After last Tuesday night, I joked on Facebook that if I couldn’t get a good column out of everything that transpired that night, I ought to quit the news business and be a greeter at some big-box store.

We will ignore for the moment that there is a good chance that such a greeter actually gets paid better than I do, and move on to the task at hand: summing up a major career milestone for a remarkable young athlete, and a community’s support for another young athlete facing the fight of his life.

All of that came together at Hayden High School last week, as guard Krista Stricklin — the 2011 North Jefferson News Female Athlete of the Year, and obviously for good reason — crossed the 3,000-point plateau for career scoring.

The event was only a surprise to the Pennington fans and Stricklin herself. Wildcat faithful had done a good job of keeping the mounting point total to themselves, and when head coach John Simmons called time out after she scored the milestone points on a breakaway basket, Stricklin was wondering, “Huh?”

She figured it out pretty soon, as Simmons presented her with a basketball autographed by her teammates, with a big, gold “3,000” painted on the front.

Stricklin’s a pretty cool customer. The only emotion you will usually see from her is when she rolls her eyes after something goes wrong. The eye-roll is almost her trademark.

But when I talked to her after the game, she was happier than I’ve ever seen her in the four seasons I’ve watched her play. It’s almost like she finally realized that she’s a pretty big deal, and started to enjoy it.

And she should. Stricklin will go on to play college basketball, if she wants. The University of Alabama-Huntsville seems to be the favorite right now — Head Coach Roy Heintz was in attendance Tuesday — through Troy and a slew of junior colleges are after her as well. Nothing against those schools, but frankly she can play at a higher level. There are often other factors involved, such as wanting to stay close to home.

After all that was done and the Cats had dispensed with Pennington easily, it was time to move on to the boys’ game, and that’s when it was heart-tugging time again.

If you’re reading the NJN like you should, you should know about young Hunter Alexander. I wrote about him four weeks ago in a front-page story, detailing the struggles of the 9-year-old from the Smokerise community near Hayden as he battles a brain tumor. If you are on Facebook, you have probably already liked the “Prayers for Hunter Alexander” page.

Coach Mike Dutton and his Wildcat team have taken Alexander, a hoops player himself, under their wings. They visited him in the hospital, gave him the plastic “Ninja warrior” figurine that Dutton hands out for big plays, and have supported Alexander’s recovery in many ways.

With the youngster back at home and able to get out and about a bit, the team decided to make a special night for him.

First, they made him an honorary captain, having him take part in the pre-game meeting with the opposing team and referees.

Then, public address announcer Robert Bradford led off the starting lineups with Alexander, who ran out to the court through the cheerleaders, gave a fist-bump to beaming referees (never thought I’d put those two words together), and shook hands with Tigers coach John Ganus.

All in all, a pretty big night for a special young man.

A few tears were shed, and lots of cheers were cried out.

Two feel-good stories, indeed.

Wish we had more of them.