HANNAH’S UP!
Latrobe native gets into swing of Pirates reporting
There was a time not too long ago when Hannah Mears was doing on-air and/or behind-the-scenes production work for the Steelers, Pirates, Penguins, KDKA-TV, Big Ten Network, Westmoreland Sports Network, and sports-betting site Picks and Parlays.
How did she manage all those simultaneous gigs?
“Not a lot of sleep, that’s for sure!” the Latrobe native and Penn State University alumna declared.
After spending nearly four years as a local sports media mainstay, Mears finally found a full-time home in her recently announced role as SportsNet Pittsburgh’s new Pirates on-field reporter. The Post-Gazette caught up with Mears to discuss her exciting new job two weeks after she left Pittsburgh for her first Pirates spring training in Bradenton, Fla.
“I’m getting to learn the team on such a deeper level, and getting to know [the players] on a personal level is really nice,” she said. “Being immersed in it all feels really good and is really special.”
Mears has been trying her darnedest to cement a more permanent spot in Pittsburgh’s sports media ecosystem since her 2020 Penn State graduation. Her fiancé, Luke Pletcher, is a fellow Latrobe native and assistant coach on the University of Pittsburgh’s wrestling team who also hopes to settle in Western Pennsylvania.
Knowing she “would have to grind even harder” to both gain a foothold and remain in the Steel City, Mears dove headfirst into her work as a Big Ten Network and Westmoreland Sports Network sideline reporter, KDKA producer and analyst, Picks and Parlays producer and host, Penguins video production assistant, Pirates social media host, and Steelers freelance host and producer.
“This past year was hard on a personal and professional level at times,” she said, “but living in Pittsburgh and getting to hug my family and have their support when I needed it kept me going.”
Though Mears knew continuing at that pace would be unsustainable, she took solace in how all those positions “taught me something and kept my skills up.” The Pirates are her main focus now, though she’ll still appear on a few Big Ten Network broadcasts in the near future and will also pop up occasionally on SportsNet Pittsburgh’s Penguins studio shows.
Becoming a Pirates sideline reporter marked the end of her two-plus years at KDKA. During that time, she served as a Channel 2 sports producer, “Nightly Sports Call” guest analyst, KDKA+ high school football sideline reporter and TikTok spirit guide for KDKA sports director Bob Pompeani.
“Those people at KDKA really changed my life,” she said. “Working with a guy like Bob Pompeani who you grew up watching and has done it at such a high level for so long ... I’m going to miss them a lot. They were my family.”
Joining SportsNet Pittsburgh in a full-time capacity will allow Mears and Pletcher to continue living near both their actual and adopted families. Her
father, Mark Mears, owns Mears Cards and More in Latrobe and is ecstatic that his daughter earned the opportunity to work even closer with their beloved Pirates.
She got to know many folks in the Pirates’ organization over the last year while producing content for the club’s social media accounts. Mears said she developed a “fun bond” with pitcher and Iowa native Mitch Keller thanks to their shared Big Ten fandoms. It was a full-circle moment for Mears when her first SportsNet Pittsburgh broadcast was centered around the five-year, $77 million extension Keller received last month.
Since first arriving in Bradenton on Feb. 20, Mears has enjoyed watching shortstop Oneil Cruz crush baseballs during batting practice, catcher Henry Davis make noticeable strides thanks to “the discipline of the way he goes about his day,” and prospects like second baseman Termarr Johnson “who’s having so much fun” during spring training.
“Everyone looks really good!” she said. “In the words of every single one of these guys here — especially [pitcher] Ryan Borucki — ‘I think we’re going to surprise some people this year.’”
What shouldn’t surprise Pittsburgh sports fans at this point is the amount of thoughtfulness and care with which Mears approaches every professional endeavor. She suspects SportsNet Pittsburgh viewers will quickly clock her commitment to being “authentically who I am at all times” as she does her best to help fans get “a good sense of who this team is on a personal level.”
Most importantly, the Pirates faithful can rest assured that this team has her full and undivided attention. It still sometimes “doesn’t feel real” whenever Mears remembers that she no longer has to juggle various jobs across multiple sports.
“It’s an absolute dream come true,” she said. “I worked so hard to be here, and I feel like now that I’m actually here, it’s hard to realize, ‘Wow, this is actually my job!’”