N&O shifts beats

TO OUR READERS: Luke DeCock, who has covered the Carolina Hurricanes for The News & Observer since 2000, becomes a general sports columnist starting Monday. He will also have a daily blog, Talking Points, which can be found at blogs.newsobserver.com/decock. A native of Evanston, Ill., Luke graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and joined The N&O from The Gazette in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Chip Alexander will take over the Hurricanes beat and Lord Stanley's Blog. Alexander, a Raleigh native, has been a sports reporter at The N&O since 1979. Alexander covered Hurricanes hockey in Greensboro and Raleigh and was part of the coverage team for both of the Hurricanes' Stanley Cup finals playoff runs.

Ken Tysiac, who has covered the ACC beat in Raleigh for the Charlotte Observer since 2003, will cover N.C. State in print and on the ACC Now blog. Tysiac spent the previous eight years covering Clemson for the Anderson Independent-Mail and then The (Columbia) State in South Carolina. He grew up in Rochester, N.Y., and is a graduate of Notre Dame.

Robbi Pickeral and Luciana Chavez will continue to cover North Carolina and Duke, respectively, while the N&O will add or expand coverage of several other college programs.

Edward G. Robinson III will cover Wake Forest, A.J. Carr will cover East Carolina and Stan Olson and Ron Green Jr. of the Charlotte Observer will report on Appalachian State, Clemson and South Carolina.