Hunter: Hello Cannon County!

By DAVID HUNTER

Hello, Cannon County, I am the new sports reporter for the Courier, and I am excited for the opportunity to continue the legacy, which Tony Stinett started for this newspaper during the past few years. I just hope I can continue the excellent local coverage, which all of you loyal readers deserve each week

Here is a quick look at my young career: I started back in 2001 as a senior at Oakland High School in Murfreesboro, in which I helped put together the sports section of the yearbook and wrote for the student newspaper. For college, I decided stay at home and attend MTSU, which I was a student from 2001-06 majoring in Radio/TV Communi-cations. However, I fell in love writing for the student newspaper, Sidelines, which I did during all five years at MTSU. During my final semester, I was the sports editor.

After college in the fall of 2006, I got a job in Rabun County, Georgia covering sports and news for the Clayton Tribune. Honestly, I wish it was a better experience for me, but I learned a lot of valuable lessons both good and bad about the business. It also gave me the motivation to show people, including myself on how bad I wanted to work in sports journalism. However, in 2007, I felt I needed to take some time off for a couple of years from writing in order to think about if I truly wanted to work in this business.

Slowly, but surely I got back into it in 2009 writing for the monthly entertainment paper, the Murfreesboro Pulse. Then, a year later my life changed to what it is today, when I met current publisher Ron Fryar, who had just bought both the Cannon Courier and the Murfreesboro Post. He hired me on to cover sports for the Post, which I have been doing for the past five years, and I have enjoyed every single minute of it. Now, I am more than excited to work for the Courier.

Mr. Fryar along with my editors both past and present at the Post have given me the freedom to cover everything from all sports at many different levels, and I want to do the same for the Courier. There have been several members of the sports media, which I have followed throughout my career, but two of my favorites are former motorsports broadcaster Bob Jenkins and ABC Sports legend Jim McKay. Even though, I will never, ever have a tenth of their talents, I try to pattern my work after them, especially McKay.

No matter what event he covered wither it was cliff diving for the Wide World of Sports or the Olympics, McKay taught us viewers everything you wanted to know about the athletes from their respective sports.

I have always wanted to do the same thing for the players and coaches, which I cover on a daily basis, especially now for a growing county like this one. However, I am going to need your help in order for me to achieve this goal. If you have any story ideas, and like I said earlier it can be anything. Please send me an email at dhunter@murfreesboropost.com, or call the Courier office at 563-2512 and I will be more than happy to get it out there to the public.

Of course, in this business, I will have to cover stories, which might make you the readers upset, but I understand that is part of the job. At the same time, I want to be able to earn your trust, because I want to let you know I do not do this job to be famous. It has never been about me, instead I get a big thrill about telling the stories about the various players, coaches and events. It is all about them, and their successes and sometimes failures. The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, which McKay made famous back in the day.

I just hope to continue giving you the readers, the excellent sports coverage from this area, which all of you deserve. I am excited to get started here in Cannon County.