Dustin Ward has been the sports editor at Daily Statesman in Dexter, Mo., since August 2013.

Ward graduated from Southeast Missouri State University in 2010 with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and a minor in psychology. He also has 21-hour concentration in environmental science, social studies and education.

Ward started following sports in southeast Missouri when he was five-years-old in 1991. In the 2009-10 basketball season, he watched 84 varsity basketball teams play a total of 147 varsity games. He has also attended the state basketball, baseball and volleyball tournaments the last three seasons. His favorite baseball memory is watching the St. Louis Cardinals defeat the Texas Rangers in the 2011 World Series.

Ward completed an internship in the summer of 2010 at semoball.com. During the internship he had the opportunity to visit and photograph the athletic facilities at all 58 semoball schools. He also researched the district and state championship histories of 55 schools and used the Cover it Live application to cover the Senior Babe Ruth state baseball tournament. After the internship he served as sports editor at Daily Dunklin Democrat in Kennett, Mo., from 2011-2013.