Shannon Russell has been a sports reporter for 20 years, with stops at The Athletic and The Cincinnati Enquirer. She has been honored with multiple national awards while covering everything from the NFL and Major League Baseball to professional tennis and high school sports. She has spent the last decade covering college basketball.

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Shannon Russell had recently graduated college (where she majored in creative writing and journalism) and was having trouble finding many job options, until she discovered an opening at a small, local newspaper that was advertising an opening for a news reporter. Excited to have an opportunity, she applied for the job and got the interview - but, imagine her surprise when she learned that the job opening was actually for a sports reporter.

She had played some sports in her youth, but as Shannon explains, playing sports and writing about them are two different things! It would be especially hard for sports she’d never participated in, like football or wrestling. Instead of turning down the job, Shannon accepted the position: as she explains today, it wasn’t always comfortable at first, or even something that she looked forward to doing, but being able to grow into the position and feel confident doing it, led to a career that she would’ve never imagined.

Joining us to share her story, Shannon talks about the connection between her background in creative writing and being able to tell a story about sports and the athletes who play them, earning respect in the sports industry before female reporters were common, how her hard work led to a top reporting spot covering Xavier University athletics, and how industry changes snowballed due to COVID-19.