By Alex Nicoll

Editor-in-Chief

Every time I have to write one of these, I always seem to begin with the same introduction that almost all bios read “Hi my name is [insert name here] and I am a [grade level] at [insert high school name here]”. I realize that while its effective to get information across it is a pain to read. Therefore I am going to try and mix it up a bit for my final Sidekick bio.

In the summer of 1996, I was welcomed into this world by my two amazing parents, Cindy and Steve Nicoll, and my older sister, Emily. This was in Dunedin, Fla, a suburb of the great city of Tampa (that is probably an exaggeration but let’s roll with it). From here, I moved to Boca Raton, Fla. and then to Coral Springs, Fla.

Now, we are up to second grade. This is when my dad relocated us to Montgomery, Ala. I have strong feelings about my time in Alabama, not all good but not all bad. After the capital city, my family moved to Guntersville, Ala., a small lake resort town in northern Alabama. If I had to pick a location that I would have grown up in I would choose Guntersville.  As places go, this one molded me into the person I am the most.

Before my eighth grade year, the Nicolls packed up and moved to Coppell, Texas. I have been here ever since and have to say it was the best thing that’s ever happened to me so far. Here I was able to live close to a bustling and diverse city, I was able to play basketball (which I have been playing since I was four) at the Class 5A level, I was able to receive a top-notch education and here I was able to discover a new passion that I have: journalism.

When signing up for classes for my freshman year, I needed one more elective and Teen Leadership did not attract my eye, but then I was flipping through the Career and Technical section of the book and Intro to Journalism I struck my attention. My mom always told me stories of how my late granddad was an editor for the Arkansas dentistry monthly magazine and how much he loved it.

That was good enough for me so I signed up.

That year I was still considered a new kid and did not really talk to many people but found I actually liked the class. At the end of the year, I received an email from adviser Chase Wofford asking me to join the Sidekick staff. After much deliberation I decided to join.

Sophomore year, I was assigned to be a sports writer and I have to admit I did not like the newspaper. I did not like the deadlines or how I was treated by some people on campus I had to interview. Besides these facts I decided to stay on this past year, and have discovered my love for writing and reporting.

I was able to branch out and explore some other aspects of my writing besides just sports. I wrote opinion pieces (In fact one of them won the staff’s choice award for best opinions story surprisingly), news pieces and more in-depth pieces.

Because of this, I pursued more avenues to better my journalism skills and was fortunate enough to be accepted as The Dallas Morning News summer intern for the SportsDay department. I also applied to be the sports editor for next year, because since I was the only one on staff applying for it, it seemed like a lock, but I also applied for editor-in-chief.

Surprisingly, I was awarded both positions and am now the editor-in-chief for the 2014-2015 Sidekick newspaper and am also in charge of the sports department.

I will be responsible for editing stories, page one design, meetings between staff, organizing game coverage, and will be the lead copy editor for the sports section. I will also help in bringing home the prestigious Pacemaker award to D115

Well that is not the usual bio as I gave you a brief recount of my journey to where I am now, but here are a few facts about me.

My music taste is very divers and I mean diverse. I can go from listening from the Temptations to Eminem to Blink-182 in a flash. Like I said before, I play basketball for Coppell High School and have been in the program for all four years of my high school career. I eat constantly and have a love affair with food, mostly with Wendy’s Baconators. I am always to lend a hand when asked for help and cannot wait to see what next year has in store for the Sidekick.

Oh, and I am Alex Nicoll. I probably should have mentioned that at the beginning, but that would be to conventional.