A lot happened on the sports scene in northern Mecklenburg County in the last 12 months, and we tried to keep you up to speed through many different avenues.

Funny thing, though. As 2012 began with a bone-chilling cold snap this week and I reflected on the year that was, I found that many of the moments that popped into my head didn't occur within the stripes, sidelines and baselines. In fact, most weren't written about at all. They occurred where the sports beat and everyday life intersect and were noteworthy, most often, because they were unplanned and natural.

I'd like to share a few of them.

An impromptu reunion

As the 2011 spring sports season began, an unusual story was unfolding, and telling it was in the plans long before the February day I met with the returning members of the 2010 4A state championship girls' soccer team.

Those players, who together helped North Meck High win its only state soccer title, had been placed in an awkward position. The school system's reassignment plan had sent some of them to Hough, making it impossible for the girls to defend their crown together.

But before the friends and former teammates entered the season as foes for the first time, the girls shared part of an afternoon together at North Meck Park, located on N.C. 115 in between the two schools.

The informal media session was necessary to produce the story, "Caught between a ring and a hard place," which was published in the Feb. 25 Citizen and documented the rare situation of a high school championship team being split.

The players from North arrived first, as planned, and took part in a group interview. They were decked out in Viking blue. The Hough girls were to come a bit later, wear their new black uniforms, pose for a picture with their former teammates, and then stick around to have their own interview.

But as soon as the first Hough players arrived, those plans were put on hold. The serene setting turned into a festive atmosphere as the group of girls laughed, hugged and swapped stories from the magical ride they shared together and from the current school year they had to that point separately experienced. It was simultaneously a championship celebration and a joyous reunion, set against a larger backdrop of mixed emotion.

It wasn't entirely surprising given what the girls had accomplished together, but it was a scene this sports editor will not soon forget.

(Not so) big man on campus

It was early April, and the sports world was buzzing about the accomplishments of an overlooked college basketball team that had made an historic run to the NCAA Final Four in Houston.

Projected to be left out of the tournament bracket, Virginia Commonwealth University had earned the distinction of being the first team to go from the First Four to the Final Four, as the tournament expanded to include 68 teams. The Rams' top player was former North Meck High star Jamie Skeen, who like his teammates played with a chip on his shoulder after a trying college career that included a dismissal from Wake Forest, a knee injury and four head coaches.

Skeen was integral in VCU's run, and it showed. He was featured in national highlights and interviews, and graced the pages of Sports Illustrated. He was the local kid gone national, the town playwright taking a production to Broadway. He had hit the high note in his college swan song, and everyone heard it.

Well, almost everyone.

A week after VCU's run concluded with a semifinal loss to fellow Cinderella team Butler, Skeen returned home and visited with North students and volunteers who were working to beautify the campus. Skeen posed for pictures, shook hands, ate in the cafeteria and even did a little manual labor himself. Given where Skeen had been just days before, it was surreal watching him operate the hedge trimmer.

At one point, a lady, there to pick up her daughter, walked by Skeen and stopped when she saw him.

She was not on a quest for an autograph. The woman turned and looked him up and down, clearly amazed at the imposing size of the 6-foot-9, 240-pound Skeen. Then she asked him, with as much sincerity as she could muster through her awe, "Are you a student here?"

Quick on his feet and two months from a college degree, Skeen responded, "I think the full beard gives it away."

The woman apparently wasn't much of a basketball fan.

Crazies charged

Calling Cameron Indoor Stadium one of the best venues in sports doesn't do the place justice. It's like a cathedral and a basketball court got married and had a kid. You could really see yourself shouting "Airball!" one minute and "Amen!" the next. It's unique and special.

So are the Cameron Crazies, the wild and clever but continually revolving group of students who like to cause rough nights for Duke's opponents in basketball.

When Davidson visited Duke in November, the Crazies were as rowdy as ever. Sitting on press row in front of them can be challenging, given the tight quarters.

At one point in the second half of Davidson's game with Duke, a young Crazy tapped Davidson marketing assistant Richard Agner on the shoulder and asked, "My iPhone just died. Can I charge it on your computer?"

Agner, being the nice guy he is, agreed and plugged in the young lady's phone. It was a good move from a marketing standpoint — Agner is trained in that field, mind you —and also given that the student probably had the power to make his night a miserable one if he told her to get lost.

Mike Krzyzewski has heard a lot of chants in Cameron over the years, but "Charge her i-Phone!...clap, clap, clap-clap-clap" may have thrown him for a loop.

Blue to green

It's probably possible to get to Holden Beach from Lake Norman without driving right past West Brunswick High School on N.C. 130 in the eastern town of Shallotte, but it's certainly not practical.

My family vacation over Thanksgiving provided an opportunity to go to an uncrowded beach, fish for sea trout and generally just get away from home, from work, from everything.

But the trip also made it possible to see Eric Davis at his new school. The former Hopewell High boys' basketball coach is in his second season at West Brunswick, and given that I'm in Shallotte about as often as I'm at the beach in November — once in 31 years — my journalistic intuition suggested I make a side trip to watch a Davis practice (I interrupt this column for a sports editor's question to management: Does this mean I will get paid for that mileage?).

It was nice to see that Davis can still yell and huff and puff at practice, the way he did for nine years at Hopewell. The only difference — other than the beach being right around the corner — was the colors he was wearing. If you know Davis, you know he's fashion conscious, from his argyle sweater vests to the trim on his Nikes. He's very particular, and everything has to be just right.

Just when I was trying to figure out who this coach was in the forest green of West Brunswick, Davis had to cut our meeting short. He was about to drive up to UNC-Wilmington, where Davidson would be playing the Seahawks in basketball. Former Hopewell Titan De'Mon Brooks, a Davidson sophomore, was playing nearby, and Davis wanted to see his guy play.

That's the kind of loyalty Davis still has for his Hopewell boys, regardless of the Trojan green he now wears.

The dancing director

Davidson's students were still on winter break when the Wildcats men's basketball team hosted Penn last Thursday night, which meant, among other things, that other volunteers were needed to assist with parking outside the Baker Sports Complex.

I was directed into one of the last remaining media parking spots by a young man who was doing more than just pointing in the general direction cars needed to go. He was doing it while dancing, like he was one of those roadside sign-flippers advertising a pizza special or a furniture liquidation and gyrating to his own iPod's beat. And as I turned, I thought I recognized him.

It just couldn't be, I reasoned. But sure enough, it was.

The dancing Davidson director — for that section of the parking lot and for that night only — was none other than standout prep swimmer Peter Brumm of Hough High and SwimMAC Carolina. Though he was goofing off at that particular moment, Brumm is no slouch. He's an elite athlete.

This summer, he will be swimming in the U.S. Olympic Trials. Next year, he'll swim at the University of Michigan, one of the best college programs in the country. This winter, he hopes to add another state title to his growing résumé.

For one sleepy night in December, though, he was just having a blast directing traffic at a Davidson basketball game. And why not?

Good for you, Peter. There should be more like you.

Here's to more good times for all of us in 2012.