Welcome to ButteSports.com, where I finally get to be a sportswriter again.

Since I was about 15 years old, that’s all I ever wanted to be. I say 15 because I think that was about the time I realized I wasn’t going to be big enough, fast enough or talented enough to play point guard for the Boston Celtics.

A sportswriter is what I was from the summer of 1996 when I had the pleasure to work as a summer intern at The Montana Standard under sports writing greats Hudson Willse, Curt Backa and Bruce Sayler, until I left the Standard in May of this year.

That I have a passion for writing would probably surprise many listeners of KBOW who heard me do the news the past three months because I apparently can’t read. At least not out loud.

I read out loud a lot like the poor boy Billy Madison made fun of in his first day in third grade.

T-t-t-today junior!

I’d like to compare myself to Mel Tillis, who stuttered when he talked but sang beautifully, but Paul Panisko won’t let me. If you heard us on the KBOW morning show, you know that Paul is really mean.

Still, he and Ron Davis believe in me enough to put me in charge of their newest internet venture, ButteSports.com.

Many thanks go out to Mr. John English and the good folks at NCAT for designing us a website that, to speak in technical terms, totally rocks.

This website, which is affiliated with the radio station but is a separate entity, will be devoted to all things sports in the Mining City. ButteSports was created for Butte sports fans by Butte sports fans.

We’ll cover the Bulldogs, Maroons and Orediggers. We’ll also cover the Frontier and Big Sky Conferences, as well as the countless team and individual sports that we love in the Mining City.

Pat Kearney, who has been covering Butte sports in print, radio and television the past 34 years, and Sayler, who has 36 years experience covering sports in Montana, will write for ButteSports.

Believe me, you’ll never meet two men who know more or care more about the history of sports in Butte.

Their passion and understanding why local sports seems to matter just a little bit more in Butte is unrivaled.

Pat is already a member of the Butte Sports Hall of Fame. Bruce surely will be one day.

At the very least, Bruce is in the Knights of Columbus Hall of Fame. Have you seen the giant monument to the “Big Boss” Bernie Boyle put on the weight room wall in April?

The plan is to report on games and write tons and tons of feature stories on our local athletes, coaches and maybe even fans. We’ll also have a lot of fun.

Pat Kearney will have a column focusing on the history of Butte sports. There’s already a handful of his Spotlight on History pieces from our Wednesday-night show Overtime on KBOW.

Bruce will also be dusting off his award-winning column-writing skills for this site for his Taking Liberty column, which will run on Mondays.

Panisko will have a blog connected to the site. He’d write a column, but he doesn’t have the attention span to put together more than a couple of paragraphs before he’s distracted by some shinny substance. Check out his blog, though. It’s 100 percent Panisko.

Other blogs will join the site shortly.

After this introductory piece, my column will run every Tuesday.

My first one is about some clearly misguided leadership of American Legion baseball and the coach who has been fighting them. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll shake your fist in rage.

OK, so maybe you won’t cry or shake your fist, but I really hope to make you laugh.

That’s pretty much the main goal of almost all of my columns.

Who knows, maybe I’ll even break out the Tim Tebow column that my former employer wouldn’t let me run back in November.

One thing I won’t be doing, though, is bashing that former employer. I have too many friends at the paper and I’ve seen first-hand how they pour their heart and soul into that publication. I hope it thrives for years to come.

The hard-working men and women at the newspaper have been like family to me for more than a decade.

At ButteSports, we are not competing against the local newspaper or anybody else, for that matter. We are going to work hard, have fun and put out the best product we possibly can every day.

Hopefully you’ll make ButteSports part of your daily routine and you’ll have as much fun as we will. Check back early and often because the site will be constantly updated with the latest local sports news.

When I’m not working hard to make ButteSports to be the best online sports website I can, I will still join Panisko on the KBOW morning show, where we always have a blast.

Well, at least until the Celtics finally call me back.

Maybe I better give them one more call. 11 comments