News-Review welcomes Mike Burvee, Regional Sports Editor

            The News-Review and Keota Eagle are pleased to introduce new Regional Sports Editor Mike Burvee to our communities and schools.

            Mike is originally from West Des Moines, where he graduated from Valley High School in 2012. Burvee continued his education at Iowa State University, where he expressed interest in Meteorology, psychology, psychiatry and horticulture before choosing to pursue Sports Journalism in the spring of 2016.

            “I’ve had an interest in sports while in high school, but not necessarily from the writing point,” Burvee said. “I didn’t really play sports much, but I wanted to find another way to stay involved. I didn’t think about journalism until midway through college. I had so many different ideas of what I wanted to do, but my folks told me I should take on something related to the outdoors, as everyone in my family are all outdoors people.”

            With a career in mind, Burvee joined the staff of the Iowa State Daily, working his way up from an available entertainment writer position to a chance to cover Iowa State’s track team at the end of their season. He later covered the Cap City League, consisting of Iowa State, Drake and the best Iowa high school basketball players in a summer exhibition league. With the return of the school season, Burvee covered the university’s cross country and track teams for the Daily, while also helping with other sports stories for the paper.

            “Anything can happen at any given time with sports,” Burvee said. “I enjoying watching players I’ve covered emerge as athletes, knowing I got talk with that person from the beginning.”

            Before arriving at The News-Review, Burvee interned at the Times-Republican in Marshalltown, where he wrote general news stories and particularly enjoyed writing features on veterans in the Marshalltown area. He contributed sports stories to The News-Review in July while completing his internship, hoping to familiarize himself with the area schools prior to working full-time in Sigourney. Burvee will call Ottumwa home while he starts his writing career with our papers.

            “It’s hard to find a good sports writing position that I could just jump in and use as a building block for my career,” Burvee said. “I knew I wanted to pursue sports, and I’m so interested in writing about five different schools. I’m excited to see what happens and look forward to enjoying all the different sports here. When I go and cover an event, it won’t be as much of a job for me because this is what I’m passionate about.”

            Look for Mike Burvee on the sidelines this fall and throughout the school year. When not covering sports, you’ll find him hiking, spending time with his family or visiting his three cats back in West Des Moines: Lacey, Amigo and Houdini. To get a hold of him for sports related content, email keokukcosports@midamericapub.com.