Mitchell Northam is Breakaway’s new Senior Author for ladies’s faculty sports activities

It wasn’t that way back, so I can nonetheless vividly recall masking my first nationwide championship recreation in 2019 in Tampa. I keep in mind attempting to comb away the confetti off my keyboard as I attempted to file a narrative on deadline from my courtside seat. I keep in mind the frustration on the faces of the Notre Dame gamers. I keep in mind watching DiDi Richards bounce into NaLyssa Smith’s arms and the thrill and pure pleasure coming from the Baylor bench. I keep in mind questioning concerning the two groups that misplaced within the semifinals – Oregon and UConn – and questioning whether or not the Huskies’ reign was over, and whether or not Sabrina Ionescu may get again right here the following season (a query we by no means obtained the reply to, because of the COVID-19 pandemic). Greater than anything, I keep in mind being hooked on ladies’s faculty basketball.

I maintain a corkboard in my residence workplace that’s lined in media credentials from the previous decade that I’ve spent as knowledgeable journalist. There’s one from a go to to NASA’s Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia, two from superior Military-Navy video games, a number of from wild NASCAR races, one from a enjoyable Division III lacrosse championship, one other from a memorable U.S. Open in Pinehurst, and numerous items of paper and plastic from faculty basketball video games.

Hanging off one thumbtack on the board, I’ve a blue ACC lanyard that holds the credentials from the 4 ladies’s faculty basketball Closing Fours that I’ve lined. The fixed on these passes is my title, however the whole lot else is totally different, from the emblem for the championship to the colour scheme, and to the outlet I lined the video games for. Every of these 4 credentials has a distinct information group printed on it. I suppose they’re that means as a result of I assumed it was vital for me to be at every a type of, to see the video games, to seize the moments, to inform the tales and to do some boots-on-the-ground reporting. So, the title of the information group on every of these credentials represented whoever was paying me probably the most that yr, however I used to be typically doing work for a number of publications at these tournaments.

Final yr, I produced 64 items of content material for 9 totally different information organizations throughout March Insanity. The yr earlier than, 60 for 10 totally different shops. Throughout the 2021-22 season, 98 items of content material for 12 totally different information organizations — all on ladies’s faculty basketball.

Once more, like I mentioned, I used to be hooked.

I’m not pointing that workload to toot my very own horn. I be aware it as a result of there’s a bunch of different writers and reporters like me doing the identical kind of work on this area — piecing collectively each little job they’ll seize to make one thing of a profession out of masking ladies’s sports activities. We don’t do it as a result of we love the additional paperwork and calculating our mileage when tax season comes round, or as a result of we like badgering editors with invoices, or as a result of we like staying in shady Airbnb’s as a result of we will’t afford the media motels.

We do it, and maintain doing it, as a result of we love the sports activities and we love the work.

Ask most folk who’ve tried to make masking ladies’s sports activities a full-time residing and so they’ll all in all probability inform you an identical factor: it’s actually exhausting. This area just isn’t a stepping-stone. It’s important to adore it. It’s important to be hooked on storytelling. It’s important to be obsessive about the video games. It’s important to know your topics and audiences deeply. You do it not for the cash, however as a result of you possibly can’t wait to inform readers and followers what you simply noticed. You need to describe it to them over and over. You need to give these athletes, these coaches, these groups and their tales – who’ve been missed for much too lengthy – the eye and highlight they deserve; above the fold within the newspaper, the lead story on the nightly information, pinned to the highest of an internet site’s homepage, and among the many first issues the almighty algorithm spits at us on Instagram.

I prefer to imagine that each one of these issues apply to me – that I do love this, that I’ve fought for honest protection, and that I’ve grinded to inform these tales and labored exhausting to attempt to make a residing doing it. However then the imposter syndrome creeps in and I get a bit uncomfortable touting my resume or patting myself on the again. I’m only a reporter, a author, and – as a result of that is 2025 – a content material creator. So, I’ll simply let my work communicate for itself.

My title is Mitchell Northam and I’ve been masking ladies’s sports activities since 2018 when Howard Megdal gave me the chance to cowl the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream. By the following spring, I used to be masking my first Closing 4 for NCAA.com and making ready to spend a season masking the NWSL’s North Carolina Braveness for the Orlando Sentinel. Since then, I’ve develop into an AP Prime 25 voter, a member of the USBWA board for ladies’s basketball, and I’ve advised a bunch of tales for a bunch of various information organizations about ladies’s sports activities, together with USA Right this moment’s For The Win, the Baltimore Banner, the Related Press, the Raleigh Information and Observer, the Miami Herald, The Subsequent and North Carolina Public Radio.

And that’s what I goal to maintain doing right here at SB Nation, the place I’ll be a Senior Author masking ladies’s faculty sports activities for Breakaway. I’ll inform tales about triumphs and heartbreaks, about failures and comebacks, about record-setters and barrier-breakers, about candy wins and insufferable defeats, about changemakers and trendsetters, about iconic stars and under-the-radar contributors, about big-time gamers and enjoyable moments, about inspiration and tragedy, about followers, the affect of cash, and modifications to the game. And I’ll do this by not simply the written phrase, however with movies, pictures and audio as effectively. A few of these tales can be targeted on the earth of girls’s faculty basketball, however others can be set in softball, volleyball, lacrosse, soccer, discipline hockey and gymnastics. Others can be in rising sports activities like wrestling and flag soccer, which I can’t wait to dive into. I’ve made ladies’s faculty basketball – particularly the ACC – a little bit of my area of interest over the previous few years, however I’m excited to broaden my lens and canopy this sport and others on a nationwide stage.

These are the varieties of tales I’ve been attempting to inform in ladies’s sports activities for the previous few years. The distinction now’s that these will all be in a single place, underneath the banner of Breakaway – a crew I’m extremely keen to affix.

I’m additionally very grateful to have this chance. Arising with the precise quantity is tough, however it’s protected to say there aren’t many writers and reporters who cowl ladies’s sports activities full-time on a nationwide stage. Regardless of the determine is, it’s miniature in comparison with the variety of people who cowl males’s sports activities as their lone job. After years of piecing collectively freelance gigs to pay my very own method to the previous three Closing Fours and different street journeys for video games across the nation, I’m grateful that I’ll have a singular platform to inform these tales, and to have the backing of a information group that’s investing in protection of girls’s sports activities.

Quickly, I’ll get the chance so as to add a fifth to that assortment of Closing 4 credentials. And once more, my title would be the identical, however the whole lot else will change. This time, I’ll look down and see “SB Nation” hanging from my neck in Tampa in April.

It’s a little bit of a full-circle second for me. One of many first locations I ever wrote for, means again in 2013 once I was nonetheless a scholar at a college you’ve by no means heard of – Wor-Wic Group Faculty – Black & Crimson United introduced me aboard to weblog about D.C. United. Ultimately, I’d write for six totally different crew websites at SB Nation, getting invaluable reps and studying from some nice folks alongside the best way.

Some 12 years later, I’m again at SB Nation with a brand new title and at a distinct stage of life, however my purpose remains to be the identical. At Breakaway, I’m going to attempt to inform tales about athletes, coaches and the folks in ladies’s sports activities as they proceed to interrupt by.

Put extra merely, I’m right here to make fascinating and great things. See y’all on the web.