Providing and producing Utah County sports coverage for the Deseret Morning News are members of the paper's sports staff with considerable journalism experience and long-time ties to Utah and Utah Valley.
Some names you'll recognize from bylines in the newspaper, others work behind the scenes in planning and editing.
Here are brief profiles for those involved in the Deseret Morning News' Utah County sports coverage:
DICK HARMON
Dick Harmon joined the Deseret Morning News 20 months ago after a 25-year career at the Provo Daily Herald, where he worked as sports columnist, sports editor, city editor and news reporter. He has an extensive background in covering BYU football and basketball, including coverage of storied bowl games and NCAA tournament appearances, since graduating in 1978 from BYU, where he was sports editor of The Daily Universe.
Born and raised in Provo, he is a graduate of Provo High School and is currently a sports columnist and beat writer assigned to cover BYU for the Morning News. An active freelance writer, Harmon is the author of successful biographies of Steve Young and Ty Detmer and a 40,000-word pictorial book titled "Wild Blue Yonder" on the history of Cougar football.
Awarded both regionally and in state for reporting and column writing by the Associated Press, Harmon is a frequent guest on both radio and TV and has appeared on ESPN. His work has appeared in national publications such as The Sporting News, Inside Sports and MSNBC. During football season, Harmon can be heard weekly on Monday nights on KSL Radio Sports Final with Bill Riley.
JEFF CALL
Jeff Call has been covering BYU sports since 1993, beginning when he was co-editor of Cougar Sports Magazine. He joined the Deseret Morning News staff in 1997 and has continued covering the Cougars since that time.
In addition, Call has worked as a staff writer out of the Utah County Bureau, writing features and covering police as well as city and county government.
He has been a Utah County resident since 1989.
JIM RAYBURN
Jim Rayburn, Utah County preps editor, has been a staff writer for the Deseret Morning News since fall 1989. He began covering Utah County's high school athletic teams two seasons ago. He covers the big games, writes Utah County prep features and a regular prep column. He also coordinates the correspondent coverage of Utah County prep sports.
Rayburn, who carries a 6 handicap, is also the newspaper's back-up golf writer and provides coverage of Utah County's links scene. He graduated from Springville High and attended BYU and UVSC, where he served on both colleges' newspaper staffs. His previous duties at the Deseret Morning News included covering courts, education, local government and serving as an assistant editor on both the city desk and deseretnews.com.
SCOTT TAYLOR
As Utah County sports director, Scott Taylor coordinates the Deseret Morning News' coverage of BYU, UVSC and high school sports and also assists in reporting and writing.
A resident of Utah County since 1981 and a 1983 BYU graduate, Taylor is in his 20th year with the newspaper. Previous positions include sports editor, Olympic sports editor, assistant sports editor, assistant city editor, sports writer and news reporter. In addition to professional, college and high school sports beats in Utah, he has covered three Olympics — 1998 in Nagano, 2000 in Sydney and 2002 in Salt Lake City.
Taylor has received state and regional writing recognition in sports, news, features, lifestyle, columns and headlines and has been an editor or contributor for award-winning series, special projects, comprehensive coverage, special sections and daily and Sunday sports sections.
DAVID SCHNEIDER
As sports editor, David Schneider directs the production of the Deseret Morning News' sports sections. He has been in this position since September 2003.
During his 22 years at the newspaper, Schneider has been a staff writer on City Desk, covering Salt Lake City and County government; assistant city editor; state editor, where he oversaw local-news coverage by the Utah County Bureau; associate city editor, including supervising political and government coverage, and new media director, where he was editor of deseretnews.com.
Schneider is a lifelong resident of Utah and a graduate of BYU.
JON RINGWOOD
One of the senior tenured staffers at the Deseret Morning News with more than 30 years at the newspaper, Jon Ringwood has worked in a number of departments, including the copy desk and in the features department. Before his current stint as assistant sports editor, Ringwood was the world and national editor for 14 years.
He is a graduate of the University of Utah and holds a master's degree in communication from the U. A veteran of the Vietnam War, he has traveled extensively in the United States, Europe and Asia. Besides desk duties in sports, he follows the NFL, MLB and racing (autos and horses) as well as occasionally covering the Stingers.
Ringwood can be found regularly on various golf courses around the state. He is a past president of the Utah Society of Professional Journalists.
AARON SHILL
Aaron Shill began covering Utah County sports in 1999, when he joined The Daily Herald editorial staff. He has experience covering BYU football and basketball, Utah County high school sports, the Provo Angels and the Utah Jazz.
Shill began his career at the Herald as a correspondent and eventually took on the roles of weekend editor, sports desk copy editor and sports editor. Under his direction, the Herald's 2003 football special section, previewing both BYU and Utah County high school football teams, earned national recognition from Associated Press Sports Editors.
He joined the Deseret Morning News staff in October 2003 as assistant sports editor. He has resided in Utah County since 1996.
CORRESPONDENTS
The Deseret Morning News supplements its Utah County sports coverage by using part-time correspondents and freelance writers. Some of the recognizable names returning as correspondents this year include:
Steve Schaack, a prep soccer expert who also assists in coverage of prep football, basketball and baseball and UVSC and BYU athletics.
Jaclyn Olsen, who helps in coverage of girls prep volleyball, basketball and softball and BYU women's gymnastics.
Devon Black and J.K. Askar, who both assist with Utah County prep game coverage.