#MediaMonday – Lance Hartzler

Today’s #MediaMonday comes from Lance Hartzler, the sports editor at the Arizona Daily Sun. While he was at NAU, Lance interned with the Arizona Daily Sun where he began reporting on local sports. Since then, he has been hired on fulltime and has recently been promoted to sports editor.

Lance, time to share:

I just passed my third anniversary at the Arizona Daily Sun in Flagstaff. It’s strange to me that I’ve already been here for that long, but I guess that is just how time works.

I originally came to the Sun as an intern/stringer/free student labor for former sports editor Cody Bashore, who is now at NAU as a sports information director. This was my first experience covering high school sports for a daily newspaper. Once Cody left for the first time, a job opened and he recommended that the late Randy Wilson hire me as the new sports reporter.

Randy did, and for that I will be forever grateful. Randy passed away barely two months after he hired me. Since then I’ve learned and grown into a much better reporter than I was when I came in last spring, I was promoted to sports editor and am now a one-man sports staff, for the most part.

I love what I do and the town I cover. Being from Glendale, Ariz., I have always loved this state and the places in it. I graduated from Northwest Christian High School in 2014 and headed up north to NAU for college with hopes of being an athletic trainer all before learning my science skills weren’t even close to par.

Then came journalism. My roommate and close friend, Peter, suggested I switch my major my second year of college and that was easily the best decision I could have made. I quickly joined the student newspaper, The Lumberjack, met one of my closest mentors, Rory Faust, and climbed through the ranks from writer, assistant sports editor, sports editor and managing editor my final semester of college in spring of 2018.

While the Daily Sun is small, we are mighty. We do an often-thankless job, but it is an important one especially given the political climate and on-going pandemic.

People who only see me on Twitter or just read my bylines in print or online are often surprised that I am tall – not as tall as my boss, Chris Etling, but it’s still a shock for people to find that I am 6-foot-3. Sometimes my visible tattoos and youth (I just turned 25 in August) are a surprise as well.

I’ve lived in Flagstaff going on six years now and I really do love it. The outdoors, hiking and camping is my vibe and exactly what I wanted. I can take my two huskies just about anywhere from Buffalo Park to out deep in the Ponderosa Pine forest.

I also used to play sports, track and basketball, so I like to think I am sometimes athletic.

I welcome story pitches or coverage ideas on local sports in Flagstaff. You can reach my at my email lhartzler@azdailysun.com, or I am – maybe too active – on Twitter at @lance_hartz.