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New sportswriter trades Jayhawks for Warriors

The newest member of Marion County's largest news team is Mike Norris, who joins the staff of the Marion County Record this week as a full-time sports reporter.

Norris, who moved to the Elgin Apartments in Marion this past weekend, comes to Hoch Publishing Co. after five years as a journalism student at the University of Kansas, where he covered the women's volleyball team and men's basketball team for the University Daily Kansan.

Sports has been in his blood since grade school.

"I grew up in a town about 20 minutes south of Richmond, Va., called Chester," he said. "I played every sport you could imagine, finally focusing on baseball and wrestling in high school."

Baseball was his special love.

"As a kid I always wanted to play professional baseball," he said. "Wrestling was mainly to stay in shape for baseball."

In the middle of his sophomore year of high school, his family moved to the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park.

"It was tough at first, but I got to know people through the baseball team, and it was the first time I seriously started thinking about a journalism career," he said. "I took a journalism class my junior year and it led to me joining the newspaper staff.

"Although I was a good baseball player I knew I probably wasn't going to do it professionally. So I started writing about it. It carried me to the journalism school at the University of Kansas.

"Going into college I wanted to be a sports writer, but like everyone else it seems my mind changed. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do for a few years before finally realizing nothing else interested me as much as writing and sports, so why not do both?"

While at KU, he not only studied journalism but also served as president of a fraternity.

In his senior year, he became a beat writer for the women's volleyball and men's basketball teams for the University Daily Kansan.

"Those were great experiences," he said, "and led to the job here at the Record.

"I've never lived in a town this small, but I welcome change. It will be a new experience and take a little time to get used to, but a challenge always makes something better."

Norris' first task is to get to know coaches, players, and the community and serve as the lead reporter for a fall sports preview section coming up Sept. 1.

If you have news or views to share with him, you can reach him by phone at (620) 382-2165, by fax at (620) 382-2262, by e-mail at mike@ marionrecord.com or by looking on the sidelines of nearly any upcoming sports event.

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