The first time Catherine Garrett considered a career as a sports journalist, it wasn’t for print. While she studied at Brigham Young University her sights were set on doing TV. Luckily for the many readers of her hundreds of sports stories in the Valley Journals and City Journals for more than 20 years, a fortuitous conversation with a fellow writer sent Catherine our way.

But now, she’s ready for the next chapter of her life. When the high school sports season wrapped at the end of May, Catherine announced she was retiring from the Journals.

“I played volleyball, basketball, softball and golf growing up,” she said. “When my own ‘playing career’ ran its course, I doubled down on wanting to talk all about everyone else’s journey in sports. But I never thought I’d just write about them.”

Her goal was to do TV. Before she left on an LDS mission, Catherine began working for a small TV station in Provo that was broadcast on cable—covering BYU men’s and women’s volleyball and women’s basketball. She did color commentary for those three sports and loved it. When she returned home from her mission, the station owner had passed away and the channel fizzled. 

“My little girl brain had always dreamed of being on TV,” she said. “I looked up to women like Sharlene Wells and Hannah Storm, and I got to do it for a while thinking I was shooting for ESPN. Then I came to terms and realized I had to be satisfied with having reached part of my goal at least locally. I still have some of my tapes, though they’re on VHS of course.”

Back at BYU, she was hired by the school’s athletic department to help write for several programs. She also met her husband Mike, a successful Salt Lake City attorney, while in Provo. They were married in 1997. They moved to the Salt Lake valley and that’s where Catherine met a neighbor of hers who wrote for the Journals and told her the papers were looking for sportswriters. She had always loved both writing and sports, so she applied and was hired. She’s been part of our team ever since.

“There’s definitely a difference between sports broadcasting and sports writing,” she said, “but also a lot of similarities. I was raised around a sports family – my dad was a golfer and my mother was a nanny for (PGA Hall of Fame golfer) Billy Casper. He introduced my parents to each other, and we grew up around the Caspers when we were young.”

She never took to the sport of golf, but she loved chatting with, and eventually interviewing, a number of athletes. Her focus over the past two decades has been high school sports, covering many state championship teams and great prep athletes. She’s also done stories on several collegiate and professional athletes. Her writing has earned numerous awards from the Utah Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, and scores of athletes and their coaches have lauded her work. Catherine has established long-time relationships with many schools and their athletic programs. 

Part of those years included watching her three children who are all athletes “and tall,” she said with a smile. Daughter Madison, who is 6-2, played college volleyball. Son Branson, 6-3, played basketball, baseball and ran cross country in high school. Son Austin, who is 6-7, also played basketball and ran cross country in high school. He is back from an LDS mission to Mexico and will attend BYU this fall, but not as an athlete.

“I still pay close attention to all BYU sports since no longer working there; in fact, when I met my future son-in-law who played basketball for BYU, I knew his stats better than he did,” she said.

So the sports journalist part of her life may be closing, but not her love for the games.

“I can't see that my passion for sports will ever die down, but as I won't be covering it anymore, it will certainly go down on my list of priorities,” she said, “at least until her granddaughter starts playing! With very tall parents at 6-2 and 6-11, she doesn't have a shot to be short. So it will be fun to see if volleyball or basketball win out or if she chooses something different.”

You’ll be missed greatly, Catherine, by all the sports programs and teams you’ve covered. We’re so glad you were a teammate of ours.