miss this place a ton and this great school will always have a place in my heart.

Billy Wessels is a senior news-editorial journalism major from Waxahachie.

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