Brandon Keys

Sports Editor

I guess my introduction is a little overdue. 

I've been at this for almost three weeks now, and I haven't found room to squeeze this in. I'm sure you'll forgive me if I haven't found time to talk about myself in the paper. 

See things are changing, as I'm not the only new face around here. Tommy Wilson has come back as publisher. 

"We are so pleased to have Brandon Keys with us as the Advocate & Democrat sports editor. He is a bright young man with an excellent background in sports and especially sports in Monroe County. The fact that Brandon is the grandson of the late John Taylor, who covered sports for the newspaper for over 20 years, makes his addition even more special to us," said Wilson.

Those are kind words from Mr. Wilson. 

Obviously this job is more important to me than it would be to most. I was raised to appreciate what makes sports in Monroe County special. It's not which booster club has more money, or which coach has the most wins. What really makes it special are the kids and the community. You don't find that in most places nowadays.

Like most kids around here my sports career started with little league, junior pro and football. It continued at Sequoyah where I played football and baseball. Early on in college at Hiwassee, I played rugby and ran cross country. I would be remiss if I didn't mention intramural football, though my repaired ACL would like me not to. I left Monroe County and went on to graduate from ETSU, with a degree in mass communications. Needless to say I picked up a few things along the way to help out with this job, but most of what I learned came from my grandfather.

Since Papaw covered sports for as long as I've been alive, I have a great example to follow. When I would be writing a beat for other teams he would often say, "Be fair. Always tell the truth when you write the story. Don't just use the stats, but tell what happened in the game, and always make sure you get the names right."

I'm very honored to be here. The sports editor position, at the Advocate & Democrat has been kind of a dream job. That's because Papaw worked here. I always looked up to him. He instilled in me, not only a love of sports but also a love of sports here in Monroe. I will bring a fair approach to the coverage here, and I hope to stick around for a while.

I want to try and emulate Papaw's approach. It's not the stats or the writer that should be at the forefront of a sports story, at least not in this county. It's the players that deserve the limelight. 

Papaw taught me that when writing a game story, to not get too caught up in numbers. There is an old saying that numbers never lie. Well here in Monroe they may not lie, but they just don't matter as much. 

I'm glad they don't. I wasn't raised that way.