Syndicate Publishing is happy to introduce our new sports editor. And while he may be new to this job, he certainly is not new to the area.

Dan Dunmire spent a good deal of his formative years in the Gothenburg/Cozad area, and views his return here from the east coast as a “homecoming”. Born in Gothenburg, Dunmire attended Dudley Elementary School until about the middle of his third grade year when the family briefly relocated to Lexington, and then to Scottsbluff. He was 10-years-old when the family moved back to the area, settling in Cozad where he lived until right before he started high school.

After a brief move to New York with his dad, Dunmire moved to North Carolina where he attended high school and graduated from Cary, North Carolina - “a little suburb of Raleigh”.

Following high school, Dunmire attended North Carolina State University, which was close to where he lived. “I graduated from NC State and spent the rest of my adult years to this point, experiencing all the craziness the east coast had to offer,” he laughed.

He began his college career in pursuit of a professional photographer career. “I ended up changing my major to business administration, because art form isn’t something you can teach - it’s something you learn as you go. I wanted to learn more about how to make it into a successful model, and how to make it something I could do professionally,” he explained. “I wanted to create my own style and learn the ins and outs of the business.”

“I was always a rebel as a kid. I wanted to pave my own way, do my own thing, and find what worked best for me,” he explained. “I wanted to find my own creative niche. That’s what got me into photography.”

In 2014, Dan met his wife Brandy-Jo, who was working at the same company he was at. He admits that their relationship was not “love at first sight” as both are pretty passionate about what they do. “We both did the same thing, and were both sure that the other one was not doing it the right way,” he said with a chuckle. After about two years of learning how to work amicably together, their relationship blossomed into romance, and eventually marriage.

Brandy-Jo has a 17-year-old daughter, Kaylee, from a previous marriage, and she and Dan have a 10-year-old son, Aidan. “They are absolutely everything,” he said.

Professionally, Dunmire’s background utilized his college degree in business administration where he worked primarily in retail, restaurant management and operations, focusing on logistics and business management.

“My passion has always been for creative things, but that’s not what gets the kids the nice things around the holidays - as most starving artists will tell you,” he shared. Professionally he has done a lot of office management and operations management.

Dunmire did have his own wedding photography business on the side for a few years in North Carolina. “About two years ago I kicked that whole idea that I was going to do it to make money off of it and be professional about it, and changed my focus to doing it because I love to do it. So I got back into doing my private photography. I always have my camera nearby,” he said.

Dunmire said he is excited to bring his passion for photography to this job, and build upon it. He has been working remotely for Syndicate since the first of December, and joined the team in person on Dec. 14. He and Brandy-Jo are now in the process of trying to find a home in the area, which is proving to be a challenge.

Dunmire will oversee the Syndicate sports department for all publications, and will be the main sports writer and photographer for Cozad, Gothenburg and Brady. The Callaway and Minden papers have sports reporters in place, who will be managed by Dunmire.

“I am looking to expand my own repertoire in terms of writing ability and my photography. I’m always looking to learn something new,” he said. “I look forward to the unique challenges that media has to offer.

“Of all the places I have lived, Gothenburg has hands down been the only place where my children genuinely laugh and have fun. With the hustle and bustle of the world, Gothenburg is the only place where I have felt my kids were safe and I don’t have to hover. These are the same families that have been here since I was a kid,” he continued. “It’s home.”