By C.D. DESALVO
Hays Post

Despite growing up in the Pacific Northwest and going to school on the East Coast, Connor Letourneau would find himself on a wheat farm in Kansas just outside of Hays for most of his summers.

The Portland, Ore., native’s mom, Deborah Letourneau (maiden name Leikam) was originally from Hays and her side of the family owned a large wheat farm outside of Hays that Letourneau visited during his summers.

Letourneau went to school across the country to study journalism at the University of Maryland where he eventually became an editor for the school paper and landed an internship at the Baltimore Sun.

He got his first job back in his home state of Oregon, covering the Oregon State University athletics beat for the (Portland) Oregonian.

After two years with the Oregonian, Letourneau started at the San Francisco Chronicle on the beat covering athletics for the University of California-Berkeley.

After a year, Letourneau jumped at the opportunity to be the beat writer for the Golden State Warriors NBA team and was with the team from the beginning of training camp all the way until it won the NBA Finals in June.

Letourneau has never forgotten Hays despite his success. He is a fan of Fort Hays State athletics and follows them closely. He now comes to Hays to visit his aunt and uncle Suzanne and Steve Leikam and the rest of his family and also decompress after the long grind of covering a beat for a metro newspaper.

Letourneau sat in studio with The Eagle Morning Show and talked about his Hays connection and what it is like covering an NBA championship team: