Matias Saari
Sports writer
Call Matias at 907-459-7591.
Matias Saari, 37, grew up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan a quarter-mile from Lake Superior. After surviving a teenage year in Chengdu, China (his dad is a retired history professor) and spending many joyful childhood summers in Austria (his mom grew up on a dairy farm in the foothills of the Alps), he attended Michigan State University, where he “earned” a degree in journalism. Saari took his first newspaper job as a general assignment reporter for the Ketchikan Daily News in 1995 not because it was a dream to move to Alaska but because nobody else had offered him a job. Three and a half years later he moved to Fairbanks, thinking he wanted to pursue a creative writing master’s degree at UAF. Really he didn’t, so he tried a panoply of jobs — Census Bureau, herb farm, park ranger, library, used bookstore — before landing as a sportswriter at the News-Miner in April 2006. He lives near the top of Murphy Dome in a humble cabin he built (with much help) that still needs a lot of work. On his eighth attempt, he won the Equinox Marathon in 2007; Saari expects the book he’s begun about the history of the race to take at least as many years to finish.
Recent Stories
- Cyclists form team in hopes of taking Tour
- Thursday, June 12, 2008
- Reese Hanneman got tired of seeing local cyclists finish behind better organized riders from Anchorage in the multi-stage Tour of Fairbanks.
- Added athletes give Grace enough to win boys title
- Sunday, May 25, 2008
- Grace Christian more than doubled its participation at the Alaska State Track and Field Championships and used the extra manpower to win the first boys title in Class 1A-2A-3A.
- Hutch’s Wilson pulls a quad — in victories
- Hutch senior earns four golds
- Sunday, May 25, 2008
- Hutchison High School’s humble senior Kim Wilson used a little hometown advantage to help secure a rare individual quadruple.
- Small schools show up big at state
- Saturday, May 24, 2008
- They are teams of one — James Hollis representing tiny Anderson High School and Daisy Morgan from Tok.
- Eielson, Hutch take home first 3A titles in track regionals
- Sunday, May 18, 2008
- The Eielson boys and Hutchison girls cooked up different recipes on Saturday to secure the same result — the first team titles awarded in Class 3A at the Region VI Track and Field Championships.
- Delta’s Schiler hits high marks in jumping events
- Saturday, May 17, 2008
- Logan Schiler had never attempted the triple jump — he’d merely watched some Olympics footage of the event.
- Athletes finding fifth decade isn’t slowing them down
- Wednesday, April 9, 2008
- They are a remarkable group of athletes who turn 50 in 2008 and are working hard to defy conventional wisdom that says one slows down with age.
- Griffin takes reins over West Valley track program
- Sunday, April 6, 2008
- Milo Griffin is suddenly wearing West Valley red instead of Lathrop purple.
- Lillefjell captures his first national championship
- Monday, March 31, 2008
- Frode Lillefjell wanted to make his last race count before moving back to Norway after 13 years in Anchorage.
- Women's winner had fun on trails
- Monday, March 31, 2008
- Liz Stephen just wanted to have fun. Winning her second straight national championship distance ski race took care of itself.