With the organization of a Marengo County Sports Hall of Fame, our region is addressing a serious need in the area.

While there are certainly bigger issues facing the Black Belt and Marengo County in particular, the formation of a sports hall of fame ensures recognition for our local athletes.

Demopolis and Marengo County are talent-laden areas often overlooked when it comes to all-star voting or all-state recognition, especially for our high school athletes. When Demopolis High School senior softball pitcher Sara Davis threw a no-hitter earlier this year, the only place one could read about it was in The Times.

Our athletes deserve consideration for statewide all-state or all-star honors. Unfortunately, because of our location in west Alabama, those athletes don&8217;t always get the recognition they deserve.

Take for example Linden&8217;s Sean Richardson. He is moving from a tiny 1A high school football program and going to play Division IA college football at Vanderbilt.

That is a statewide story &8212; a young man playing his guts out and performing on the field and in the classroom to move on to Southeastern Conference football.

But again, if you didn&8217;t read it in The Times, you missed that story.

Hopefully, the formation of this Hall of Fame will lead to the recognition of more and more of the talented athletes from Marengo County.