When people talk about their favorite teams of all time, it’s usually the best team to come from their high school, the University of Iowa, Iowa State University, the University of Northern Iowa or their favorite professional sports franchise.

Just about everyone I know loves the 1996 Chicago Bulls, the 2009 Iowa Hawkeyes football team, the 2016 Chicago Cubs and the 2020 Iowa State Cyclones football team.

For pro sports and intercollegiate athletics, we usually set ourselves right next to those outstanding teams and athletes.

On a more local scale, folks develop attachments to high school teams that they themselves played for. Even more so, family and friends will latch onto programs that their kids and grandchildren had joined and became a part of.

Those loyalties remain, whether they were successful or not on the field, court, track or any other placing surface.

There are teams that I’ll forever remember. Both as a fan and as a sports-centric journalist and photographer.

As a fan, the 1997 Denver Broncos stick out to me. It was a loaded team, coached by Mike Shanahan, quarterbacked by John Elway and full of offensive and defensive stars — from Terrell Davis, Rod Smith, Shannon Sharpe and Ed McCaffrey to Mark Schlereth, Gary Zimmerman, Neil Smith, Bill Romanowski and Steve Atwater.

It was also the first year of the “Ghost Horse” logo. I remember when the emblem — created by Nike — was unveiled, Rich Eisen (then a SportsCenter anchor at ESPN) commented that it reminded him of the Barcelona Dragons.

Also, the team is a bit of a sore spot for Green Bay Packers fans, who saw the hopes of a back-to-back title run come to an end in Super Bowl XXXII. That Super Bowl, held at the now demolished Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego, holds a special place in my heart.

As a journalist with a specialty in sports, there are plenty of teams that stick out to me. My prerequisites aren’t limited to championship winning squads, as you’ll find out.

First, there was the 2014 Southeast Valley baseball team. When the new whole-grade sharing agreement was announced earlier that spring, many people within the former communities of Southeast Webster-Grand and Prairie Valley were leery of one another.

That baseball team’s success unified the district, winning the Twin Lakes Conference and compiling a record of 23-5. The team, made up of Curt Castenson, Clayton Taylor, Cade King and Andrew Dorage, won their district tournament with a 7-5 win over St. Edmond — who was pretty darn good at baseball in that time period.

The Jags were close to clinching a berth to the state baseball tournament, but came up short in a 5-4 substate battle against Maple Valley-Anthon-Oto (before they absorbed Charter Oak-Ute) at Merchants Park in Carroll.

As a senior in college, it was a pretty exciting ride.

There’s the 2016 West Texas A&M softball team, which finished 59-5 and 30-2 in the Lone Star Conference under the watchful eye of Kevin Blaskowski. Coach B (who was intimidating as heck to a young pup) had a great team, paced by Ashley Hardin, Lacey Taylor, Tori Bayer, Brittany Gehle and Kilee Halbert.

The Lady Buffs played in the NCAA Division II College World Series in Denver, which I was on hand for. Sadly, WT — who had previously won a national title two years prior — didn’t come home with another trophy for the case.

Another one that sticks out is the 2016 Amarillo Venom. I talked about indoor football at length in a previous column, but that team had so much talent. At that time, they had quarterback Nate Davis (Ball State standout, and now with Duke City of the Indoor Football League), Raymond Johnson, Desmond Raiford (now with the IFL’s San Diego Strike Force), Kent McDonald, Jacob Felton and a cast of fun personalities.

The road trips and bus rides (yeah, I got to ride with the team to a couple of games) are rosy, in hindsight.

Julian Reese (an Indiana State alum and great quarterback in his own right) guided the Venom to a Champions Bowl II appearance. Assistant coaches Dannie Synder and DonTa Bright were wonderful people, as well.

In Dumas, Texas, I had two fantastic teams in the 2017 Dumas wrestling team and the Dumas boys’ soccer team.

The former won their first Class 5A State Team Championship, which came down to a 152 lbs. title match between Zach Garza (who wrestled at Ellsworth Community College and Upper Iowa) and another undefeated wrestler from Frisco Liberty. Garza not only claimed a thrilling victory and a gold medal, he won the Demons their first state championship.

That team was a bona fide all-star team, too. Clint Chamblin was a great coach, and Chris Holzworth is a gem.

The latter was the best soccer team that Dumas had fielded in a long time, going 18-6-3 with a regional quarterfinal appearance.

Cristian Diaz, who had moved to Dumas from Mexico just before that season, was a treat to watch. He was a dynamo, and racked up 19 goals in 25 matches played.

There was also Juan Avitia (who was a defensive monster), Ulises Garcia, Edgar Molina, Jonas Rivero and Chris Casanova in front of the net. They were coached by Thad Goodling, who’s now overseeing perennial playoff teams in Joshua.

The 2018 McLean Tigers football team is another one to remember. Dubbed the “Last of the Old Breed,” the Tigers hailed from a small ranching town just off of Interstate 40 that loved smashmouth football.

Ben Crockett was a player that was a six-man football superstar, could have started at any one of the largest schools in the Texas Panhandle and scored touchdowns at will.

Crockett, Chism Henderson (total cowboy name!) and the Tigers — coached by Clint Linman (who looked like he stepped out of a western flick) — were tough hombres. Furthermore, they would play a game over who had the bloodiest jerseys following a road trip.

In the state championship game against Milford, the Tigers saw Crockett score 10 total touchdowns in a 100-70 victory.

In my time in Calhoun County, there are several South Central Calhoun teams who stick out to me. The 2020 SCC football team (who defeated an exceptional South Hamilton team that year), 2020-21 Titan boys’ basketball team (who rallied past a really good Roland-Story team in the district title game) and the 2021-22 SCC girls’ basketball team bring up great memories.

Because I’m stretched for real estate and time, I’ll hold off on the Titans. Too much to talk about with SCC and too many student-athletes who were fantastic on and off of the field, court or mat.

Now, I have one more team to add to that list. It’s the 2023 Webster City boys’ soccer team. Even though they are losing standouts like Jonny Magdaleno, Everardo Hernandez and Isaac Haule, head coach Craig Signorin will see phenoms such as Eddy Fuentes Cruz, Eduardo Perez, Eric Calles Torres, Conner Peck and Magdiel Magdaleno return next spring.

Their 14-2 record was due to an aggressive offensive style and chemistry forged from several close victories over the likes of Clear Lake, Garner-Hayfield-Ventura and Humboldt.

Even though they saw their season end in a narrow 1-0 state quarterfinal matchup against Nevada earlier this week, I firmly believe that Webster City will be back next season. They’re going to be that good.

I’m excited to see what other teams stick out to me in the future. As the years pass, I’ll make note of those teams and perhaps add more descriptions to the ones that I’ve already listed.