Beyond the Byline: Diverse career, one employer for Senior Writer Kevin Schmit
It doesn't take long for Senior Writer Kevin Schmit to list the jobs he's held as an adult.
The list begins and ends with the Daily Herald.
A 1987 graduate of Buffalo Grove High School and a 1991 graduate of the University of Missouri Journalism School, Kevin became a freelance writer for the Daily Herald in the summer of 1990. After freelancing for the DuPage County sports department between 1991 and 1997, he was hired as a full-time prep sports writer in the fall of 1997 when the Daily Herald expanded into the Tri-Cities of Batavia, Geneva and St. Charles.
In August 2020, Kevin transferred to the news department to begin a new chapter in his career as a municipal writer covering the Tri-Cities and northern Kane County. A year later, he shifted to Naperville, which is where he works today.
Through the years, Kevin has covered everything from the 1994 World Cup soccer tournament to the NASCAR races in Joliet. A child of the 1970s, he's interviewed and written stories on Kevin Cronin of REO Speedwagon, Tom Johnston of the Doobie Brothers and Marie Osmond.
He's won numerous awards from Illinois coaches associations and in 2021 was elected to the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
More than anything, though, he cherishes the Editorial Excellence Award he received from the Daily Herald in 2018.
If Kevin looks familiar, it might be because you saw him during television appearances on CLTV's SportsFeed or the IHSA football pairings show on NBC Sports Chicago. He's also been a guest on numerous radio shows, including John Howell's broadcast on WLS-AM.