Kurt Streeter will be new LA Times sports columnist

FROM LAT memos:

We are pleased to announce that Kurt Streeter will join the Sports Department next month as a columnist and feature writer.

For the past three years, Kurt has worked as a narrative writer based out of the California section. While he has written about a range of topics, including numerous pieces last year about the struggles of baby twin brothers who needed heart transplants, several of his most noteworthy stories have involved sports.

Among them were “The Girl,” a five-part, front-page series chronicling the life of a girl boxer from East L.A. and her relationship with her ex-gangster father, a Column One about an aging boxing timekeeper and his memories, and the story of a season spent with a deaf high school football team.

“The Girl” won the 2006 Associated Press News Executives Council award for best feature written by a high circulation daily in California and Nevada. That series and his tale about the timekeeper were included in the 2006 edition of Best American Sportswriting.

Prior to his stint as a narrative writer, Kurt covered transportation, including the most recent MTA strike, as well as public safety and the LAPD. Kurt came to the paper as a METPRO fellow in 1998 and followed that with a year spent covering inner-city Baltimore for The Sun before returning to The Times.

He entered the world of print journalism after stints as a producer and editor on a pair of PBS documentaries and as a producer at KGO Radio in San Francisco.

Kurt brings a considerable athletic background to his new role. He was a nationally ranked junior tennis player and later became a captain of the 1989 tennis team at UC Berkeley, the NCAA indoor champions that year. He won the Northern California Intercollegiate Tennis Championships in both singles and doubles. Beginning in college and after graduation he played part time in the minor leagues of pro tennis, holding a world ranking from 1988 to 1992. Kurt graduated from UC Berkeley in 1989 with a degree in political science.

His sports column has a tentative start date of July 8.

 

Pick one:

1) Thanks for checking in, Kurt!
2) Great hire, f-in stud!
3) Figures, another black woman.
4) Who gets his old job?

Just trying to move things along, very busy day here, lots of new guests.

 

4

 

I read his story, "The Girl," in the BASW and had to say I was impressed. He included another story in that edition that I remember thinking at the time was even better, but the name escapes me right now.

Here's to hoping he's as good of a columnist as he was a narrative writer. It's too bad they'll just need a lot more than that to turn the place around.

 

You know, if you really wanted to impress them, you'd talk about your mother's release from the hotel in China...

 

Forgot one since it's LA Times

What was Kurt's name before he went through the change?

 

Personally, I hope the dude still does some narratives from time to time. Outstanding writer. One I always look for ....

 

Kurt went through menopause?

 

"The girl" was so good.

It would be cool if there was more narrative. Lots of reporting is more interesting than an eloquently articutlated opinion. IMO. ;D

 

Plaschke does longer narrative stuff with his Sunday column. I expect Kurt will still do what he does quite well in a column format.