Q&A: Get to know Anthony Kristensen, a sports journalist for the Courier & Press

Editor's note: Over the next few months, the Courier & Press will occasionally publish question-and-answer articles with our staff members, a way to help you get to know the people behind the bylines. We start with Anthony Kristensen, who joined the Courier & Press earlier this year and covers University of Evansville and high school sports.

Tell us about yourself. Where are you from, and how did you end up in Evansville?

I'm from St. Charles, Missouri, a suburb about 20 minutes outside St. Louis, or as I like to call it, "God's Favorite City." As people who know me can attest, I am the biggest St. Louis homer to walk the earth whenever I'm not covering a St. Louis-based team.

I am the second oldest of seven kids — my siblings are Kyleigh, Mia, Julia, Landon, Kolbe and Gemma. People are often surprised when they find out how massive my family is, but there we have it. Pretty much everyone aside from Kolbe plays or played soccer. Shoutout to my Mom and Dad for raising a huge group of kids. I said long ago that I would never have anywhere remotely close to that many children, and they made it work. Well done.

I have a dog who lives with me named Dalot (pronounced dal-oh). I pretty much do everything with him. He's a big, 82-pound black lab who still thinks he's a lapdog and is the friendliest good boy you'll ever meet.

I vividly remember applying for this job. I was applying for pretty much everything under the sun, and I was sad when scrolling through LinkedIn because I was one of three finalists for a big internship that went to a kid who already lived in the city it was in.

So, in my sad scrolling, I saw this job, saw it was covering Division I college basketball (which is what I wanted to do) and said, 'Why not?' I got an email from (Courier & Press sports editor) Chad Lindskog a couple months later and it all went pretty quickly from there.

How did you get into sports journalism?

I was an incredibly mediocre soccer player, so when I realized I was nowhere close to being good enough to play for a living, I had to find the next-best thing.

That's really only part of it. I got involved in my high school newspaper when I was a sophomore and decided early that was going to be what I ended up doing. Originally, I was convinced I was going to be a political reporter, but once the election ended that year, it wasn't as much fun.

That's when I turned to sports. After an illustrious two-year career of playing (community) college soccer, two goals in two years (don't judge, I was a pass-first guy), I had to find out where I wanted to go. I had some options from NCAA Division II to NAIA schools to keep playing or I could go to the University of Missouri to focus on journalism. I was initially committed to an NAIA team, but I decided to go to the cheap state school just down the road.

From there, I knew I wanted to stay in sports. My editor/boss/professor/mentor/whatever you want to call him, Brett Dawson, told me "there are two things you need to love to make it in sports journalism. Sports and journalism." That stuck with me, and to this point, I still love both with a bit of that childish glee I did when I first started with each.

Has anything about living or working in Evansville been a surprise?

I was surprised by the size of the city. It's still a little weird because I wouldn't call Evansville a big city or a small town, but it's a mixture of the two. It's not a college town, but it's also not really not a college town, if that makes any sense. It's a weird mixture of a bunch of towns and cities, but it works for me.

I've also been surprised at just how much the people here love high school football. Like, you guys really love it. It matters in the St. Louis area, but here it's a whole different story, at least from my experience.

I've also been surprised at how much I've enjoyed covering high school football. I've been pretty open in saying the main reason I applied for this job was to cover college basketball and the high school football aspect was really going to be secondary, but I have genuinely loved covering it.

Did you really get locked in the Reitz Bowl?

I did, in fact, get locked in Reitz Bowl. I spent a little too much time there writing and putting the highlights together, and lo and behold, the gates were closed. That wasn't the first time I was locked in a stadium and I can guarantee it won't be the last. I got locked in Mizzou's softball stadium at least twice while I was a student on that beat.

It wasn't a complicated route to freedom, I found a gate that was simple enough to get over, and voila, I was an escape artist. I'm lucky I'm still young and semi-athletic, or that might've been a more difficult task.

You've been around the UE men's basketball team for a few weeks now. What do you expect of them this season? Is there one player in particular you think will surprise people?

UE doesn't have the highest expectations this season, so in a way, the Purple Aces can't really fail to meet them. The only way this season can be viewed as a failure is if it results in the same play as last year — stagnant, slow-moving offense with little-to-no effort to crash the offensive glass and play tough defense. So far, it looks like UE will play fast and go after rebounds while playing hard defense, which is what coach David Ragland has wanted throughout the offseason.

I picked the Aces to finish 11^th out of 12 in the Missouri Valley Conference, so I think they'll exceed expectations.

Read Anthony's work:'We can compete with anyone': Inside Evansville's upset-bid loss to Saint Louis

In terms of one player who could surprise, I'd say Yacine Toumi. He's a 6-foot-10 forward who can move and play like a guard on offense. He's not afraid to go after rebounds and has looked good defensively. The coaching staff has sung hymns of praise for him throughout the offseason and I expect that to continue.

What's your favorite Evansville-area restaurant so far?

Turoni's. Honorable mentions to Bru Burger and Donut Bank, particularly because I might be a caffeine addict and the coffee there is simply remarkable.

Why Turoni's? When I first visited Evansville to tour apartments, I was told Turoni's was the place to go. I'm a big pizza guy, and I always have to try a local pizza place whenever I travel somewhere, so my first taste of Evansville was that glorious pizza and nothing has come close since.

There's a nice brewery at Turoni's, too, which is another thing I try to get a taste of whenever I go somewhere new.

What do you tell the people back home about Southern Indiana?

Evansville isn't all that different from St. Charles. Similar size, geographic features, downtown setups, etc., which has made the adjustment of living outside Missouri for the first time a lot easier.

I also tell them a bit of what I said before, that Evansville is kind of a bunch of different kinds of cities and towns — not really a big or small city, not really a college town but has some college town aspects. Then, I tell them how much I've enjoyed my job because I've had fun with pretty much all of it to this point.

Need to reach Anthony? You can email him at akristensen@gannett.com, or follow him on Twitter, @amfkristensen.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Meet the Courier & Press new sports journalist Anthony Kristensen