I have not been to Cullman in a while.

I haven’t been to Hanceville, and more specifically Wallace State, in a longer time.

This all changed last week when the Northwest Regional Basketball Tournament descended upon Wallace State.

I would have made a typical comedian, because I was there all week.

I was literally there every day of the tournament. I stayed at my parents’ house in Jasper, so the commute each leg of the trip wasn’t terrible.

I wish that Tharptown’s girl’s varsity team could have made it a few more days, but Red Bay’s girl’s won the 2A regional championship (more on that to the left.)

I did make one absurd mistake at the tournament.

I used to work for The Tuscaloosa News, so I know the sports editor there.

He asked me to help them cover a few games at Hanceville since they had teams at two different regionals and I would be there anyway.

I ended up covering three games for them, but that proved a task in itself.

Mostly because of my inability to perform simple tasks, like correctly reading a schedule.

I was going to cover Winfield at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, so I had to be at Wallace State at the beginning of the day.

Or so I thought.

When I walked in Athens and Cullman were playing.

It then hit me that Winfield was playing at 9 a.m. the next day.

I sat in the same chair for most of the time between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. on Wednesday.

I had to wait until 4:30 to actually cover a game. It was American Christian Academy, unfortunately the team that eliminated Phil Campbell in the sub-region.

They, like Winfield, lost.

The only Tuscaloosa team I covered that won was Pickens County, but they won the 1A boy’s region and will likely win state.

The Red Bay girls played afterwards, and needless to say I was much more interested in that game.

I got to be at the tournament at 9 a.m. two more times, but those times I was actually supposed to be there then.

Hopefully I learned from my bore-inducing mistake and will not make such an error EVER again.

Time will only tell if I have truly learned from my mistake.

I know for a fact when Red Bay plays Barbour County Tuesday night, so maybe I won’t have to sit around anymore this tournament season.

J.R. Tidwell is sports editor for The Franklin County Times. He can be reached at (256) 332-1881, ext. 31.