'A kind soul': Calli Newberry, passionate local sports reporter, dies at 24
When Calli Newberry was 16 years old, she knew that she wanted to be a sports journalist.
But what she couldn't have known back then were the stories she'd tell, the places she'd go or all the people whose lives she'd touch.
Newberry, a passionate local sports reporter and Croswell native, died Tuesday as a result of injuries suffered in a car crash Monday. She was 24.
"She was full of life, full of passion and full of positivity," Croswell-Lexington boys basketball coach Lance Campbell said. "There's not many people like that anymore in the world. I'm 46 years old and she was half my age, but I looked up to her because she was always joyful. She was something special."
"Calli was just genuine," Almont girls basketball and softball coach Erik Johnson said. "She was in tune to every sport that she covered — and the kids that she covered. You could tell she was passionate about it and it came through in her personality and the way that she wrote."
"She was the nicest person you could ever meet," said Mike Gallagher, the sports editor at the Sanilac County News. "Any time we were covering the same game, it was so nice being able to catch up with her. Sometimes, (our conversations) weren't even about sports. She asked how everything was going in your life. Calli was just a kind soul."
Newberry was born on Oct. 31, 1998, in St. Clair to Jodi and Steve Townsend. The oldest of three children, she graduated from Croswell-Lexington High School in 2017 and was part of the track, cross country and girls basketball teams.
"It's tough to put into words how much she meant to me," said Jake Townsend, Newberry's younger brother. "She was not just my sister, she was a friend to me. I could talk to her about anything and she was always so supportive of me. She meant everything to me."
"I didn't coach Calli, but I'd seen her play a lot of basketball," Campbell said. "She was a girl that I think every girl at Cros-Lex wanted to be. And she was symbolic of what I wanted our team to be — somebody that played with great passion and sportsmanship."
Newberry continued her track career at Hillsdale College, where she received her degree in sports management and journalism in 2021. From October 2020 to July 2022, she was a sportswriter for Blue Water Healthy Living, an online magazine based in Port Huron.
"You could tell that she was very much in tune to the community," Johnson said. "And with the student-athletes, especially, which I think she took from her experience as a student-athlete herself. The kids loved her. They looked forward to talking to her."
On Aug. 1, 2022, Newberry launched her own website, The Sports Report. Its mission was "to provide personal, in-depth, and timely coverage of local sports in the Blue Water Area through daily score updates, written stories, and weekly podcast episodes."
As the site's lone reporter, she handled everything from writing stories and taking photographs to compiling final scores and updating conference standings. But one of The Sports Report's more popular features were those annual podcasts, which Newberry published every Wednesday.
"Listening to her podcasts, she never put people in an uncomfortable position," Campbell said. "A lot of them were with college and high school athletes. She didn't put a lot of pressure on them. When you were done listening to it, you were informed and had a better perception of who that athlete was."
"Her back-and-forth (with the athletes) was kind-hearted," Johnson said. "The kids knew it and they felt at ease as well. If you hadn't met her before, it didn't take much to connect. People are drawn to that."
And Newberry was drawn to people, whether it was the subjects she covered or the fellow journalists she encountered in the field.
"In this industry, it can be very competitive sometimes," Gallagher said. "But Calli was just always about promoting these kids."
She never hesitated to help a colleague in need, even if they were competing for the same audience. One example of Newberry's generosity occurred last spring.
Two baseball teams in Gallagher's coverage area were playing district tournaments in separate locations. Being the only sports reporter at the County News, he had to choose between the two.
The team Gallagher decided to cover ultimately lost, while the other won a district championship. Newberry was on site for the latter.
"Before I could even reach out to Calli, she reached out to me offering photos, statistics, box scores and quotes," Gallagher said. "Because that's the type of person she was. It was all about promoting these kids, making sure they had the (spotlight) they deserved and the opportunity to have their voices heard."
That's why she spearheaded the creation of the Blue Water Sports Media Association (BWSMA), seeing it as a way to further recognize high school athletes. The BWSMA consists of three local outlets (The Sports Report, Get Stuck On Sports and the Times Herald) that determine seasonal awards for football, basketball, baseball and softball.
"For me, (I'll never forget) her love and care for everybody," Jake Townsend said. "I just want people to remember that she was a sweet, caring girl."
Newberry is survived by her husband, Chance; daughter Ellie; parents Jodi and Steve; and brothers Curtis and Jake.
Funeral services are scheduled for 11 a.m. on June 12 at Colonial Woods Missionary Church in Port Huron. A GoFundMe page has also been setup for Newberry's family.
"She definitely touched a ton of people in a positive way," Johnson said. "Our student-athletes especially. It's hard to put into words. You can't say enough about someone like her."
Contact Brenden Welper at bwelper@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @BrendenWelper.
This article originally appeared on Port Huron Times Herald: Calli Newberry, passionate local sports reporter, dies at 24
