Tyler Thompson, the editor-in-chief of the Kentucky Sports Radio website, is a 2002 Danville High School graduate. She currently lives in Nashville. During her time as a student in the Danville Independent Schools, she was involved with "The Log," the Danville High School student newspaper at the time.

"What I love most about my job is getting to tell players’ stories and help fans get to know them," she said. "And I feel like, with my time with 'The Log,' I got my first taste of that.”

She still has ties to Danville. One of her nephews just graduated from DHS, and her other nephew is a sophomore. She often visits Danville and still follows school sports and goings-on closely. For example, she said she's excited about how the football season is going so far.

Tell us about your Danville Schools journey. What school(s) did you attend, and what’s a highlight that stands out?

I went to Toliver Elementary, and I went to Bate Middle School. And then I went to Davidson College for my undergrad. Things that stand out — I was a swimmer all four years for the Ads. I was team captain I think my senior year. Really awesome time, loved it. My brother and sister also swam for Danville, so it’s kind of in our family blood, so to speak. With "The Log," I did an internship with the Advocate-Messenger, which was also a really great experience, to work in a newsroom and see what that was like. I’m so grateful to Danville for having those internship opportunities because it really is the best way to see if something is for you, so I really appreciated getting to do that. And obviously every Friday night I was out at Admiral Stadium, cheering the Admirals, especially when they played Boyle County.

What aspects of your Danville Schools education helped mold you into the person you are today?

I loved going to public school growing up. I think it gave me so many life lessons, just getting to know people from every walk of life. I think we were also very lucky that Danville was a very small school system because you got to know everybody really well. You got to know your teachers — great one-on-one interaction. I’ll never forget — I loved all my teachers, but Ms. Goodwin, my French teacher, Ms. Scott, Ms. Calvert, Mr. Moore — they were such great, not just teachers, but mentors and people who helped you through life, and I’ll be forever grateful for that. 

Are there specific instances/relationships that stand out to you as having an impact on your success since graduating?

I think Ms. Scott encouraging me to go after my writing talent. It’s interesting — at the time when I was working with The Log, I wanted to be a newspaper reporter. I wanted to be a journalist, and Ms. Scott was a really great mentor to me in that she saw that my writing was a little more creative than a typical cut-and-dry journalistic style, so she kind of encouraged me to go after a different path with writing, the creative formats and stuff like that, and I did that in college. When I left school after I graduated from Davidson, I wanted to go into publishing, and on the side I started writing for Kentucky Sports Radio, which at the time was a blog and very, very different from a newspaper. We were encouraged to be creative and different. So it was a great avenue for me to express my creativity through writing in a way I probably wouldn’t have otherwise if I had just gone the newspaper route. So I’ve got to thank Ms. Scott for that, for encouraging me to take my particular skillset with writing and not sacrifice it just to go the route that everybody usually does. 

What advice would you give to a parent who was choosing an education path for their child?

Just try everything because you never know what you’re really going to love. I know it seems like today, kids are getting more specialized earlier in terms of going after what they think they’ll be good at, but if you don’t try as many things, you won’t maybe know what you’re really passionate about and what you’re really good at. Danville was great for getting opportunities not just with several classes and subjects and things like that, but with internships. I also did an internship with my French program, with Ms. Goodwin. One of my classmates and I taught French at Jennie Rogers Elementary once a week, and that was great. Getting a chance to try something I wouldn’t normally do — I was really grateful for all of that. 

As a product of Danville Schools, what drives you to give back to your local school and/or district?

Having the opportunities I had growing up to be creative and not feel like I had to fit in a mold, so to speak. I think that’s one of my favorite things about Danville is the creative arts. There are several avenues that you can do that, but in writing, that was really helpful for me. I love having the experience growing up in a public school system. I think it was invaluable. The small class sizes — I feel like I knew every single person in my class. It’s paved the way for so many things in my life. 

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