The veteran journalist shared his new byline and introduced his transition forward of receiving a serious sports activities journalist award.
M.A. Voepel got here out as transgender in a tweet on Tuesday, August 9. The veteran journalist, who previously glided by his beginning identify Mechelle, shared the information in a tweet thread, asserting that he could be utilizing he/him pronouns and that his byline could be altering to his initials. Moreover, he shared the brand new names that he could be responding to, together with Voepel, MV, Michael, and Mike. “In sports activities media, we’re fortunate to inform tales of others’ journeys. We now have our personal, too. A part of mine is being transgender, and I’m transitioning to male,” he tweeted. Discover out extra about M.A. Voepel right here!
I've the nice honor of receiving Gowdy Award subsequent month from Naismith Corridor of Fame, and needed to do this as genuine self, therefore this announcement now. Concern can preserve us paralyzed for many years, particularly after we assume we'll lose all that's pricey to us, together with profession …
— M.A. Voepel (@MAVoepel) August 9, 2022
1. Michael introduced his transition earlier than receiving the Gowdy Award
MV introduced his transition in gentle of the thrilling information that he’d be receiving the Curt Gowdy Award for print media as a part of the Naismith’s Basketball Corridor of Fame’s 2022 class. “I've the nice honor of receiving Gowdy Award subsequent month from Naismith Corridor of Fame, and needed to do this as genuine self,” he wrote.
I could look and sound somewhat completely different.😊Glad to be who I’ve at all times been inside. Dedication to masking girls’s sports activities, a lifelong pleasure in addition to job, and admiration for all concerned – gamers, coaches, execs, followers, referees, colleagues – that stays precisely the identical. Thanks!❤️
— M.A. Voepel (@MAVoepel) August 9, 2022
As he introduced his transition, Michael shared how essential it's to be true to your self, whereas thanking ESPN for being supportive of his resolution. “In some unspecified time in the future, you notice that you must have religion that your happiness/well-being is value pursuing, and in addition think about different individuals’s kindness and beauty,” he mentioned. “I could look and sound somewhat completely different. Glad to be who I’ve at all times been inside.”
2. He’s lined girls’s basketball at ESPN since 1996
MV has been a staple of ESPN’s digital journalism for many years. He began his profession with the web site within the mid-90s, and he was introduced on to cowl each the WNBA and ladies’s faculty basketball. He’s been devoted to masking the Girls’s Remaining 4 for over 20 years. As he introduced his transition, he swore that his love for the sport wouldn’t change. “Dedication to masking girls’s sports activities, a lifelong pleasure in addition to job, and admiration for all concerned – gamers, coaches, execs, followers, referees, colleagues – that stays precisely the identical,” he wrote.
3. He’s been writing in regards to the sport for nearly 40 years
Whereas he’s been at ESPN for 26 years, Mike’s profession as a sports activities author started over a decade earlier than, when he lined his first sport in 1984. His first job was writing in regards to the College of Missouri staff in 1984, when he was pupil there, earlier than graduating in 1987. In that point, MV has change into one of the crucial revered names in girls’s sports activities journalism. “Voepel is taken into account an authority on the ladies’s sport, each collegiate and professional,” the NBA wrote within the announcement that he’d be receiving the Gowdy award.
4. He’s appeared in a few documentaries
Whereas he’s primarily a author, Michael has been featured as a speaking head in a number of specials about girls’s sports activities. He appeared within the ESPN 30 For 30 in regards to the 1996 Girls’s USA basketball staff within the Olympics. He additionally appeared within the 2022 TV particular Large Killers in regards to the Girl Longhorns softball staff, per IMDb.
5. He’s a St. Louis Cardinals fan
Whereas he’s primarily lined girls’s sports activities, Mike is clearly an all-around fan of so many alternative groups. Regardless of being born in Los Angeles, it was shared that he grew up exterior of St. Louis, and that he’s an enormous Cardinals fan, in his announcement for the Gordy award. It additionally mentioned he was nonetheless beaming with pleasure over the staff’s 2011 World Collection title, over a decade later.