VW native talks about television career

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Van Wert native Natalie Taylor still has those cheerleader/Peony Queen good looks and the brains she displayed as valedictorian of the Van Wert High School Class of 2000, but the Fox Sports Ohio reporter said it was the confidence and support she received from the people of her hometown that made all the difference as she was building her career in television.

Taylor, who recently was named the sidelines reporter covering the Columbus Blue Jackets hockey team, returned to Van Wert Thursday to speak at the Van Wert Area Chamber of Commerce’s annual dinner on Thursday evening.

“Honestly, if it wasn’t for Van Wert, (I’m) not really sure I’d have the career I have now,” Taylor said, noting that she feels that it’s not “all about who you know, but where you come from and who you meet along the way.”

Certainly, much of her confidence and support came from her parents, Van Wert residents Don and Deb Taylor, who attended the banquet along with Taylor’s boyfriend, also a broadcaster in Columbus.

Taylor said her career as a broadcaster actually started with an internship she had in Toledo while a student at Bowling Green State University. Along the way, she has covered all kinds of sports, from NASCAR to Southeastern Conference football and basketball, to high school sports and the Ohio State Buckeyes while a sportscaster at Columbus television stations WSYZ/WTTE.

She has also met famous coaches and athletes, including Urban Meyer, Jim Tressel, Mario Lemieux, Tim Tebow, but said she was only star-struck once: when she met NBA superstar Michael Jordan.

Taylor said she never wavered from her goal to be a professional sportscaster, even though there were many people who were skeptical that she would ever make it in what is a very competitive field.

The Van Wert native credited the Television Production class at Van Wert High School for helping her learn about television production and for allowing her to gain confidence in front of a camera.

She noted, though, that her path to her current job covering the Blue Jackets was not the typical path for broadcasters. Normally, Taylor said, young broadcast graduates start at a local television station, but after sending out lots of resume tapes — and getting no response — she decided to move to Atlanta, Ga., home of Fox Sports South and Turner Broadcasting, which includes CNN and ESPN.

While she didn’t get a job with one of those organizations right off, she did land a position with a production company that provided content to many broadcasting networks and “paid her dues,” covering small-time racing, sailfish championships, gymnastics and swimming and diving championships until Fox Sports South noticed her and hired her to cover SEC sports.

After six years of covering sports in the South, she came back to Ohio to take a sportcasting job in Columbus, noting that covering sports for a local television station was a challenge for her, since the work she did for Fox Sports South was more positive — and less cutthroat than the scoop-driven world of local broadcasting.

Taylor, who calls herself a “smiler”, said it was also hard to cover the controversy surrounding ousted Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel, since she preferred more positive stories and had also gotten to know the coach and his wife, Ellen, and especially felt sorry for Tressel’s wife.

Taylor also talked about her first hockey broadcasting gig covering the Atlanta Thrashers of the National Hockey League, noting that she had to get a copy of Hockey for Dummies to learn about a sport she had no contact with while growing up.

Surprisingly, Taylor fell in love with the sport, which likely helped her get her current job covering the Blue Jackets.

During her talk, the Van Wert native, also talked about how difficult it is to be a woman in the man’s world of sports broadcasting, noting that when she makes a mistake, fans often interpret it as not knowing what’s she’s doing, even though they would just pass it off if a man made the same mistake.

Taylor also said that the popularity of social media means her wardrobe, hair, voice and looks in general are also food for comment — something she says she has learned to ignore.

She also had some advice for young people who want to be successful: make small goals and be nice to those people you meet along the way.