My name is Kent McDill. I am currently the Illinois content coordinator for Coachesaid.com. Before that, I was famous.
A little famous, anyway.
A quick synopsis of who I am: Grew up in Hoffman Estates, Ill., attended Conant High School, went to DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind., to become a broadcaster.
Out of college, started working for United Press International writing broadcast sports copy. Newspaper writers would write their stories and I would turn them into broadcast copy: short, immediate, no big words, few adjectives. Just the facts, ma’am.
Joined the newspaper side in 1980 in Indianapolis, my former hometown. Became sports editor for Indiana at the age of 25. Angered most of the state high school basketball coaches there because I wouldn’t let them vote for their own team in the state rankings. Also wouldn’t let them give their upcoming opponents undue ranking just to make them look good.
In 1985, moved to Chicago with UPI, eventually became Midwest Sports Editor.
In 1988, the Daily Herald newspaper hired me to cover the Chicago Bulls. Michael Jordan was not yet MICHAEL and the Bulls weren’t a threat for the title. Covered the team for 11 years, including all six championship teams. I’m the only writer who covered all six teams exclusively. For that, I was the tiniest bit famous in and around Chicago.
In 1999, switched beats, became the backup Bears writer, backup baseball writer, backup college basketball writer, and the beat writer for the Chicago Fire soccer team. At that time, I didn’t know how to spell soccer. Now I am a full-blown soccer geek, and I intend to prove that with our soccer coverage of this site, once we get the football all set up.
(Soccer geeks: unite. Send me ideas for stories).
In the spring of 2008, left the Daily Herald to become a full-time freelancer writer. Eventually got hired by coachesaid to run this site. Back covering high school sports.
This site is going to be a blast, and it is going to cover high school sports with more depth than any other. We will eventually grow into a large staff, representing the entire state, and we will have reporters covering all sports, not just the big three. And soccer.
Visit all of our available information, and look for more as we get rolling. And talk back to us. We love that.
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