Brian McLaughlin loved sports. There was no question about that.
He’d spend days on the road, traveling from college to college, reporting on football. When he’d return home to Palm Harbor, Florida, he’d spend evenings at high school games where his deeper interest lay: prep sports coverage.
However, his focus on spotlighting high school athletics drew from a community-centered perspective. He was present, in touch with the people around him, and driven by telling their stories. He spent his final days doing exactly that.
McLaughlin died on Feb. 25. He was 50 years old.
Jamey Kirby and McLaughlin arrived at The Alligator during the fall of 1995. Both new writers, Kirby quickly recognized McLaughlin was different from everyone else on an Alligator sports staff that featured a variety of future major-market journalists.
The then-freshman McLaughlin, a Lakeland, Florida, native, traveled back to his hometown frequently to cover his local high school’s events. Kirby tagged along for many trips, watching as McLaughlin left behind the stardom of covering UF athletics to report small-town stories other journalists skimmed over.
“I think that is what was really special about Brian… He wasn’t forgetting the people to jump ahead in his career,” Kirby said. “Whoever he was interviewing, he saw the value in that person and telling their story. Rather than 'How important was this person, and how can I get to the next person?'”
McLaughlin carried that vision each step of his life. After spending a few semesters with The Alligator, he set out to cover high school athletics. That journey took him around Florida, spending time at the Tallahassee Democrat and the Daytona Beach News-Journal throughout the 2000s before settling in Palm Harbor.
His prep career, however, started at the Gainesville Sun where he covered Alachua County athletics while securing his undergraduate degree in journalism at UF, graduating class of 2001.
After a couple of years serving as the secondary prep sports reporter for the Sun, he expected to take on a leading role with his predecessor’s retirement. When the Sun selected a different reporter for his dream job — a role McLaughlin was qualified for — he stayed, working to acclimate the new hire to the Gainesville community.
That was the type of person McLaughlin was, a lesson Kirby witnessed first person.
“It’s not always about, ‘How far can I go in this career?’” Kirby said, when looking back on how McLaughlin impacted him. “Sometimes it's about, ‘What else can you do and who can you touch?’”
McLaughlin continued into journalism, adapting to the profession while taking on positions with Sporting News, BetMGM, Saturday Down South and PARADE between 2008 and 2021. In those roles, he primarily covered college recruiting, staying in touch with the high school athletics communities he dearly cherished.
He most recently served as a senior staff writer with HERO Sports, covering FCS and Group of Five college athletics.
While McLaughlin spent the past few years covering college athletics, he became known for his high school coverage in Palm Harbor. The community cherished him for his Pinellas County youth sports interest as he became known for his presence at Palm Harbor High School.
“It was a privilege to get to know him. Always enjoyed our conversations after the game,” Michael Mullaney, a PHHS athletics coach, wrote in a statement on X. “No high school in the state had the type of coverage that Palm Harbor High School Football had these past few years because of him.”
While McLaughlin weaved through a variety of jobs within the journalism profession, his interest always shifted back to his community. The people and local athletes of the places he resided took precedence in his life, and the stories he told presented that.
He never became too big for the people around him and spent his life doing what he strived to do since his first year of college. McLaughlin was a presence in the Florida high school reporting field and the Palm Harbor community that his friends, family and peers will remember.
“He never lost sight of the value of the people he was talking to,” Kirby said. “He thought that the best way to get a good story was to actually care about what you were covering.”
McLaughlin’s family has started a GoFundMe campaign to support his wife, Lori.
“The loss to the community is deep,” the GoFundMe read. “Above all, Brian was a family man. You could always catch him talking about his extended family, his three wonderful children, and the love of his life, Lori.”
His son, Tristan, shared an accompanying statement on X.
“This job was his life and he loved it. Thank you all for following his journey.”
Contact Noah White at nwhite@alligator.org. Follow him on X @noahwhite1782.
Noah is a Spring 2025 Assistant Sports Editor and Copy Desk Chief. He's a second-year journalism major who enjoys reading and shamefully rooting for Tennessee sports teams. He is also a Liberty League Women's Soccer expert.
