From attending a small Division III school, Mount Union College, to now being Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Sports Enterprise reporter, Noah Hiles has truly climbed the ladder of success in the sports journalism world. 

Going to a small college in Ohio helped Hiles get a lot of experience in the field, and by his sophomore year he was sports editor on the school newspaper, sports director of the student radio station, as well as a play-by-play announcer on student radio. 

Hiles played lots of sports when he was a kid, but he always had a knack for journalism.

“I wasn’t probably good enough to go to the NFL or the NBA or play Major League Baseball. So I figured the next best thing would be working in sports in some capacity. And I figured sports media would be something I wanted to do,” Hiles said

After graduating college Hiles had a job lined up at a small radio station in Dover, Ohio. But after two weeks before graduating he found out that they could no longer give him the job due to budget cuts and constraints. Now without a plan, Hiles took a job at KDKA radio in Pittsburgh to be a producer on the AM side of the radio station. But taking that job, Hiles passed up on many higher education opportunities.

“I had an opportunity to go to college for free and get a master’s degree from two different schools. But I wanted to get into the field and start getting reps.”

Hiles was then hired by the Beaver County Times after working at KDKA radio. He did not start as a major writer in the Beaver County Times, but he truly started at the very bottom. He earned himself the nickname “The Barnacle” because he took on less engaging stories like youth power lifting and high school girls rugby.

“Covering those sports taught me that there’s a good story wherever you go. You just need to be able to find it, “Hiles said. “You need to be able to connect with the people that you’re covering. You need to be able to not think that you’re too good for it.”

It does not matter how important the people are that you are interviewing, and it does not always have to be a celebrity.

“You want to write about TJ (Watt), Sidney Crosby, these big names, but those aren’t the only people that have a cool story.”

One of Hiles’ favorite stories was interviewing high school girls distance runner, Maya Cochran. She was a blue chip recruit at Moon and was recruited by big time schools like Arkansas. She wasn’t a fan of interviews so Hiles came up with the idea to run with her while interviewing her. 

“Three days a week for a month, I’d go on a 5 mile run, and I would talk on the phone with my friends while I was running, so I could be prepared to have the endurance to ask questions,” he said. 

While interviewing Maya, he wore a wristband, one like what a quarterback would wear to know the plays, but with all the questions written in it. He then held a tripod while running with her to record the interview. Hiles shared the run was a struggle since her mile cool down time was 5 minutes and 30 seconds.

The story was one of Hiles’ favorite stories because of the lengths he went to do this story. 

“The reason I like that story isn’t just because of the workout element to it but I do think it says something about how many other people would be willing to go to that length to get a good story.”

After doing the grunt work, he came back to Pittsburgh during the spring of 2020 where he worked for an outlet called Pittsburgh Sports. He then left and was hired back by the Beaver County Times.

Over a two year span, he earned himself some pretty big awards for his writing, and in the process of doing this he got noticed by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette where he got hired to be the Pitt beat writer for football and basketball.

While covering Pitt, Hiles was able to gain inside sources throughout the programs. When he reported news or information, it wasn’t something that coaches would appreciate. 

“One coach hates my guts. One coach really likes me,” Hiles said.

In 2023 he learned that Quarterback Phil Jurkovec was being benched for Christian Veilleux and broke the story. Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi wasn’t thrilled.

He also did that with basketball when Dior Johnson, a Pitt freshman guard, was involved with a domestic dispute before the 2023 season. Head coach Jeff Capel wasn’t happy with him bringing more attention to the issue, but Hiles told him he was just doing what he gets paid to do.

“But then as time progressed, he saw that I was just doing my job. By the end of it, Jeff and I had a really good relationship because he knew he could trust me,” Hiles said.

Having good relationships are key in the sports media industry because it lets you get inside sources and have a better chance of getting noticed from others. 

An example of that was the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette seeing and liking the work he did at the University of Pittsburgh and hired him as the Pirates beat writer. 

The seed for one of his most popular stories working on the Pirates beat was planted this past summer where he and the team were in St. Louis. In the clubhouse, a player came up to him and vented about the his feelings about the organization.

An anonymous player told him, “Everyone thinks we’re underachieving. Look around here, this is what 90 million dollars gets you. We’re just not that good, you know.”

Hiles used this as a starting block for a piece that required months of interviews and he took on the challenge of writing that story that would be widely read and analyzed. He worked on it for months to make sure that every detail was accurate and formal. 

He then had to share his information with Pirates executives to see if they would comment.  

“I talked to Derek Shelton, Ben Cherington, and Bob Nutting’s right hand man, and I said, ‘Here is what I have. I’ll show you some of the stuff that’s in it. Do you have any comments?’”

None of them had any comment, but he wanted to make sure he had all his “ducks” in a row.

The final draft of the story contained only around 60 percent of what he learned. He left out some information to protect the players who shared the information and not to leave them out to dry. 

Hiles, who has been able to build great relationships with players, coaches, agents, has been able to build a good relationship with Pirates start Paul Skenes. It all started with when he went to Indianapolis to see Skenes get his first start on Easter weekend. 

A lot of the times when a player finishes a game, they are going to want to go through their routine before they sign autographs and enjoy the support from their fans. Paul was different, he immediately went to greet his fans and sign all the children’s merchandise.

While Skenes was signing autographs, many of the other reporters in the area left because it took him forever to get through everyone. Hiles had a different idea and decided to stick around until Skenes had finished signing autographs. 

“So after he signed autographs for forty five minutes, he looked at me and was like, ‘you got all the time you want,'” Hiles said. 

He was able to talk to Skenes for 30 minutes and has built his relationship with him ever since. 

After being the Pirates beat writer for the last two seasons he was recently promoted to Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Sports Enterprise reporter. 

With this new job, Hiles writes three to four stories a week on whatever topics he finds interesting and wants to write about compared to him having to write ten to fifteen things a week about the Pirates. 

His favorite part of this new job, besides being able to write about whatever he wants, is that he isn’t tied into one role or one specific team but he is just able to tell cool stories and that is what he always has wanted to do. 

“So that’s my job now. I’m 30 years old, so it’s been a wild, fast ride, but it’s not traditional,” Hiles said.