Eric Poole

Up to this point in life, I've been a steelworker, restaurant manager, rugby and semi-pro football player, award-winning newspaper reporter and, most importantly, a dad and husband.

From a professional standpoint, I have received more than 30 regional, statewide and national journalism awards, so I'll include just the highlights: 1997 -- Named the top non-daily newspaper sports columnist in Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania Newspaper Association); 1999-2001 -- Three Golden Quill Awards (Western Pennsylvania Press Club); 2007 -- Two first-place writing awards for general column writing and special festures (Pennsylvania Newspaper Association). Since 2002, I've been working at the Ellwood City Ledger, a 3,500 circulation daily newspaper in the Calkins Media chain.

I'm in the final stages of writing a self-published non-fiction book, to be titled Conspicuous Intrepidity: The True Story of the Vietnam War's Greatest Forgotten Hero, which should be out later this year.

While I've received awards for all types of writing -- ranging from environmental reporting to local politics -- sports is my passion. As an athlete retired from a fringe sport, I've written about sports ranging from auto racing to football to archery to baseball. My interview subjects have included Pittsburgh Steelers chairman emeritus (and U.S. Ambassador to Ireland) Dan Rooney, former President George W. Bush, and several Congressmen and women and U.S. senators. But the most interesting interviews I've ever done have been with people whose names would otherwise go unrecognized.