Welcome!

Well, I'm six months into covering the University of Kansas beat for The Kansas City Star. So far, I'm really enjoying it. I'm trying to put my own stamp the beat, and hopefully our readers are having as much fun as I am.

In almost two years at The Star, I've grown exponentially as a writer and reporter, mainly because my editors have given me that chance. I've written profiles of Trent Green, Eddie Kennison, Kyle Turley and Jake Plummer, among others, and I've been tabbed to write the Sunday breaking enterprise piece about Floyd Landis's positive B-sample.

I've written about topics as wide as you can imagine, from the Field of Dreams to baseball's love of the hot dog to a Royals fan who sold his loyalty on Ebay for $280. Most of all, I just love telling great stories, athlete or non-athlete, and you can see that in my weekly series on the high school football community, which ran during the fall of '06. Please check out the Article Archive and tell me what you think.

Before coming to Kansas City, I completed internships at the Tampa Tribune, the San Antonio Express-News and the Dallas Morning News.

In May 2004, I graduated from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor with a Sociology concentration and a Statistics minor. Believe it or not, the U of M did not offer a journalism major. So, I did my best to create my own, doing everything a writer can do at the Michigan Daily, the largest collegiate sports section in the country. My final year at the Daily, I was Managing Sports Editor, responsible for the organization and training of a 40-person staff. One of my proudest accomplishments is leading that section to more sports-related Gold Circle Awards than any other section.

Thanks for visiting my site, and feel free to e-mail me at jbrady@coveringsports.com if you have any questions.

J. Brady McCollough - jbrady@coveringsports.com (email) - 816-868-2621 (cell)