Out in Left Field with Russell Payne

Well here I am in Diboll, Texas and I could not be happier. It is a huge transition for me in my life and my career, but that is an enormous part of the excitement and the appeal that has brought me here. Now I must be honest the town of Diboll had two points of significance to me in life to this point, it was always the center point of my trip from my home in Houston when we would go and visit my Great Grandmother in Kilgore, a trip I made a many a time, and secondly the town of Diboll is the birthplace of my Papa

Now Diboll earns a third mark and likely its most important as my new resting place in life. I have already made a few rounds here and looking at some of the many treasures you folks have been hiding from the rest of Texas, and I must say that some of them have been very impressive. So far I have only met a handful of folks, but I must say you all certainly uphold that rich tradition of Deep East Texas charm and courtesy that one looks forward too, especially when one is going to try and hang their hat here.

Now I guess I should get on with the introductions and tell you all a little about who I am and just what you might come to expect out of me. My name as you probably can tell from the name of this column is Russell Payne, please feel free to call me Russ if you like, that would be just fine.

As for me I was born and raised in Houston and spent my life there until I reached my teen years, that is when my family picked up and moved to my Dad's families hometown of Dayton, TX; that is just a bit south of here for those of you that are not to familiar. It is there in Dayton where I did my growing and wild oat sewing.

It is also in Dayton that I got my education in football, as a member of the Dayton Broncos. I also dabbled a bit in everything else there was to offer on the sports radar as well. Of course I will always be a mere blip on that radar, it was my Papa, the same one born right here in Diboll, TX, that will always be remembered down that way with legendary status. Maybe I can tell you all that story sometime.

I have done several things in the newspaper business, and I am fairly sure with each time I returned I never realized I was finding my niche, until recently. From selling advertising, to doing circulation to a number of other jobs I have just found myself in and around newspapers for a longtime now.

As for my education I attended junior college in Baytown, TX at Lee College, it is there I would find for the first time my true desire to write and learn this amazing form of communication. I also received my first Sports Editors position there as a member of The Lantern.

From Lee I moved on to the University of Houston and spent some of my most significant year's in education there.

Since college I have been all over the map so to speak. From a management position in the government out in Austin, and then back to Dayton where I found myself back at the first paper I had ever worked for, The Vindicator, as of all things the classifieds manager. That quickly advanced into some writing opportunities, then layout work, then an interim period editing the entire paper and determining content, to a fulltime sports editor's job, and now the chance to join the Free Press.

I am so excited about this opportunity to be here and in turn I hope that I can transcend some of that excitement onto you the reader's of the Free Press. My sports philosophy will be as such, tell you what is going on with all of your local sports teams, while providing some insight you might not be able to get anywhere else.

I will be honest with my assessments, and I will strive to keep it that way. I will not however, dog on any kid or coach that gets out there and gives an effort to do their very best. They work to hard for that kind of treatment.

Now in this column I may rant and rave, but I promise to make it relevant to sports in the world today.

So until next time I'll be out climbing the fence!