Who were the mentors who shaped your career?

I got a text the other day from a friend who had just been hired in a new job covering an SEC football program. It was a thank-you for being a good mentor back in my days in sports media. It was appreciated but unnecessary. This person will be successful on his own. I've been proud of him throughout his career from the 1st time he applied for a job with my team at the Orlando Sentinel. He didn't get that job, but he built a relationship and used the feedback he received to grow. I always did that as a hirer -- plant some seeds and see what grows. Nurture it, even if you never directly benefit. You'll always gain from that approach in the end.

His note made me think of a few mentors who made an impact on me early in my career:

-- PAUL FINEBAUM

I grew up reading the bombastic sports columnist for the Birmingham Post-Herald, who now is the face of the SEC Network. In seventh-grade, I would run to the library for study hall every day, sprinting to the newspaper rack -- remember those? -- to snag the latest barbs from Finebaum's poison pen. Paul's columns shaped my desire to be a sports writer.

I got a paddling once because of Paul Finebaum. My best friend had beaten me through the library doors; Larry Bird's box score was his big thing. But I tripped him and ripped the newspaper out of his hands. Three licks -- whack, whack, whack. They were worth it.

In school I used to try to "out-Finebaum" Finebaum. I spent time in class penning my own Finebaum-style columns to see if what I wrote would match what Paul wrote in the next day's paper. I got so good at it that years later, I joked to Paul that I could write his column better than him.

By then, I had grown up to be his editor and a fill-in host for his sports talk empire. Imagine that.

-- LARRY BAILEY

Larry Bailey, pictured above back right, was my junior-high basketball coach. One of the nicest men you ever could meet, but a stone-cold killer of a coach. He terrified me. If you didn't do what you were supposed to do, he cut a laser-like glance that burned your insides. He didn't say a word. Just stared you down with his head cocked to the side. To this day, I would run through walls for that man to avoid that look.

In high school, Larry Bailey was my 10th-grade history teacher. History was my best subject. I could've made an A without cracking a book. But because Coach Bailey was the teacher, it became a mission: Make the best grade in class. Not the class -- the entire 10th grade. I studied like never before or after. I went an entire semester without missing a test question -- just to avoid that look. I posted the highest grade for the year for 10th grade. Go hard or go home. Every. Single. Day.

-- JOEY BUNCH

Joey was the fresh-out-of-college sports editor of my hometown paper, a great friend and a kindred spirit. When I played high school sports, I pestered him to quote me in stories. He did. I pestered him to let me write stories. He did. After I graduated high school, I became his staff writer, a glorified stringer getting $25 a story. So began a partnership of ambition and a friendship bound by the written word. I covered Alabama-Auburn games, Senior Bowls, state championship games -- you name it, I got to do it -- before I ever even went to college. It was priceless training. I should have been paying him.

Joey and I pushed each other. Every road trip, every game we covered, every page we produced became a conversation about greatness -- great writing, great reporting, great page design, great photography. I told him I wanted to be the sports editor of the Birmingham Post-Herald (then the best sports section in Alabama) by the time I was 30. I was 31 by two weeks when I got that promotion. He told me he'd win a Pulitzer someday. He did. But we're both still waiting on the Tonight Show to call.

-- DON KAUSLER

Don Kausler hired me at the Post-Herald, first as a freelancer making $25 a story. Then intern. Then copy editor/reporter. Then finally, as Sports Editor after he's gone on to become managing editor. Don had a way of making whatever you were working on seem like the most important thing in his world at the moment. It was an amazing quality.

Don's listening skills were topped only by his work ethic. Back when the Post-Herald switched to the PM cycle, it became a personal mission of mine to beat Don to work. I'd come in at 5 a.m., he'd already be there. He'd beat you there at 4 a.m. He'd beat you there at 3 a.m. I'd come rolling at 2:30 a.m., and there Don would be in his white shirt and black tie, already working on the front page. Finally, I just started staying up all night and rolling in when the Birmingham News folks across the hall were leaving at 1. Maybe, some days, I beat Don in to the office that way. Most days, not.

I've been fortunate to be part of many great teams, and to be in positions of leadership during a time of revolutionary innovations. I've tried to use the influence that comes with that territory in impactful, positive ways as another mentor, Mark Russell, taught me to do. And I've definitely kept the lessons from my mentors in life with me every step of the way.

Who are some mentors who shaped your career? Tell your story about their story below.