To everyone in Houma, Louisiana:Hello. I’m Mikey DiLullo, and I’ll be your new high school sports reporter.
I’m from a suburban town in Western Massachusetts called Agawam. Growing up, I was convinced that I would be the next great MLB first baseman. By middle school, though, after getting cut in every sport I played, I realized that playing sports wasn’t in the cards for me, but wanted to stick around them as long as I could.
In high school, I filmed games and did stats for four sports: football, basketball, baseball and soccer. For four years, I wasn’t the guy who scored touchdowns, got rebounds, hit home runs or saved penalties. I was the guy who held phones on road trips, kept the scorebook and bought sunflower seeds before games. I loved every second of it.
Those friends I made in the locker room and on those bus rides are still some of my best friends today. I also took my first journalism classes in high school, culminating in getting the opportunity to host a show covering sports for my school’s YouTube channel.
I started attending the University of Alabama in 2019, but it was 2020 where my journalism career really started when I began an internship with The Tuscaloosa News, also part of the USA Today Network. With this internship, I got the opportunity to cover high school and college sports for almost three years. During my time in Tuscaloosa, I got the chance to cover nearly every high school sport you could imagine. In addition to high school sports, I spent three seasons covering the Crimson Tide gymnastics team, one season covering the baseball team, one season covering the Southern Miss football team (remotely) for the Hattiesburg American, and one season helping with coverage of the Tennessee Titans for the Nashville Tennessean.
Outside of those, I have also gotten the chance to cover the College Football Playoff, March Madness, the NFL Draft, and more. I’ve even gotten the chance to help out with research for The Tuscaloosa News’ book to commemorate Nick Saban’s 15 seasons with Alabama football.
Despite everything I’ve covered, nothing was ever quite the same to me as high school sports. High school sports, to me, are all about pride. Pride for your uniform, your school, your town and your teammates. Most high school players know that their four years on those fields are the last time they’ll ever get to play the game. But when you see the few lucky enough to continue to the next level, you’re truly seeing something special. There’s nothing else like it in any sport anywhere. I couldn’t be more excited to get started.
