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Name: Kevin Conlon

Age: 26

Education: 2001 Bellwood-Antis graduate; 2005 University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg graduate

Occupation: Studio production researcher for ESPN's SportsCenter segment that airs afternoons from noon-3 p.m.

Previous job: Sports Information Director at UPG

Personal: Married to the former Lindsey?Barr of Altoona.The couple lives in Farmington,?Conn.

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Kevin Conlon is living a dream come true. The 26-year-old Bellwood native, who is a life-long sports fan and former high school and collegiate athlete, has been employed at the ESPN television network in Bristol, Conn. as a studio production researcher since August 2007.

Conlon currently works as a researcher for ESPN's new SportsCenter segment that airs each weekday from noon until 3 p.m., digging up interesting tidbits of information and writing related graphics for on-screen use that relate to SportsCenter's big stories of the day.

"It's great,'' said Conlon, who began working on SportsCenter when ESPN started airing the noon-3 p.m. segment last August. "I am responsible for getting all the historical, statistical information on the events that we're covering, and getting it to the anchors. I write all those full-screen graphics that come up on each show.''

Conlon's job is an interesting mix of writing and research.

"For example, if the [Boston] Red Sox had a game last night and [pitcher] Josh Beckett threw a one-hit complete game against the [New York] Yankees, I would try to compile a list of all the Red Sox pitchers who have done that in the team's history, and write out the list in paragraph form,'' Conlon said.

"If the anchors are doing a debate about who should be a league's [Most Valuable Player], I would provide all the necessary information for them to talk about in their debate,'' Conlon added.

Conlon is a 2001 graduate of Bellwood-Antis High School, where he played on the varsity basketball and baseball teams. He went on to major in communications and play basketball in college at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg, graduating in 2005 and becoming the school's sports information director for two years.

"My career objective was to work in sports,'' Conlon said. "I started out as a sports information director, and I also had thoughts of eventually becoming an athletic director at a school. But when this opportunity arose, it changed my career path. It's tough to turn down a company like ESPN.''

Conlon got his break with ESPN after attending a COSIDA convention for sports information directors from around the country that was held in the summer of 2007 in San Diego.

"There was an ESPN recruiter at the convention, and I turned my resume in, and had to go through four interview stages and a lot of sports knowledge testing to get hired at ESPN,'' Conlon said.

Conlon's supervisor and colleagues at ESPN have been impressed by what he has shown in his time with the network.

"Kevin made his presence felt early on in his ESPN tenure,'' said colleague Nick Loucks, a manager in production research at ESPN. "Besides his fun-loving personality that a lot of his co-workers seem to gravitate to, he was an absolute sponge in picking up the TV business.''

Conlon's supervisor, ESPN production research manager Steve Rutkowski, agreed that Conlon has made significant contributions.

"Kevin not only researched an NBA studio show just five months into his stint with us, but he took on a key company initiative of growing one of our new morning SportsCenters - specifically the noon-3 p.m. SportsCenter,'' Rutkowski said. "He has received rave reviews for his work on that show.

"Kevin's ideas, use of graphic templates, effective communication, and risk-taking are his strengths,'' Rutkowski added. "We really look forward to his future contributions within our department, and the potential impact he will have on our company.''

Prior to landing the SportsCenter gig that he now works from 6 a.m.-3 p.m daily, Conlon worked nights at ESPN as a researcher for the station's NBA Fastbreak segment.

"I'd watch all the NBA games as they were going on,'' he said. "I'd watch as many as seven games at once while they were happening.''

The daylight schedule he now works on the SportsCenter segment allows him to spend more time with his wife, Lindsey (Barr) Conlon, a former Altoona Area High School girls basketball player who is employed as a kindergarten teacher and ninth-grade girls basketball coach. The couple lives in Farmington, Conn., a 15-minute drive from Bristol.

"SportsCenter is pretty much the main show that you want to [work] on at ESPN,'' said Conlon, who does his research for the show by using the internet, media guides, the prestigious Elias Sports Bureau, and various ESPN resources. "It's their flagship show. If you can get on SportsCenter, it's a good career move.''

Loucks said that Conlon has thrived in the SportsCenter position.

"He's taken the bull known as these newer live SportsCenters early in the day totally by the horns,'' Loucks said.

Even working as he does behind the scenes at ESPN, Conlon has had the opportunity to meet many celebrity athletes.

He had lunch last Christmas with basketball Hall of Famer Earvin "Magic" Johnson, who dropped by the ESPN studio that day to do the network's NBA Countdown show.

"He was definitely a nice guy, and very appreciative of any research I did for him,'' Conlon said of Johnson. "A lot of people at ESPN were very excited to meet him, and he didn't mind shaking hands and talking with everybody who came through the offices that day.''

Conlon said that he may aspire to someday be involved in the production aspect of the business, but right now, he's tickled with his research job.

"It's definitely an exciting place to be,'' Conlon said of the ESPN campus in Connecticut. "It's great to work at and get paid for doing something that any sports fan like myself would also consider to be a hobby. This is a dream job.''