This, is the Alaska Sports Report.
From preps to the pros, our award-winning staff will provide in-depth coverage of Alaska athletes that is second to none.
Formerly known as the Alaska Sports Blog, the Alaska Sports Report has expanded its staff to complement editor Van Williams, who single-handedly maintained a daily blog for 12 years.
Williams, a former Anchorage Daily News sports editor and Alaska Press Club award recipient, created from scratch a credible news source that applied a new facet to a decaying statewide sports media landscape.
Van Williams
Williams, of East High fame, wrote 4,900 of the 5,000 blog posts, covering more than 1,000 Alaskans at the high school, college and professional level. He has covered Alaska sports for 30 years, including 15 at the ADN, and reported for other newspapers such as the Anchorage Times, Arctic Sounder, Tundra Drums and Peninsula Clarion.
Sponsored by the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame, the blog was good.
The Alaska Sports Report will be better.
Joining Williams on the Alaska Sports Report staff will be a tremendous trio of former newspaper reporters in Doyle Woody, Matias Saari and Matt Nevala.
Doyle Woody
Woody covered Alaska sports for 34 years as a reporter/columnist for the Anchorage Daily News. The Bartlett High grad was the ADN’s principal hockey writer and is the only multiple-time winner of the ECHL’s Most Outstanding Media Award, which he won four times.
Matias Saari
Saari is a former sportswriter at the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner who now serves as coordinator for Healthy Futures, the signature program of the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame. He wrote a book on the history of the Fairbanks’ Equinox Marathon and serves as director of the Mount Marathon Race along with Crow Pass Crossing and Kesugi Ridge Traverse.
Matt Nevala
Nevala worked at the Anchorage Daily News for more than a decade before moving on to Alaska Newspapers Inc., where he worked as an assistant managing editor. He handled many duties from prep page editor to Alaska Aces beat reporter to a fishing report. He’s also the former co-host of ‘The Sports Guys’ radio show.
The Alaska Sports Report staff also features:
Harlow Robinson, Alaska Sports Hall of Fame executive director who graduated from Susitna Valley High and has a degree in journalism from the University of Alaska Fairbanks;
Shelley Romer, development director; this West High grad earned her Masters from Alaska Pacific University;
Natalie Osborne, web developer; this Service High grad and former UAA ski racer used to work as a Senior Marketing Producer at Major League Baseball (MLB.com);
Arielle Himelbloom, events calendar manager; this former valedictorian at Kodiak High now runs cross country and track for UAA.
We are Alaskans covering Alaskans.
The Alaska Sports Report’s mission is to tell stories about Alaska athletes achieving great things around the world through an innovative, interactive platform.