This past weekend, part of the Selma Times-Journal team traveled to Orange Beach to celebrate the achievement of newspapers across the state.

Apart from us, there were other teams from other papers including The Outlook, The Tuscaloosa News and The Times Daily.

As the night went on, we ended up with around 53-pounds worth of plaques and awards that Dennis carried back to his hotel room following the ceremony (see what CrossFit can do?).

I am super proud of the staff that has worked hard to rack up these awards.

The team that caused us to win these awards, however, have kind of scattered to new places of work.

Now, with a new news team, we do have a lot to do to keep the momentum going.

While we are a relatively new team, we each have done our fair share of reporting and being journalist in other locations.

What we do is not easy.

As community journalists, we are in the trenches that the big television stations, and big news outlets will not touch unless it pops up on The Associated Press wire.

Off days are basically non-existent, and we collectively put in the work to tell the stories that matter to this community.

So, while we may joke that the pressure is on for the current team to keep up the same work that the previous editorial team did, the truth is that it is true.

The pressure is on to provide the same quality photos, news stories and paper layout and presentation that the public has been accustomed to.

I believe that we have a great team, and while we have not been a whole team for long (I started in May), we are getting our bearings and are falling into the stories that affect this place we live in.

Here’s to more awards in the future.

Will Whaley is the editor of The Selma Times-Journal. He can be reached at will.whaley@selmatimesjournal.com.