Jeff Gilbert is a Clark County native who began his journalism career answering the phone on the Springfield New-Suns sports desk as a college senior. After college, he began a nine-year run at the Northern Virginia Daily and earned several state-wide writing awards while covering high schools, a summer wooden-bat college baseball league and small-college sports. His next stop was at The Roanoke (Va.) Times as assistant sports editor and sports editor. In 2009, he moved back to Ohio to start the journalism program at his alma mater, Cedarville University, where he still teaches. He has worked as a freelance journalist for a variety of outlets, mostly covering high schools and the Dayton Dragons for the News-Sun and Dayton Daily News, and has won several Ohio Prep Sportstwriters Association awards. In 2022, he won the freelancer best in show award given by the Society of Professional Journalists’ Best of Ohio contest. He covers Ohio State football and high schools for Press Pros