Sports reporter, Orlando Sentinel

I’m pleased to announce that we’ve hired Austin Lyon as our new high schools/local sports reporter in Orlando. He replaces Kyle Hightower, who departed earlier this year for a position with The Associated Press.



Lyon comes to us after spending the 2010-11 academic year as an television instructor at Boone High School, but he’s no stranger to the Orlando staff. He began his journalism career as a freelancer for the Sentinel while a student at Orlando’s Bishop Moore High School. For two years he was the lead reporter for Orlando Sentinel Varsity Sports, our Emmy-nominated weekly high school sports television show that aired on WFTV. His responsibilities also included producing content for sentinelvarsity.com and the award-winning Varsity Gridiron website. Lyon served as a production assistant for NBC during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and has experience as a radio and television commentator. He was the play-by-play announcer for Friday Night Football, broadcasting more than 70 Central Florida high school football games on local radio stations. In addition, Lyon has experience broadcasting for entities such as Sunshine Network, the FHSAA Radio Network, and the Orlando Miracle WNBA team. He is a 2008 graduate of the University of Central Florida.