Graham Park was a welcome sight last Saturday.

After enduring a year of either no community sports activity at all or very limited crowds at the events that did take place, I loved the atmosphere at that Cranberry Township facility.

Hundreds of people were milling about at the North Mid-Atlantic Regional pickleball event. The courts were filled and tents were up selling concessions, souvenirs — it was a carnival-like celebration of the sport.

Just finding a place to park was a challenge.

But being able to talk to people face-to-face, no masks involved, was a true joy.

It was more than a sense of normalcy.

This was normal — at last.

Right next door was Opening Day of the Miracle League of Southwestern Pennsylvania. The baseball league for special needs children was back after taking 2020 off for safety concerns in battling COVID-19.

More interaction. More smiles.

The volunteers were back. More than 100 new players joined the league.

All was well.

Finally, we had reached the other side of the pandemic.

Or so I thought.

Later that same day, PGA golfer Jon Rahm learned that a positive COVID-19 test was going to force him to withdraw from The Memorial, a prestigious event on the PGA Tour at which he had a six-stroke lead with 18 holes to go.

Pittsburgh Pirate pitcher JT Brubaker was placed on the COVID-19 injury list temporarily as well.

Remnants of the virus remain.

But as the sports calendar turns into summer, there is more good news than bad.

Major League Baseball parks figure to be at full capacity before fall. NFL teams are planning to play in front of sold-out stadiums again.

High schools are planning a return to regular classes, with no restrictions on attendance in stadiums or people in gyms.

No more volleyball players sitting in the hallway.

No more two tickets per football player policies.

It’s coming to an end, folks.

We’re just not quite at the finish line yet. Rahm knows that as much as anybody.

But that day at Graham Park showed me how close we are.

I think back to the spring of 2020, doing a story on a couple of neighborhoods doing “teddy bear walks” on the streets, parents and children alike trying to spot teddy bears in the windows and on the porches of houses.

Even in the midst of a pandemic, we all need community so badly.

Graham Park handed me a major dose of it last weekend. I loved it.

One thing this pandemic has done: It reinforced the theory that you don’t truly appreciate what you’ve got until it’s gone.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle