Kurt Streeter, a Metro reporter at the Times whose lengthy narrative pieces have sometimes focused on athletes, is moving to the sports staff as a columnist and feature writer. He's due to begin July 8. Memo from Sports Editor Randy Harvey after the jump.

To: The Staff
From: Randy Harvey, Sports Editor

We are pleased to announce that Kurt Streeter will join the Sports Department next month as a columnist and feature writer.

For the past three years, Kurt has worked as a narrative writer based out of the California section. While he has written about a range of topics, including numerous pieces last year about the struggles of baby twin brothers who needed heart transplants, several of his most noteworthy stories have involved sports.

Among them were "The Girl," a five-part, front-page series chronicling the life of a girl boxer from East L.A. and her relationship with her ex-gangster father, a Column One about an aging boxing timekeeper and his memories, and the story of a season spent with a deaf high school football team.

"The Girl" won the 2006 Associated Press News Executives Council award for best feature written by a high circulation daily in California and Nevada. That series and his tale about the timekeeper were included in the 2006 edition of Best American Sportswriting.

Prior to his stint as a narrative writer, Kurt covered transportation, including the most recent MTA strike, as well as public safety and the LAPD. Kurt came to the paper as a METPRO fellow in 1998 and followed that with a year spent covering inner-city Baltimore for The Sun before returning to The Times.

He entered the world of print journalism after stints as a producer and editor on a pair of PBS documentaries and as a producer at KGO Radio in San Francisco.

Kurt brings a considerable athletic background to his new role. He was a nationally ranked junior tennis player and later became a captain of the 1989 tennis team at UC Berkeley, the NCAA indoor champions that year. He won the Northern California Intercollegiate Tennis Championships in both singles and doubles. Beginning in college and after graduation he played part time in the minor leagues of pro tennis, holding a world ranking from 1988 to 1992. Kurt graduated from UC Berkeley in 1989 with a degree in political science.

His sports column has a tentative start date of July 8.