I’m going to two things in this column that I normally won’t do: 1) use the word &uot;I&uot; in one of my articles; and 2) talk about myself. So please bear with me on this one.

I’ve been here a almost two weeks now, and I’m getting used to the Miss-Lou more and more each day. At first, I thought I’d have trouble finding things to write about in the middle of summer at a small paper that relies on high school sports for most of its coverage.

But things are coming along. Too fast, in fact. I’m having a difficult time fitting in the current news with some of the great feature stories that are out there, while at the same time learning the ins and outs of Democrat office life.

And I know things will start to hum a little more around here come mid-August when the high schools start practicing. Hopefully, by then, I’ll have a better grasp of the sports scene and we’ll have a few more people around the office to cover what needs to be covered.

I have some high aspirations for this job. I’d like to see more in-depth coverage of the local teams, no matter the sport. It will be a challenge to keep up with seven local schools, but my mind will be a sponge in the next couple of weeks. So any alumni or coaches out there, feel free to call and tell me about your school’s history.

Player feature stories haven’t been done with much frequency in recent months, but I think it’s something that must be done. When a local player does well, it should be noted. I’ve had several people call me for these types of stories in the past two weeks, so expect to see them popping up just about every other day or so. With the high school sports beginning soon, there will be tons of features.

For the past four years, I’ve covered Saint Louis University sports, with college soccer and basketball being the big ones. I hope to cover some college sports here as well.

I won’t be able to make it to all of the Mississippi State or Louisiana State games, but I plan on getting to a couple of each school’s games. It’ll just depend on who’s doing well and on what weekend.

But you can probably bet I’ll try to be at the LSU-Florida, Ole Miss-MSU games, Alcorn State-Jackson State games. And if I can get up to Happy Valley, Pa., I’d like to see Southern Miss knock off Penn State.

As most of the outdoorsman may have already surmised, I’m not an outdoorsman (In last week’s paper, I confused the Zara spook bait with what I called the &uot;bizarre spook bait.&uot; Sorry). But I do like the outdoors and am eager to learn about outdoor sports.

And there seems to be great potential for the outdoors page. Eddie Roberts has agreed to write a weekly fishing column. I hope to write some reports on the outdoors scene, and keep in close contact with the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks so people are aware of their activities. If you have any story ideas, please call me.

The plan will surely change as I go, but that’s the tentative strategy. I hope I can serve the sports fans well. And as St. Louis Cardinals broadcaster Jack Buck would say: So long for just a while.

Nick Weber is sports editor of The Democrat. He can be reached at 445-3633 or by email at nick.weber@natchezdemocrat.com.