Kevin Askeland

• Name: Kevin Askeland

• Age: 44

• Family: Single, but I have a twin sister, Kelly, a younger brother, Brad, and my mother, Marlene.

• City of residence: Willows

• Occupation: English teacher at Williams High School and senior writer for MaxPreps.com

• Favorite part of the job: Teaching: Seeing kids when they catch on to a concept or idea; Sports writing: covering sporting events.

• What part of your job would you gladly give up? Teaching: Unruly kids who think rude behavior is OK; Sports writing: long hours of sitting and typing.

• What do you like most about Willows? Friendly people. Family values. No traffic. Mild weather.

• What would you like to change in Willows? Nothing to speak of. I'm not very picky.

• Tell us about a life-changing experience: When I was in 10th grade, I was looking through an Orland High School yearbook and read about Myron Erickson, who was a 1962 graduate of OHS. He was listed as a high school All-American in basketball. I decided I needed to find out more information about this great basketball player who used to go to my school. So I started researching information about him and that led to more research and more research and it ultimately led to a career in sports writing.

• If you were granted one wish, what would you wish for? I would wish for all of the people of the world to be able to live in peace and harmony. Either that or a really nice car.

• Whom do you most admire and why? I don't know that I admire any specific person, but I do admire people who are able to be organized, or people who are able to be gregarious or people who are able to be assertive. Those things don't come easy to me, so I admire those people who are able to exhibit those qualities.

• What are your favorite places to go in the area? Any football field on Friday night. Barnes and Noble. The library when the mood to do research strikes me.

• What was your first job? My first paying job was on my dad's ranch. I had to take a big hose and clear the manure out of the milk barn after they were done milking. The first job I actually enjoyed was as a part-time writer for the Orland Daily Unit Register in 1982 during my sophomore year in high school.

• If you were a superhero, what would your power be? I think one of the most powerful things in the universe is the "undo" button on your computer. You make a mistake and the "undo" button fixes it. So I think I would be "Mr. Undo" or "Undo-man." If something evil happens, I just hit the undo button and we can start over from scratch.

• What is something you can't live without? Fifteen years ago I never owned a computer and I seemed to get along just fine. Not sure what I would do without one now, though.

• What's something about yourself that your friends might not know? I am usually considered this very organized person by my friends, but that's not entirely true. I'm organized in a very haphazard manner.

• Do you have any pet peeves? I'm not a big fan of nicknames or trendy new words. Impatience, meanness and loudness are things I can do without. Not a big fan of fans, especially the rowdy, boisterous ones you find at football games.

• Describe yourself in three words? Hard-working, knowledgeable, respectful.

• Pets: I lived on a farm and our dogs invariably got run over by a milk truck about once a year so I never became too attached to animals. And I'm allergic to cats.

• How do you unwind? I read. I am usually reading about three books at a time.

• Hobbies/interests: Reading nonfiction would be my biggest hobby or interest. I am usually reading either a book about baseball or a book about Abraham Lincoln or maybe the Civil War.

• Where do you get your news? Part of my job is reading newspapers from all over the country, but I usually read all of the local newspapers as well as the San Francisco Chronicle and Sacramento Bee.

• Favorite thing to do on a rainy day: Go to Barnes and Noble and browse for an hour or two.

• Dream job: One of the things I would like to do is travel the country reporting on some of the biggest high school sports rivalries in states like Florida, Texas, Ohio, etc.

• Fondest memory: Spending time with my grandparents in Ferndale when I was young.

• Favorite book: "To Kill a Mockingbird." Read it about a dozen times. We are reading it in my English class this month. Lots of good lessons about tolerance, prejudice and compassion.

• Favorite food: Chicken (My personal trainer Dave Boehm might be reading this so that's the answer I'm going with for now.)

• Favorite music: I listen to just about anything. Favorite groups would be Green Day and The Who, but I also like George Jones and George Strait.

• If you were reincarnated as an animal, what would you be and why? I'm not really one to follow the group, so anything that goes around in a flock or herd is out. Being a dog seems like a lot of work with the fetching and the tail chasing and the barking. I guess I'd be a cat. They kind of do what they want, when they want. That seems like a pretty good life.

• What is your guilty pleasure? I read where people always put down "Saturday Night Live" for not being funny anymore. They've been saying it for 20 years. But I've watched the show for over 30 years and I think it's still consistently funny each week.

• What quality in people do you most admire? Sense of humor. I like to laugh and I like to make people laugh. It helps to be around others who feel the same way, otherwise it can be pretty awkward.

• What was your favorite toy as a child? Nerf football. No contest.

• Favorite superhero: I always liked Daredevil when I was young, but I really don't know why.

• Favorite TV show: "House." I like to see if I can figure out the diagnosis before House does. So far I've managed to do it exactly zero times.

• Worst TV show: Any reality TV show. I refuse to watch anything with real people.

• Favorite movie: "The Searchers," a John Wayne movie from the 1950s. Great story and gut-wrenching ending.

• Worst movie ever made: I don't even have to think twice about this one, Cheech and Chong's "The Corsican Brothers."

• Worst fear: Not being prepared.

• Most embarrassing moment: I'm pretty easy going and I don't get uptight about a lot of things so if you have that type of attitude, I think you are less likely to be embarrassed. I have things in my life that I would have done differently or would like to have never happened, but I can't say that I was truly embarrassed when they happened.

• If you were a vegetable, which one would you be and why? There's a vegetable called Garden Rocket. I'm not even sure what it is or what it looks like, but it sounds like it would be fun to be a garden rocket.

• Have you been naughty or nice? Women always say they are looking for a "nice" guy. That hasn't worked out too well so I'm going to go ahead and say "naughty" and see what good tidings that may bring.

• What was your favorite Christmas? My mom always made Christmas special so any Christmas spent with family is always a favorite.

• What was the most interesting Christmas present you ever received? I think one of the most interesting gifts I ever received was lunch with longtime Chico Enterprise Record sports editor Eddie Booth. My mom set it up. I was in college and I wasn't sure if I wanted to be a sports writer as a career choice. Eddie and I went to lunch and it was neat to hear his thoughts on the newspaper business. I ultimately became a full-time sports writer and it is something I have done for nearly 30 years.

Know Your Neighbors is a weekly profile of people who live and work in Willows and southern Glenn County. To nominate someone for a future profile, call 934-6800 or e-mail willows@tcnpress.com.