By Staff
As a boy growing up in Indiana, it is required that you be a die-hard basketball fan. I am no different.
From a young age, I've been enamored with sports of all kinds, but basketball has always been my favorite. I played endless hours of hoops in my drive way, imitating Reggie Miller, Damon Bailey and Glenn Robinson.
When my growth spurt hit and I stopped short of six-feet, it became heart-breakingly obvious that I would never play for the Indiana Pacers. My love for sports, however, never died. My passion actually grew. I figured if I couldn't play sports, I would become an authority on them.
Once I reached high school, I discovered I had a knack for writing (or so my teachers told me). As I neared college, I grew to enjoy expressing my thoughts through written words.
At that time, my career path became clear. After all, it only makes sense to combine your two loves.
I figured if I wasn't going to get paid to play sports, I might as well get paid to watch them. So, I became a sports writer. I went to Ball State University in Muncie, Ind. and graduated in May with a degree in journalism.
When Dan Weiss, the Daily Star's sports editor of five years, decided it was time to move on to bigger and better things, he opened the door for me to start my professional career.
Now here I am, an eager 22-year-old from Indianapolis ready to dive head-first into the local sports of Niles. While I've only been on the job a week, I've already met some incredibly friendly people that have made me feel at home.
As I said, I have a natural affinity for basketball, but I love the competition of all sports. I'm going to try my best to cover Niles' sports from all angles and bring readers the best information possible.
I'm extremely excited to get involved with the people and places of this community. The better I know my readers, the better I can serve them.
I urge anyone with a comment, question or suggestion to shoot me and email or give me a call. Or even if you just want to introduce yourself and say hi, I'm all ears.
At the Daily Star, the sports department consists of me, myself and I, so it's difficult to know every story that happens in the area. So, I ask for your help.
If you know of an athlete or a team who has done anything of interest, or an issue that needs to be explored, let me know.
I want to try my best to bring Daily Star readers everything they want to know and everything they should know.
While I'll provide in-depth game coverage from everything from football to little league to cross country, I also want to strive to give readers human interest stories -- stories about the people in our community that you see everyday that you otherwise wouldn't know.
We're all sad to see Dan move on. He did an excellent job covering the community in his time here and left some big shoes for me to fill.
I know it will take some time to get used to seeing me, not Dan, patroling the sidelines at high school games, but I look forward to working with everyone and meeting as many people as I can.
And if anyone wants to throw together a little pick-up hoops game, I'll meet you at the playground.