Love of sports leads to writing career at young age

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With high school sports being scarce over the Thanksgiving Break, I figured I would use this time to introduce myself to the people of Kemper County.

This is my fourth year as a writer but my first with the Kemper County Messenger. I have been writing since I was 14 years old and I am now 17 years old and a senior at Nanih Waiya. I also play basketball at Nanih Waiya so I will be seeing some of you on the court later this year.

Now how I found my way to writing is quite a story. Ever since I was around 11 years old all I could ever talk about was sports. Whether it was Ole Miss, NBA, NFL, or whatever I would talk about it. I would never shut up about it, so my father and grandfather would always say I should be a writer.

My grandfather would always tell me about his childhood friend who was a sports writer. He always wanted me to meet him. A few years later, my grandfather who was pastor at Bethel Baptist Church in Louisville at the time invited his old friend to be a guest preacher one Sunday Night.

Now I missed the sermon be­cause I was busy babysitting my little brother in the church nursery, but after church that night is where it all started. I approached my grand­mother after church and asked what they were doing after church — knowing full well they would be heading to the local Mexican restaurant. When she tells me that I act surprised, ready to work my magic for a good meal. But she told me my grandad would probably want to catch up with his old pal.

Right before I left, my grand­father came to me and invited me to come with him, he almost forgot he wanted me to meet this guy. Now me and this guy talked about sports the whole time. He told me stories and i told him stories. Two weeks later, this guy wrote a column about me, saying how im­pressed he was. He then asked my parents if it was alright if I went with him to the Philadel­phia Tornadoes football game, to shadow him.

Now many of you may know this guy as Austin Bishop. Does the name ring a bell? Austin has been my mentor ever since I've known him and has helped me grow as a writer. I worked for him at the Winston County Journal for over two years be­fore I began with the Messen­ger. So if you do not know Austin personally I can vouch he is a cool dude.

So that's just a little bit about me. I hope I can get to know some of you great people in Kemper County.






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