With all due respect to everyone reading this, I maintain that for the past two years I have had the best job in the Bothell-Kenmore area. I have been able to watch as many Bothell, Inglemoor and Cedar Park Christian games I have wanted. For free.

And I was paid to do it.

I was there when Bothell’s Chris Winchell won dual golds at the 2006-07 boys swimming state championships. I covered Inglemoor softball’s miraculous run through the state tournament last year to win five straight games and end up the third best team in the state. And I was able to follow the Cedar Park boys basketball and girls volleyball teams bring home the first state trophies in school history.

But as remarkable as all those achievements were, they all fall just short of making my top five moments at the Bothell-Kenmore Reporter. It’s not a knock on those. It shows just how many amazing games I have seen.

With that in mind, you will notice one major event being absent. You will see no mention, save for this one, of the 2007 nine-overtime Class 4A state football game between Bothell and Pasco, as that was one of several great games I wish I could have seen live but couldn’t. So while you will not see it on the list, here are the top five moments I will never forget from my two years at the Bothell-Kenmore Reporter.

5. Inglemoor boys soccer spring 2007 Kingco championship win: It was dark, it was cold and I’m sure it was past the players’ bedtimes. But it was all worth it when in the fourth overtime period, 4A Kingco co-most valuable player Jamie Finch found the back of the net to upset Redmond on its own field for the Kingco championship. That Vikings’ team, the final one under head coach Bryan McNiel, was loaded with six players on the all-Kingco first or second team. That included Ryan Luke, midfielder Brendon Cloyd and a young sophomore sweeper named Anthony Arena, who has become one of the premier players in the state.

4. Cedar Park Christian football first playoff game in school history in fall 2007: In my five years covering sports, I have still never seen a postgame speech like the one after Cedar Park’s playoff loss to Lynden Christian. First head coach Dan Holden spoke. Then he opened the floor to his assistants. At the end, even the parents and graduating seniors recalled and thanked each other for one of the most memorable seasons in any sport in school history. It didn’t matter that the team lost that day, 39-6. It didn’t matter that the team finished one game short of state.

This team was one of the best success stories of 2007-08.

3. Bothell Safeco Field: It’s the ultimate dream of any athlete. To play on a professional stage. The 2007 Bothell Cougars baseball team got to do just that, making it to the semifinals of the Class 4A state tournament and playing at Safeco Field. I’ll always remember seeing shortstop Cody Atkinson’s eyes light up after the game when he talked about what it was like to hit a home run at Safeco Field. Chris Dennis threw off the same mound as Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens and Pedro Martinez. Talk about your all-time thrills.

2. Seeing Inglemoor girls basketball make state this year for the first time since 1998: I almost missed it because it was the same day as state wrestling, gymnastics and swimming, but I left the King County Aquatics Center as quickly as I could to watch the second half. And boy am I happy I did. What made this so special is it couldn’t have come to a nicer group of people. It all starts with John Augustavo, who I still maintain had the largest smile I have ever seen in my life when the buzzer rang at Juanita Field House that day. And while I don’t pretend to know any of the big five — Bianca Cooper, Rachel Williamson, Chrissy Baumgartner, Sally Blackner and Lindsay Finch — just watching practice one could tell they had a special bond and got along great. They were a talented group, but I don’t know if they were any more talented than years past.

But they were a better team.

1. Following the Bothell football team on state championship game in fall 2007: Head coach Tom Bainter barely knew me. Actually, that’s an overstatement. I don’t even think we had spoken on the phone yet. Yet he allowed me to follow around himself and the team from the assistant coaches’ pregame meeting to the pregame speech to the bus ride down to the Tacoma Dome. It was the biggest game of the season and I speak from personal experience when I say many coaches wouldn’t allow that. But Bainter did. And to this day, that December issue of the Bothell-Kenmore Reporter remains my favorite. I hope it gave an insight to how a top-notch high-school program prepares young kids to play in the biggest game of their lives.

While the outcome wasn’t fitting the Disney story, what I — and many fans — will always remember was the postgame speech back in the Bothell High gym. Bainter’s impromptu speech in front of a gym-full of Cougar faithful was movie-esque, and the gesture of appreciation the fans gave in their standing ovation was worthy of his tear-filled eyes.

It is a moment I, and many others, will never forget.

The beauty of high-school sports is each new season brings about a whole new set of memories to watch, read and cherish. Alas, I will not be here to write them as I have accepted another position outside of the state.

But there is one thing I am sure of. You will get to read all of them — with an unexplained, yet marketable improvement in the writing — in the Bothell-Kenmore Reporter, from the newest person, Tim Watanabe, who can claim he has the best job in the two cities.

Chris Smith is now living in Washington, D.C., and working as a Web editor.