Practicing social distance gives you a chance to do more introspection than we usually do. And with the coronavirus pandemic impacting all of us, we’ve decided this would be a good time to share some interesting things about the people behind the scenes at Outsports.

Here’s Karleigh Webb:

Continuing our look behind the Outsports curtain and the Fickle Finger Of Fate is pointing in my direction.

So, sock-it-to-me! Here’s 13 “veddy interstink” things about me.

(A bonus thing: I’m a huge fan of “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh In”. I learned how to talk by watching reruns of this as a kid. My first words were “Here Comes The Judge.”)

I’ve taking a licking, but kept on ticking.

1. I’ve been in this crazy business for 26 years and I’m still as hungry as I was when I started.

After college, I started at TV station in the Midwest, spent four years moving from editor, to photographer to a being a reporter/anchor, then I moved to the network playground and did that for two decades. I got to see some big events and moments up close. I still keep my hands close to the broadcasting world as a videographer/editor who loves doing fun stuff with a camera, Final Cut or Avid, and a little imagination.

I’m proud to bring the full power of Karleigh to the Outsports team. Courage Is Contagious!

2. My best memories of my early career were covering Friday night high school football. Every sports reporter should do this at least once. I’ve been to some of the biggest events in sports, but nothing beats that electricity and color of some small stadium with a grassy hillside full of teen spirit underneath those Friday night lights.

Me next to a Lamborghini Gallardo V-10, and I got to drive it on a racetrack!

3. I love any sport that involves speed. I was in track and field all the way through high school, and growing up I was fascinated with CARS! From the Hot Wheels I collected as a kid, to some hot wheels I got a chance to drive. Oh by the way, my favorite major sporting event? The Indianapolis 500.

4. Playing off number 3, Favorite track athlete all-time: Evelyn Ashford. Favorite race drivers all-time: (4-way tie): Mario Andretti, Ayrton Senna, Michelle Mouton, Willy T. Ribbs.

Oh to be as fast as Evelyn Ashford on that anchor leg. Yeah, she’s my hero.
Michele Mouton (right) and co-driver Fabrizia Pons (left) broke barriers in the World Rally Championship in the 1980s and I admired them then and now.

5. In keeping with one of my influences in writing, the erstwhile participatory journalist George Plimpton, I’m a budding triathlete, marathoner, road cyclist. I’ll always be a farm belt-option runnin’-football-playin’ midwesterner.

Looking down the road or looking downfield. It doesn’t matter. I’m ready to play

Yet I’ve gotten immersed into beer-league softball. That was a learning curve, given that I played one year of little league as a kid and learning the last position I figured I would be suited for – catcher.

Doing my best Crash Davis impression

6. I was a founding member of the expansion New Haven Barracudas of the Southern New England Friendship Softball League in 2018. We went from winless in ’18 to a ‘19 season where we got our first of win as a franchise, our first postseason win as a franchise, and four of our players taking home individual awards. I got one of those awards! I was named the league’s most improved player. Oh, and in both years, I did my “Double Duty Weekend” at least once. That’s where I do a road race or multi-event race that morning, followed by playing in my team’s double header.

7. Hail to purple, hail to white. GO U NU! Proud Northwestern Wildcat here. I’m also a proud alum of WNUR-FM 89.3 It was the first place anyone heard my dulcet tones.

Chillin’ out next to The Rock at Northwestern University, #Wildcat #Medilldo

8. I agree with Ken Schultz. CHICAGO PIZZA: AMERICA’S BEST.

9. I believe that it’s not pizza until pineapple is on it. DEAL WITH IT, DAWN ENNIS!

Dawn Ennis is my favorite diva/managing editor. But we have to get her hip to pineapple on pizza.

10. I’m a videogamer from the jump. I’ve owned at least one console from every generation. I’ve built gaming rigs. My idea of heaven is a 1980s style video arcade with early 80s MTV fare in constant rotation. Favorite Arcade Games (my top 5 quarter-snatchers): Pole Position, Track and Field, Zoo Keeper, Q*bert, Tron

11. I’ve been a cast member on the University of Hartford production of “The Vagina Monologues” for three years. Shout out to Dramatis Personae, the drama club at UHart.

My revolution begins in this body! Vagina Monologues at University of Hartford

12. I’m an operator for Trans Lifeline. North America’s first and only peer support line that is staffed entirely by transgender people. For me, this is a labor of love, family, solidarity and FIGHTBACK!

Two champs and me, Terry Miller (left), Andraya Yearwood (middle).

Especially in a time where you have certain adults targeting trans youth — like two Connecticut trans student athletes Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood — just for being who they are and wanting to participate in “the human drama of athletic competition”.

13. A core philosophy of my life: “When an individual is protesting society’s refusal to acknowledge their dignity as a human being, their very act of protest confers dignity on them.” — Bayard Rustin

You can connect with Karleigh Webb on Twitter, and of course here at Outsports. You can also hear her with co-host Dawn Ennis on The Trans Sporter Room podcast every Wednesday on Apple and Google Podcasts, Spotify and everywhere you’ll find Outsports podcasts.

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