The Herald-Times welcomes its new sports reporter, will cover high school and Indiana

I believe everyone has a story to tell.

In the big picture, sports are all about people. The game, itself, is never the story. It’s about the people who play the game, what they achieve, why they do the things they do, how they got where they are, and where those paths may lead in the future.

In that way, athletes at any level — whether it’s a high school reserve, a collegiate standout, or a professional star — are no different than everyone else. We all have those backgrounds and experiences in some form.

Here’s my story.

I grew up in Maryland, in the middle of Baltimore and Washington, D.C. I fell in love with sports from a young age, and like many children, my dreams of becoming a professional athlete faded quickly. But I knew I wanted to work around sports for a career, and I set my sights on journalism.

I ended up attending Indiana University from 2015 through 2019 for the up-and-coming sports media program. Through my collegiate experiences — particularly covering IU football and men’s basketball for the now-defunct Inside Indiana Magazine and 247Sports, and men’s basketball for Inside The Hall — my love for sports paired with a love of storytelling.

I enjoyed chasing ambitious longform features and piecing them together, and looked for angles that others may have missed.

And when I found those great stories, I’d get giddy. I still do. Those opportunities excite me.

I honed my craft through the first two stops of my career. I covered high school sports on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, and I covered high school sports and Dartmouth College athletics in the Upper Valley of Vermont and New Hampshire.

My road has now taken me back to Bloomington — a town I grew to love during my college years — to cover high school sports, IU women’s basketball, men’s soccer, and more for The Herald-Times.

I have big shoes to fill, as Jeremy Price was a staple at the H-T for more than 20 years. I hope to be a worthy successor.

And I’m joining an excellent team. Jim Gordillo does great work covering local high schools. Dustin Dopirak and Zach Osterman are terrific beat writers covering Hoosiers athletics. Matt Cohen brings an interesting perspective to every story, and did a fine job filling in with IU women’s basketball coverage this season.

I’m looking forward to adding my own flavor to the outstanding work that group is already doing, and making our IU and high schools coverage even better.

I’m incredibly excited for this opportunity. Jobs like this aren’t easy to come by in any area, much less to cover your alma mater. When I graduated from IU in 2019, I envisioned someday returning to Assembly Hall as a one-off while covering a visiting team. I never imagined I’d be back there covering the Hoosiers just three years later.

Whether it’s at a game, a local watering hole, or outside walking my dog, feel free to say hi. Or you can do so digitally via email or Twitter. I’m absolutely thrilled to be back in Bloomington, and I’m excited to acclimate myself to the high school sports scene and to rejoin the IU beat as a professional.

I’ve learned a lot in my time away from Indiana, and I’m going to put that to good use in my return. Those experiences made me a better journalist, and reinforced my mentality that everyone has a story to tell.

As I dive into my new gig at The Herald-Times, I can’t wait to tell as many of those stories as possible. I hope you’ll follow along, and I hope my work will prove worthy of the low cost of admission.

Seth Tow can be reached at stow@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter at @SethTow.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: The Herald-Times welcomes its new sports reporter this week