I used to be a sports editor, oh so many years ago.

I’ve been in the newspaper business for so long now that I kind of lost track of the exact number of years—not that I can’t figure it out, because I can.

But I remember when I hit the “30 years in the business” time period, that seemed like quite a big enough number that I could forever tell people, “well, I’ve been doing this for over 30 years,” and it certainly got the point across that I had some kind of experience as a newspaper guy.

But I digress.

Ah, my days in the sports world. I began as a sports writer in 1975 for a fellow who was looking for a young kid to lean on. He was a tired sports editor, and after I kept looking over his shoulder everyday and figured out how to lay out the paper, I was quickly promoted to the assistant sports editor. That actually meant I did his job most everyday as he went to the Fairgrounds.

But I honestly loved being a sports guy, and even now, I still love doing sports. I always enjoyed the interaction with the high school kids, going to the games where it is a different world than anywhere else. At a prep ball game, you will find parents and their kids so consumed with the seeming importance of those games, that they lose sight of some other things. But that’s a story for another day.

This past week I stepped back into my sports world for just a couple of hours when my daughter Chrissy called me from Opelousas and asked me if I wanted to accompany her to the Saints training camp, where she was going to do a feature story on Devery Henderson, who was originally from Opelousas.

You see, Chrissy is now the sports editor for the Opelousas Daily World. So of course, I quickly agreed, not being sure if she just wanted a little company, or if she was actually a little nervous heading to the Saints practice facility, where she was suddenly going to mingle with the big boys of professional sports.

One of the things I did when I was sports editor for 13 years in Slidell was to begin a weekly column where I went to the Saints training camp. I made sure to play it up real big, always having a very large picture at the top of the page of me interviewing the Saints head coach.

I did it for quite a few years, so you can figure one thing out—the picture changed quite a few times. Yup, you get it. Every time there was a new Saints coach, I had to get a new picture of me interviewing the new guy.

I remember my first day going down there. I was probably about 23 or 24 years old, green as could be, no college experience to draw on, and suddenly going to interview the Saints head coach. What was I thinking?!?!

That was my deal. It was all about “Kevin Chiri interviewing the Saints coach” each week to get the inside word on what that week’s game was going to be about. And honestly, it was a great piece in terms of making our little paper look like we had a great connection to the Saints.

But I will never forget my first time there. I showed up at the camp, nervous as you can possibly imagine, and eventually told that “you get to interview coach (Dick) Nolan by yourself today” since they apparently didn’t practice that day.

I remember just like yesterday being ushered into his office, where he sat across a very large desk. The public relations guy for the Saints sat down next to me and basically looked at me like, “OK kid, take your best shot.”

It was one of those interviews I can remember like it was yesterday, since I was so nervous. But somehow I must have gotten through it OK since Nolan never acted like I was the dumbest reporter ever, and he always talked to me week after week from there. But the funny thing is, I never went in his office again, and always seemed to just be in a group of reporters from then on who interviewed him each week when practice was finished.

I always wondered if Nolan, or the P.R. guy, were having a joke at my expense. But if they did, I think I passed…..barely.

So here we were this past week, over 30 years later, and I sat there as Chrissy interviewed Devery Henderson. She later told me that she was just as nervous as I had been, although I would never have guessed it by watching her.

Fact is, I was really proud of her. She was great. She talked to Devery like they were old buddies, and Henderson really opened up to her, talking about how shy he has always been, and how much he has had people starting bad rumors about him, since he has been a pro. Chrissy talked to him just as relaxed as could be and finished with a great story.

At that moment I wasn’t even remembering when I did that over 30 years before. But later in my office it struck me as ironic to think about my first time doing the story at the Saints camp, and now my daughter was doing something almost identical many years later.

It was a fun afternoon, and it reminded me how much fun it was covering sports, something I will probably find myself doing again one day when I decide to ever slow down from the real rat race.

Kevin Chiri is Publisher of L’Observateur and can be reached at (985) 652-9545 or at kchiri@bellsouth.net