But Natalie Taylor, a 2000 graduate of Van Wert High School, says that being a television sports reporter is a lot of hard work. And yes, it is a lot of fun, too.

The obvious question for Taylor was how someone from Van Wert can go on to have a successful career in television in a big city like Atlanta where she was working for Fox Sports South. The answer is not surprising for those who know about a great program at Van Wert High School.

"Van Wert is so fortunate to have the TV production class," said Taylor. "Teacher Kevin McGonagle was a huge influence in my career." She said she started in the production classes as a sophomore and it did not take long before she realized she wanted to see if it was possible to take it to the next level. "I never had any desire to do anything else. I just always wanted to be in television."

The next step was to go to Bowling Green State University because of its program in journalism with a specialization in broadcasting. The connection with PBS station WBGU was a natural progression but Taylor was also able to earn internships at television stations in Toledo and then with a Fox Sports Net affiliate in Pittsburgh. In between those two experiences, she was able to get her first on-camera work for the BGSU head football coach, Urban Meyer, as well as with basketball coach Dan Dakich and the coaches' shows on Fox Sports Ohio. Between working behind the scenes in production and having the start of a strong resume reel of on-camera clips, Taylor was able to take her first leap of faith when it came time to look for her first job after graduation.

The typical course of action for people who want to be in television is to work for local markets, like WLIO in Lima, after they graduate and then move to larger and larger markets until they find the size of area in which they are comfortable. Taylor decided to try an unconventional route. She packed her bags and clips and took off for Atlanta without a job lined up. While that might have looked like a gutsy call, she knew that with Turner Broadcasting, CNN and Fox Sports South, along with multiple production companies, the area was in constant need of people involved with television.

But all those positions did not mean it was easy for Taylor when she arrived because everyone has to pay their dues in the career field she had chosen. She secured a position with one of the production companies because of her background with the entire production process, starting back with McGonagle's class in Van Wert. She was a part of a two-person team in charge of producing programming for Fox Sports South on SEC sports. Taylor said she ran a camera, wrote scripts, designed graphics - whatever it took to create a show to be aired. They covered SEC gymnastics, track and field and even a little bit of NASCAR. It did not take long for her to become very versatile on her subject matter, a trait that would soon become even more important to her.

At the same time, she was picking up small freelance jobs with air time. She did sideline reporting for the SEC at swimming and diving meets and was a pit reporter at a track outside of Charlotte. She was paying her dues.

By then, some of the larger players were beginning to take notice. Turner Broadcasting took notice and hired her to do broadcasting work with NASCAR on their daily Internet show. At about the same time, Fox Sports came calling and a contract with them followed in 2006.

"It was a grassroots, let me use my behind-the-scenes knowledge and everything I was able to learn during my education to show them I could do the job in front of the camera," she said.

When asked about a typical day, Taylor laughed and explained the workdays can change so much depending upon many variables including the time of year and the weather. For the past two years, she has covered the Atlanta Thrashers hockey team of the NHL. During their season, she produced shows for television, radio and inside the arena on the big screen. She would wake up and go to the arena in the morning where she would talk to the players and coaches during practice. That gave her an opportunity to look for the storyline for that night's game. Is someone riding a hot streak? Is a player returning from or nursing an injury? After practice, Taylor would go into meetings with the play-by-play and analyst men in the booth, discussing those storylines so as the sideline reporter, she was able to ask and answer the right questions when they went to her during the show from the booth.

With those decisions made, Taylor then needed to line up quick interviews with players and coaches so that during the game she could introduce a 30-second clip that she cut and produced earlier in the day. Of course all of that could change during a game. And nothing was more adrenaline-producing - and frightening - than having a director in one ear saying they were cutting to her in 15 seconds and a team official was in her other ear saying her interview would not be there because he had a skate or pad problem.

She has also seen the studio side of television as well, working on football previews for the SEC.

But now Taylor's life is about to change and Van Wert residents are going to be able to catch up with her career on a regular basis. Just last week, she signed an offer to become the new Ohio State Buckeyes football reporter with the ABC and Fox affiliates in Columbus. She will be on the pre- and post-game shows, develop reports on players and coaches, and cover all other events tied to the football program.

Although her career has been tied to sports so far, this new position will allow her to also cover news events as well when it is not football season. She will get to do some work as the morning news anchor and other newscasts, including some entertainment news. Of course, there will always be the Columbus Blue Jackets with her background in the NHL.

Taylor considers herself blessed for what she has been able to do so far with her career. But she also had a piece of advice for anyone in Van Wert who wanted to follow her into television.

"Don't give up," she said. "There have been so many times that I could have thrown the towel in. Maybe some blog somewhere said something nasty about me or someone said something that wasn't very nice or someone thinks they know me. You have to deal with those things because you put yourself out there in a vulnerable position but you can't give up. If you can just stick with it - because there is a lot of bad - stay positive and you know you're doing what you're supposed to be doing, don't give up."