Ari Levin

Education

Experience

Great Features I've Written

Good stories are everywhere, especially in sports. The reason I want to pursue sports journalism is to continue to find and tell great stories. These are a few of my favorite examples.

• Mesa Vista Mourns Loss of Coaches -- It was incredibly hard to write the story of the Mesa Vista High School girls basketball coach who died at 37, after his father had passed away the night before. I spoke with coaches, administrators and friends of his, and added what I knew from the time I had gotten to know him.
• Española Signs SIlver City Coach to Head Football -- The new coach of the Española Valley High School football team hopes to bring his energy and up-tempo offense to rejuvenate a long-suffering program. And a dive into the investigation that briefly placed him on administrative leave at his previous job.
• Teachers Critical of Peñasco Superintedent Fired or Demoted -- Many teachers in the Peñasco school district had concerns about the Superintendent, who at first was not retained after her first year until the School Board reversed their decision days later, and some teachers and administrators have lost their jobs
• The Game: Northwestern Football's quest to win the Big Ten -- An interactive package about the 2018 Big Ten Championship Game, and its bigger impact on Northwestern football and the campus as a whole. Reported with Debbie-Marie Brown
• Point Park runner Anna Shields ranks among the world's fastest -- How did Anna Shields, one of the fastest runners in the world, end up competing at a tiny commuter school in downtown Pittsburgh? Her story is so much more than that
• After Three Torn ACLs, Northwestern’s Kaley Winegarner Keeps Fighting Back -- Kaley Winegarner was one of the best 14-year-old softball players in the nation, but injuries have robbed her of large parts of her high school and college career. Yet she remains a productive member of Northwestern's pitching staff and maintains a vital role as veteran leader, even to those who have taken her playing time
• Two Huskies All-Stars Proud to Represent NAIA -- During my summer broadcasting in the Northwoods League, the two best players on our team, perhaps the best in the entire league (one was ultimately named MVP), came from small schools about which I knew nothing. I had to learn more, and found two very different stories
• Reasons they play might differ, but they all have a Passion for women's football -- The Pittsburgh Passion are a highly successful but little-known women's football team with players, all of whom work day jobs, that all have different backstories and reasons for playing
• Chicago’s Puerto Rican community overcomes adversity -- In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, neighborhoods on the west side of Chicago saw an influx of migrants as the city banded together to provide support
• Trial by fire: Why players move to Pittsburgh for shot at joining Riverhounds -- It's like "Hard Knocks" for soccer. With no guarantee of any future prospects or any salary given, soccer players from around the world compete for spots on the Pittsburgh Riverhounds
• First-Year Shellmyer a Leader for NU Softball -- The Northwestern softball player with the most moxie is encapsulated in one game-changing play

Telling Stories With Data

I'm always striving to find ways to combine my math and journalism backgrounds, and I think the best way to tell a story is often by using data. It is difficult to strike the careful balance in using numbers in ways that everyone can understand. Here are some examples of my numbers-based writing:

• What Can Advanced Metrics Tell Us About Big Ten Softball? -- My friend and I created and calculated advanced metrics for all of 2019 Big Ten softball, and I wrote about the biggest takeaways from the data
• Zack Greinke's 8 Pitch Types Keem 'Em Guessing -- At the age of 35, when most pichers are well past their prime, Greinke remains among MLB's best pitchers. He does so by constantly revamping his arsenal, which has become a unique one, as he chases his first World Series
• The Worst All-Stars Since 2002 -- Sandy Alcantara of the Marlins was named an All-Star this year despite a 3.82 ERA. How does he compare to other "bad" All-Stars, and what can we learn about how subpar players are given honors?
• Numbers game: Why are the Pirates projected to be so average in 2019? -- Before the 2019 season, three different projection systems all projected the Pirates win 79 or 80 games. How do they come to these predictions, and why do they all agree on Pittsburgh's mediocrity?
• The Marlins Traded Away A Playoff Team -- In a fun exercise (and not necessarily an indictment of the current leadership) I assemble a roster of former Miami Marlins trade pieces, and find that it would be one of the best teams in the league

Broadcast Tape

Highlight reel from the 2018 Northwoods League season

Full broadcast of Game 1 of the 2019 NCAA Softball Super Regionals

More Links

For a more thorough history of my writings, including game recaps, previews and more features, check my archive on Rio Grande Sun, The Palm Beach Post, FiveThirtyEight, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette or WNUR Sports.