Bryan Brasher Email & Phone Number

Birmingham, Alabama, United States

There's no such thing as a typical week in my job. On a Monday, I might write a press release announcing the site of the next big Bassmaster tournament. On Tuesday, I might do a heartfelt story for our website on the passing of a pro fishing legend. On Wednesday, I might give final approval for the latest issue of B.A.S.S. Times Magazine. Then on Thursday, I might leave my house at dawn and arrive just in time to cover an Elite Series tournament that lasts Thursday through Sunday. Then the next week might be completely different. It's hectic, but it's never boring — and I devote the same elbow grease to a 150-word blurb as I do to a 1,000-word story that I know will be seen by millions.

Memphis, Tennessee

When I joined The Commercial Appeal, the paper hadn't won the award for Best Outdoors Writer in a decade. That seemed strange, considering the Mississippi River literally flows within sight of the paper. I won the award the first year I was there — and I did it by making outdoors interesting to all audiences. Whether it was a story about a hunter who fell from a tree stand and managed to call for help on his cell phone while hanging upside down, or a story about deadbeat dads being denied fishing licenses until their back child support was paid, I brought outdoors into the mainstream. In addition to outdoors writing, I covered Southeastern Conference sports, University of Memphis sports, professional boxing and high school sports.

Columbus, Georgia

I was hired as the newspaper's first full-time outdoors writer, and I took pride in giving outdoors its rightful place in a paper that was situated in the beautiful Chattahoochee Valley. Someone told me when I started in Columbus that I would never make the front page with an outdoors story. I proved them wrong with a story about two sturgeons that were released back into the Chattahoochee after undergoing cataract surgery. It was the start of a long run for outdoors on A1. While elevating the status of outdoors with the paper, I also covered a wide range of college sports, including Georgia, Georgia Tech, Alabama and Auburn football. From the military base at Fort Benning to $20 million environmental court cases, there was very little I didn't cover in Columbus. During my final year with the paper, I won seven awards in the Georgia Sports Writers Association contest — two for college deadline reporting, one for editorial opinion writing and four for outdoors writing.

Birmingham, Alabama

I started about as far down the ladder as you can start in the sports reporting industry. My first duties with The Birmingham News involved answering phones on Friday nights and entering football scores and statistics into a computer system for publication the next day. With my foot in the door, I volunteered to cover anything that needed covering on the high school front. That eventually led to covering Alabama, Auburn, UAB, Samford, Birmingham-Southern and, of course, outdoors. When the opportunity came for me to become a full-time outdoors writer in 1997 with Columbus, I jumped at it.