Welcome Dekota Gregory to PFB

Editor’s note: Hey everyone, with Kyle Boone off to write his next chapter, we were in need of some help ahead of football season. So we’re bringing on Dekota Gregory. I worked alongside Dekota at the O’Colly in school where Dekota was as versatile as they came — writing everything from traditional reports or reviewing a Ramon Richards mixtape. He went on to work with the Tulsa World before returning home to Locust Grove, USA to teach. So please give him a warm welcome.

It’s so good to be back.

There was no hesitation when there was an opportunity to join a website and community like PFB. I’ve been one of Marshall’s and the Kyles’ biggest fans from afar for awhile now. This website has been my go-to for all Cowboy coverage as I’ve had to keep up with my alma-mater from a distance. Now I’m pumped to be a part of it and follow OSU just as closely as I did in my past time.

My new role at PFB will conclude my sports writing hiatus. Sports writing has been my passion since I said I was going to do it for a living in the fifth grade. Most of my experience in this profession has come while following around teams wearing America’s Brightest Orange.

I wrote for the O’Colly for four years during my time as a student at OSU. I served in almost every role possible, from Social Media Editor to Editor in Chief, all while covering football and wrestling, and a little bit of baseball, soccer and basketball. I had the privilege to write about James Washington becoming the best receiver in the country while wearing the No. 28 because of a cousin in prison, Alex Dieringer’s dominance to three NCAA titles, and Josh Holliday and Co.’s most recent trip to Omaha.

After a brief stint in the DFW area covering high school football and the University of North Texas Mason Fines, I returned home to have my byline in Tulsa World, the newspaper I grew up reading. There, I was a utility man covering Tulsa football, ORU basketball, high school sports and even a little bit of the Cowboys and their soon former rival.

As fortunate as I was in my young sports writing career, though, my best blessings were at home and needed more of me. With our son on the way in 2020, I stepped away from the journalism life full-time to join my wife as a teacher– with the same hours, summers off and a chance to hopefully make some sort of impact in the community I grew up in.

That leads to today. After a few seasons as a baseball and softball assistant coach, and even getting a nibble of this life again covering OSU wrestling for a website that went under, I wanted back in. Not full-time. But still a big bite, not just a nibble. It is the world where I’m most experienced, after all.

With all that being said, you now know who the new dude is behind the unfamiliar byline that just popped up. And with that out of the way, you don’t have to read anymore about me and I can write only about conference realignment, quarterback competitions, John Smith returning his program to national dominance and maybe even the eventual return of Bedlam at Hall of Fame Stadium, just as we thought the rivalry was over.

It’s so good to be back. Let’s ride.