Thanks for reading and making us great

It is my pleasure to announce to you, the lovely reading audience, that this newspaper you are holding is a first-place winner.

At the recent Society of Professional Journalists Southeastern Conference — which this year took place right here in the City Beautiful — the Central Florida Future took home four first-place rankings as well as a second-place in one of our winning categories.

Our winning categories were as follows: best all-around non-daily college publication, best affiliated news Web site, feature writing, sports writing and online sports reporting. The last category is the one that we grabbed two spots in. The first spot was for our expansive — and exhausting to us who were working — coverage of the St. Petersburg Bowl. The second was for an amazing expanded feature written by one of the best sports writers to leave this newspaper, former Sports Editor Brian Murphy.

This column is not being written as a tool of useless bragging, however.

I want to take the space in this award-winning (OK, maybe a little bragging) newspaper to thank you, the one reading this right now.

Thank you for picking up a copy of the Future on your way to class.

Thank you for taking that extra step to find out what is going on around you.

Thank you for writing in letters to the editor that let us know what you want from us, what you think of our coverage and what we can do extra.

Thank you for logging on to our Web site, UCFNews.com, and helping us make it the prime location for online news in the area.

Thank you for commenting so we can keep an eye on what the dialogue is for students on the hot topics on campus.

The reason why we all get up at the crack of dawn twice per week, why we hustle to meetings and spend hours calling and e-mailing contacts, is you, dear reader.

I'd also like to take up some space to thank all of the editors who work at this newspaper, both currently and in previous semesters. It was your long hours and previously described work that made winning anything a possibility.

And, of course, thanks to all of the writers, photographers and copy editors who spend countless hours earning their stripes on the battlefield of journalism by pounding out articles, taking photos and deleting commas.

I believe that student journalism is the root where all endeavors into professional journalistic enterprise begin. Not only that, I think this is where they are taught as well.

I hope that you've enjoyed the product we have made — and won awards for — and continue to enjoy it.

We'll keep making it.