An open letter from senior writer Bryce McKinnis

Greetings, all Prep Hoops Oklahoma readers. In case you haven't heard, I received a pretty cool promotion recently. I am our new PHOK senior writer. https://twitter.com/McKinnisBryce/status/1181577618220601345?s=20 To his everlasting credit, Matt Reynolds - who will continue his post as editor-in-chief of our site - has led a site with humble beginnings to a successful, competitive publication. He will, of course, continue to play a huge role in the brand he created. For day-to-day content decisions and coverage strategy, however, I will take over a hefty share of his load; Matt is your Red Auerbach and I'm your Bill Russell. Of course, I have plenty of thanks to give to Matt and the rest of the Prep Hoops staff, but those have been strictly allotted to the hundreds of hours we've spent in conference recently; this dissertation is a thank-you note to you. Thank you all Prep Hoops readers — from the eager young, eager college assistants to the hopeful mothers of prep standouts. From the proud older brothers who can't make every Tuesday-Night game to the high-major mainstays who have a vested interest in the recruiting landscape. To each talented athlete who opens Twitter in hopes to see his name in a Prep Hoops piece after his Friday-night triple-double; and to our future subscribers. thank you. Thank you for trusting PHOK as your source for state-wide high school basketball content. We recognize that we have the opportunity to provide pertinent content to a wide-ranging audience, and we recognize that you could go elsewhere to receive that content. To ensure that we remain your choice for the information you're looking for, we have assembled —perhaps— our most talented, brilliant staff, ever (we're very excited to reveal it to you closer to tip-off). Thank you for trusting a 20-year-old kid from Tishomingo, Oklahoma to provide your content. Sports writing requires the same diligence, the same creativity that goes into covering any other topic or artistic process. As sports-writers, we’ve too often resigned to the conception that our work has to be fun, light, and easy to digest. We’ve become too accustomed to following the cliches and elementary, juvenile narratives. But at Prep Hoops, we know that sports are a reflection of life. Life isn't always easy to digest. It doesn’t follow simple patterns. Neither should our writing. We know that there are important stories to be told in every corner of this state. We have a duty to you, the reader, to tell those stories. We promise that we'll keep up our end of the bargain. We promise that we will be fair, objective and unbiased, so as to properly estimate the talents of each athlete we see. We promise to not get in the way, but rather provide you with a window to better observe. I promise we won't be outworked. Stay tuned, Oklahoma. If you are a scout, coach, parent, athlete or spectator with an interest in contacting Prep Hoops Oklahoma, email senior writer Bryce McKinnis at bmckinnis99@yahoo.com.