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BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

For better or worse, newspaper people are really never anything but newspaper people, even after they embark on other endeavors. That spirit, that hunger, that urgency, that sense that at any given moment you should be asking somebody something for some kind of story … that gets carved deep.

I always knew I wanted to do that. I can recall feeling that since the fifth grade. And not because of sports. Sure, I was born and bred in Pittsburgh and followed all three teams — yes, including the Penguins way before that was a thing — but the fascination was with the job, with journalism itself.

I’d go on to spend pretty much my entire life in newspapers, beginning with my freshman year at Duquesne University when I wrote my first article for the Post-Gazette — about the Central Catholic-North Catholic football rivalry — in the fall of 1985. Here’s the lede:

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I was hired part-time by the PG in 1990, then full-time in 1992. Five years later, the PG added me to the Penguins’ beat, working alongside Dave Molinari, and the next seven winters were spent covering Jaromir Jagr, Alexei Kovalev and, of course, the initial retirement and unforgettable return of Mario Lemieux in 2001.

This was the lede from my exclusive coverage of Lemieux and Jay Caufield skating on frozen Neville Island the day before he hit the ice anew:

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I won three national awards for hockey coverage, notably the Associated Press Sports Editors’ top-five honor for a game story describing how Jiri Slegr, Martin Straka and other Czech Penguins communicated on the ice through whistles rather than their native tongue. But no award could top the feeling of that freezing morning with Lemieux and Caufield. It felt like covering a small slice of sporting history, and doing it alone was beyond words.

The NHL beat was an unbelievable ride, to borrow hockey’s favorite adjective, but one that ended with the lockout in 2004. I asked to branch out at the PG, and the first step of that was nothing less than the Athens Olympics. And man, talk about branching out. You’re sent to the other side of the planet, you’re covering sports that are wholly new (there was an archer from Hermitage, for real), and then, the main athlete you were sent to cover becomes the main attraction. That, of course, was the first of many misfortunes for Rochester’s Lauryn Williams.

That winter, I took on an even bigger challenge by asking the editors if I could cover the Pirates. This was heading into the 2005 season, so this was anything but a glamor role. The team had Jason Bay, Oliver Perez and not much else. But the beat itself was a reporter’s dream, if only for the scope of the losing and the chance to uncover what was going wrong and why. It took a while. I had to develop all my own sources for the first time, call executives and agents who’d never heard of me, try to get face-to-face answers from players who’d never seen me. Some of it was as simple as painting a picture of maybe the worst baseball game ever played one afternoon in Kansas City. Most of it was akin to this one really tough loss at old Yankee Stadium. The team and the athletes freaked out over pieces like that. But I’ve always worked from the premise that I serve the readers’ interests above all, and that only solidified the position.

That held true when I reported on the Pirates’ massive failures in Latin America under Dave Littlefield. I’ve been told by Bob Nutting since then that this reporting opened his eyes — he had just become controlling owner at the time — and that his resultant review led to Littlefield’s firing. Infinitely more meaningful to me, the Pirates got their act together down there and supported a brilliant scout and better man, Rene Gayo, in building up a Latin feeder system that now has Starling Marte and Gregory Polanco taking up two-thirds of baseball’s most electric outfield.

My visit to the Dominican in 2008, to see all the work the Pirates did, was the most satisfying journalistic experience of my career. Nutting and Gayo deserve 100 percent of the credit for what’s happened there, but I’ll always be proud of what set it in motion.

Alas, baseball burnout is very real in this business. I lasted for five years, about as long as most do. So after a few months of random feature work, I aimed for the next goal of writing columns. Or opinion pieces, for those unfamiliar with newspaper terminology. There was no more than a minimal opportunity to do that at the PG, so I left after 22 years at that paper to become the primary columnist at the Tribune-Review in June 2011.

That afforded not only a chance to resume covering the Penguins and Pirates, albeit from a different scope, but also the long-sought chance to dive head-first into Steelers. This latter point was huge for me. In fact, the only stipulation I had in my agreement with the Trib, apart from salary, was that I cover all of the Steelers’ games, home and road, even in London.

And speaking of that city, I also went to London and then to Sochi for my third and fourth Olympics, joining Athens and Vancouver. All were fantastic in their own way, but especially that still-surreal Pittsburgh bar in Russia.

In my first year at the Trib, I was named one of the top four sports columnists in the country by APSE. That still floors me because of the other names on that list. There were other local and regional awards, as well, and the one that stands out there for me was 2013’s ‘Hey, baseball, can you hear us?’ column from the Pirates’ Blackout win at PNC Park. There was satisfaction, too, from this past playoff run for the Penguins, particularly the column from Game 6 in New York that pretty much foretold the front-office shakeup to come, followed by the exclusive Lemieux/Ron Burkle interview. And from the standpoint of pure reader reaction, I’m not sure anything I write will touch the feedback to the column on Chuck Noll’s passing.

And on July 23, 2014, of course, I started this thing.

Maybe it was temporary insanity. Maybe it was all those nice things that others said at the launch while shaking their heads as soon as I’d look away. Maybe it was that I’m just a complete control freak and have handled all different dimensions of this business and always had a vision for how this operation would look if I ever found the guts/insanity/stupidity to actually try it.

Whatever the case, it’s been a blast. A dream lived out on a daily basis. Especially now that we’re succeeding on a scale even our most optimistic projections hadn’t forecast, to the point of adding full-time staff before the first year was up.

I live Downtown with my excellent family, headlined by wife Dali — who runs both the business and the house — and my daughter Dara, 13, and son Marko, 11.

To those who have read my work, whether for a couple decades or just the past couple minutes, I thank you. It’s a belief in the readership that made this leap possible.

Dejan Kovacevic journalism awards

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The DK on Pittsburgh Sports duo at PNC Park on Josh Yohe’s first night on the new job, 2015.

BY JOSH YOHE

I was born and raised in Peters Township by my mom who, thankfully, was a sports fan.

While other children of the 1980s were watching the Goonies, MTV or Nickelodeon, I was watching Johnny Ray turn double plays, Mark Malone throw interceptions and a guy wearing No. 66 make magic.

My fascination with Pittsburgh sports only strengthened during my childhood. The relationship between the three professional franchises and this sports-obsessed city is something I always studied with great appreciation.

I graduated from Peters Township in 1998 and decided to stay in Pittsburgh, going to college at Point Park. During this time, I worked part-time for the Valley Independent in Monessen, which marked my introduction to sports journalism. After finishing college, I received my first full-time newspaper job when I was hired by my friend, Mark Kaboly, at The Daily News in McKeesport. From 2004-09, I worked all hours in McKeesport, part of a three-man sports staff that covered high school, college and professional sports. I wrote columns, laid out pages and (poorly) took photos. It was a busy, demanding time. It was also, in some ways, the best time of my professional life. First jobs are like that.

Covering high school sports has long been a passion of mine, and this will never change. In particular, covering the Clairton football dynasty during the past decade was truly a pleasure, from watching some 14-year-old kid named Tyler Boyd toy with 18-year-olds to making friendships that will last a lifetime.

Starting in 2009, the Tribune-Review, which owns The Daily News, appointed me to the Penguins beat, where I worked for five seasons with my friend, Rob Rossi. During this time, we formed what I believe was a dynamic beat, giving local hockey fans an unprecedented amount of information.

Numerous events in the summer of 2014 prompted me to feel a sense of displeasure with the Trib. I felt like I had far more to offer.

Then, in the spring of 2015, a certain former co-worker came calling. And the rest is history.

While I will extensively be covering the three professional teams in Pittsburgh, allow me to introduce you to my most important team.

I live in McMurray with my wife, Tammy, and our four children (Brad, 13; Kayla, 9; Colton, 3; Connor, 1). Tammy is from Canada and, naturally, we met at a Penguins-Sabres game in Buffalo. Pittsburgh sports always plays a role in my life, so it seems.

Please know you’ll receive my best each and every day, as I intend to shed light on your three favorite teams, what makes them tick, where they’ve been and where they’re going. You’ll learn things daily at this website that you won’t learn anywhere else.

It’s a pleasure to join Dejan in being the bridge between the Pittsburgh sports fan and the Pittsburgh sports teams. We believe this is a special site that will only grow, and we encourage you to take this ride with us.