Mike Mastovich | Penn Cambria graduate Ronan waits for call during MLB draft week

Media Mainstay

Sports reporting and Mike Mastovich have get synonymous throughout Cambria County and beyond, due to his enduring and respectedjournalism career. Merely before he was credited with his start professional byline, Mike'due south initial foray into sports writing was at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown.

A Johnstown Tribune-Democrat sports writer since 1986, Mike honed his skills in the early-to-mid-1980s every bit a Pitt-Johnstown student, editor/writer, and fellow member of its sports information staff.

"The journalism program was top-notch, and I can't say enough about the affect Tom Russell had on his students," Mastovich said of the professor who retired in 1988 and passed away in 2011.  "Of course, the UPJ able-bodied teams created quite a few memories. It was pretty easy to promote the Lady Cats basketball game team and the Mount Cats wrestling squad -- two of the best programs in Sectionalisation Two at the time."

Mastovich received his Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism with a minor in spoken communication communications in 1985. He credits his feel every bit the student-sports information director with enabling him to work extensively with local and regional media and build contacts and relationships in the concern. He also served equally sports editor of The Advocate, which helped him country a position equally a graduate assistant in the Indiana University of Pennsylvania Sports Information Department.

He then earned a master'south degree in Sports Sciences at IUP a year subsequently. Meanwhile, in Nov 1986, he became part of the Tribune-Democrat's sports staff, where he has sustained an accomplished career.

Mike's writing and sports coverage has been honored with awards, such equally:

• ECHL Outstanding Media of the Year Award winner in 2005 and was beat writer for the ECHL's Johnstown Chiefs AA hockey team from 1991 through 2010;
• Keystone Press Award winner in 2011;
• Golden Quill Honour winner in 2006, 2008, and 2011, and a Gilt Quill Finalist in 2012;
• AAABA Hall of Fame inductee me in 2006; and
• Lead writer on a team that produced the 2007 book "Slap Shots and Snapshots: 50 Seasons of Professional Hockey in Johnstown."

"Pitt-Johnstown provided plenty of valuable existent-earth feel," he said. "During my four years, I was able to serve three internships: one with the American Reddish Cantankerous Keystone Affiliate, and two with the UPJ Sports Data Part/Athletic Department.

"My fourth dimension spent promoting and keeping statistics for the UPJ men's and women's able-bodied teams as well provided a slap-up learning feel. UPJ really prepared its journalism students for their entry into the workforce."

Mike came to the University later on graduating from Conemaugh Valley High School in 1981. He says there was plenty to like about Pitt-Johnstown then, and there withal is at present.

"Fifty-fifty though I was a local, I resided on campus," he said. "I really liked the rustic setting. The close-knit community of students and professors/instructors was special. Friendships and relationships fabricated in the 1980s are nevertheless strong today."

Mastovich has served as main of ceremonies for the Pitt-Johnstown Athletics Hall of Fame banquet since its inception in 2007.

Mike is a Johnstown resident, where he and his wife Terry have three children: Shelby, Michael, and Ryan.

Source: https://www.johnstown.pitt.edu/alumni/pitt-johnstown-success-stories/mike-mastovich

Posted by: kowalskiwiterestich.blogspot.com

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