by Jordan O’Donnell

At age 33, Steve Politi has accomplished what many sports writers will only dream of doing. Politi, a 1994 graduate of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, is a sports columnist for The (Newark) Star-Ledger in New Jersey, one of the top-20 most circulated papers in the country, with a readership of about 600,000.

He said he has traveled to “some of the greatest events in the world,” covered the Olympics and championship soccer matches in Europe, and has had memorable run-ins with legendary coaches.

One time, Politi learned that five starters on the Newark East Side High School men’s basketball team were from overseas and were living unsupervised in a nearby apartment. Politi and his colleagues dug deeper into the story. They uncovered the pipeline that the players took to Canada and then into the United States. But the trail did not end there. Three of the players were from Nigeria, so Politi followed the story there. Politi’s investigation resulted in an award-winning series of articles documenting how many African youth end up playing high school sports in the U.S.

Politi’s career began with an internship at The (Raleigh) News & Observer, where he worked his way into a full-time position. He covered Duke University football and basketball for two years and then the Carolina Hurricanes for one year.

Politi’s career took off when he became a general-assignment writer for The Star-Ledger in 1998. He covered general news for six years before becoming a sports columnist in 2004. Now he can cover the New Jersey Devils hockey team, New York Giants football and high school sports all in the same week.

“It’s the kind of job that absolutely keeps you on your toes,” he said. “It’s always something different. I wake up and have to reinvent myself everyday.”

Politi said his college journalism experiences prepared him for the pitfalls he was to see as a professional writer. “I can’t think of a scenario in my career that I hadn’t already met by the time I got out of Carolina,” he said, citing the time his laptop computer broke down before a deadline and the time car trouble forced him to take a cab to a sporting event for which he arrived just moments before the start.

UNC-Chapel Hill provided him with the knowledge he needed in journalism and other subjects, Politi said. He liked that he was able to take many different classes in subjects other than journalism. “The more general knowledge you have, the better off you will be in your job,” he added. He took three years of poetry and creative writing classes, which prepared him for receiving criticism, something necessary for writers, he said. “I think a lot of young journalists are sometimes thin-skinned, but you can’t be.”

While at the University, Politi was The Daily Tar Heel’s university editor his sophomore year. He began working in the sports department during his junior year, covering both football and basketball. That year, the men’s basketball team won the NCAA National Championship.

One of Politi’s favorite stories involves a memorable encounter with Tar Heel coaching legend Dean Smith. Politi was a sophomore when he was assigned his first big story with the DTH: an interview with Smith in the coach’s trophy-filled office.

The following summer, Politi’s appearance had changed drastically. He lost weight and cut his hair short, taking on a much different, almost unrecognizable look from his sophomore days. One day he saw Smith walking by the Smith Center and said hello to the coach.

Smith turned and said, “Oh, hi, Steve!”

That single experience showed Politi what kind of man Smith is.

“It stuck with me that after one interview with a 19-year-old, he remembered me,” Politi said. ♦

Jordan O’Donnell is a senior in the school’s news-editorial sequence. O’Donnell also is majoring in political science.