BY JACK HILLGROVE AND MIKE SILVESTRE

Staff Writers

From sports anchoring on WTAE to writing NBA profiles for The Sporting News, a number of Purbalite alumni have made their mark on the world of sports journalism. Here are four of their stories.

Guy Junker
As a writer for the Purbalite, interview subjects consist mainly of students and staff from Baldwin. But as a professional journalist, Purbalite alumni Guy Junker has interviewed star athletes such as Michael Jordan and Reggie Jackson.
Junker graduated from Baldwin in 1974 and attended Penn State University and the University of Manchester in England.
Throughout high school, Junker played baseball. One of his fondest memories at Baldwin was hitting a home run against Bethel Park his sophomore year.
“It’s really when I got interested in sports,” Junker said.
Junker planned on playing baseball, but his father he should consider sports writing if baseball didn’t pan out.
After earning his degree, Junker worked on various news teams before joining WTAE, including WMBA in Ambridge, where he covered the 1979 World Series and Super Bowl XIII. Junker also did play-by-play for high school football, basketball, and American Legion baseball.
“It was a great training,” Junker said.
Junker might be most famous for his show on Fox Sports with Pittsburgh broadcaster Stan Savran, where they interviewed sports legends such as Reggie Jackson and Hank Aaron.
Junker said he has had some great interviews, including sports legends such as Mario Lemieux and Bill Mazeroski, who was Junker’s hero growing up.
“I was very nervous,” Junker said. “I didn’t know how he would handle the media, but he couldn’t have been nicer and it was a great interview.”
Now Junker is a weekend sports anchor on WTAE from 6 to 11 p.m. Junker also has a Tribweb talk radio show on mornings from Monday through Friday.

Jordan Greer
Today, most kids spend a lot of their time on social media, but former Baldwin student Jordan Greer uses social media as part of his job for one of the largest sports publications in the country, The Sporting News.
Greer graduated in 2009 at Baldwin High School. He attended Westminster University for his undergraduate degree, and Syracuse University to earn his graduate degree.
Prior to his current job, Greer had interned for The Sporting News, and did some freelance work for ESPN, including assisting the cameramen for a game between Syracuse and Duke, which had the largest crowd in Carrier Dome history.
Greer’s official title is the digital content producer for The Sporting News.
“My job is to make sure that we present our content in the best way possible,” Greer said. Greer does most of his work on Facebook and Twitter.
As far as sports he covers, Greer touches them all.
“With the social media aspect, we cover everything,” Greer said. “I just sort of bounce around and flow with the wind.”
As well as being a social media specialist, Greer has written multiple pieces, including a feature on T.J. McConnell, a player for the Philadelphia 76ers who is a Pittsburgh native.
While living in Charlotte, Greer covers a lot of Charlotte Hornets games, and has seen players such as Dwayne Wade, Joakim Noah, and Dwight Howard.
“Walking past a player like D-Wade is crazy because I used to watch this guy win championships growing up, and now I’m covering him for my job,” Greer said.
While reflecting on his times at Baldwin, Greer said that he remembers the passion and dedication that former sponsor Christine Kondrot showed toward The Purbalite. Greer began working on The Purbalite his sophomore year, and become Co Editor-in-Chief his senior year.

Robert Healy
There are some married couples that met in high school. Robert Healy met his wife on The Purbalite.
Healy is a full-time journalism professor at Duquesne University, and has won many awards for sports broadcasting for small colleges.
A 2001 graduate of Baldwin, Healy was a staff member of The Purbalite for all of his four years at Baldwin, and was named the entertainment editor his senior year.
He played football in high school and in college at Duquesne, and he said the experience of playing the game helped him win three awards for color commentary at Susquehanna University.
“I’m at my best when I’m covering football,” Healy said
Prior to becoming a professor, Healy began his career as a marketing specialist for Court Time Sports Center, but he knew that it wasn’t a path he wanted to follow.
“It wasn’t where my passion was,” Healy said.
After Court Time. Healy moved north to Clinton, New York, to become the assistant sports information director at Hamilton College, and then he left for Susquehanna University to be the director of athletics communications.
Healy knew at a young age that he wanted to become a broadcaster. His mom told him at 8 years old he was going to be a broadcaster, and he always strived to prove her right.
Healy also said that he checked out a cassette tape from the library of the 1991-92 Pittsburgh Penguins season, and listened to it for hours on end.
“When you’re turning the TV down and pretending to be Mike Lange and Lanny Frattare, it’s almost a calling,” Healy said.
Healy also has experience writing breaking news stories for the Baldwin-Whitehall Patch and the Upper St. Clair Patch before they laid off all of their Pittsburgh-based reporters in 2013.
“You are baptized by fire in the journalism field,” Healy said. “It is a major challenge to be a breaking-news reporter.”

Kevin Gorman
Many high school students have an idea of the profession they want, but not everyone fulfills that goal. Baldwin graduate and former Purbalite sports editor Kevin Gorman fulfilled his goal and became a professional sports writer.
Gorman works for the Tribune-Review as a columnist covering high school sports.
He covered sports while he was on The Purbalite and aspired to become the paper’s sports editor, which he accomplished his senior year.
“It gave me an opportunity to try what I wanted to do and I dove in head-first,” Gorman said.
At Baldwin, Gorman covered the girls volleyball state championships and wrote a feature on senior Brian Gelzheiser, who was a three-sport athlete who went on to play linebacker at Penn State.
Gorman went to Point Park College and Penn State University and majored in journalism.
“I got the Golden Key scholarship from Point Park College, which gave me partial tuition,” Gorman said.
Gorman transferred to Penn State his junior year and worked on The Daily Collegian.
“I covered the 1994 Penn State football team that went undefeated and beat Oregon in the Rose Bowl,” Gorman said.
Gorman has interviewed many famous people in the sports world, including Olympian Carl Lewis, late Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, and former Penn State quarterback Kerry Collins.
Gorman has worked all over the country, including Memphis, Phoenix, Dallas, Kansas City, and Pittsburgh.
Gorman has covered two Super Bowls, two Stanley Cups, one All-Star Game in baseball, three playoff baseball games, NCAA basketball tournaments, and four college football bowl games.
Social media has changed his job because it makes him more effective by tweeting or shooting video during the event.
“Social media makes me prepare my story while the game is going on,” Gorman said.