I'll grant you that Mt. Airy Patch doesn't cover as much sports as some other Patch sites have in the past.

But we try to get to games when we can. That means mostly covering Germantown High School matches, but it also means we'll cover Mt. Airy Baseball, the Mt. Airy Bantams and other recreational sports.

Here's our top five. (Honorable mentions: Anna B. Day School's Eagles rally; Phillies fans chanting "U.S.A." after news of Osama Bin Laden being killed spread during a Sunday night game.)

5. "Recap: Mt. Airy Baseball Championship Day" (June 20). I hope this article gave our amateur baseball players a chance in the spotlight. It's always pretty cool to be written about when you're young; Michael Kleiner's recap of championship day—which featured the undefeated Giants in the AA division—hit all the high points, and provided the aspiring athletes a chance to be stars for a day.

4. "Wild Things Softball Embraces an Alternative Approach to the Sport" (April 5). The publicity-averse girls softball league let us in with this profile. This isn't a new league—in fact, it's been around for 22 years—but it's run in a different way than most. It emphasizes diversity and having fun, and producing a winning team of all-stars at all costs isn't valued as highly as it is in other leagues. “We’re training them to make the game their own, and (we're) fostering a healthy disrespect for authority,” said organizer Andy Lamas. Sounds like a Mt. Airy-based league.

3. "NBA Players, Philly Standouts Appear in Mt. Airy to Raise Money For Rumph Foundation" (Aug. 19). This tournament drew some pretty famous local talent to Mt. Airy. NBA players Maurice and Markieff Morris and Hakim Warrick were on hand to raise money for the foundation, which was created after Daniel Rumph, an aspiring ballplayer in his own right, died at what is now called the Rumph Recreation Center after having a heart attack. "It was absolutely perfect—it was absolutely fantastic," Rumph's uncle, Marcus Owens, said.

2. "An Update on Jesse Biddle, Mt. Airy Native and Phillies Prospect" (June 24). In a sense, this year belonged to Biddle. The Mt. Airy native completed his first professional season in the Phillies minor league system after playing with the single-A Lakewood BlueClaws during the year. In this article, we linked to some of Biddle's statistics and a video of the pitcher that was posted on MLB.com.

1. "Germantown Headed to Semifinals After Beating Lincoln" (Oct. 29). Besides being a strong win for the Bears, this game acted as a statement of sorts for the football team, which achieved its first playoff win since 2005. Lincoln had also beaten Germantown earlier in the year, so this was sweet redemption. It was all optimism for the Bears at this point. "I’m so proud of the way the kids have responded these last few weeks," Hawkins said at the time. "I keep telling them to look forward to one more game.”