Metro Sports STL is a for-profit, Limited Liability Company founded in February 2023 and owned and managed by Ben Vessa – a former sports reporter with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and freelance journalist with the Lafayette Journal and Courier (IN) and the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette (IN).
The purpose of Metro Sports STL is to provide coverage of local high school and college athletics, including under-the-radar sports like field hockey, wrestling and lacrosse. Stories range from celebrations of individual and team achievements to the exploration of thought-provoking issues.
All stories, photos and videos are produced by Ben Vessa, a former high school English teacher and Student Media Director at Knightdale High School and Cardinal Gibbons High School in Raleigh, NC. He is a former sports editor of his college newspaper who returned to the journalism field in 2016 after a 21-year career as an English teacher and high school baseball, basketball, softball, golf and tennis coach.
In 2025, Ben Vessa was awarded Top-10 national distinction in Division D for high school beat reporting by Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE), considered one the most prestigious sports journalism organizations in the United States. Division D is for websites with fewer than 250,000 monthly visitors.
For inquiries as to how to align your business with a nationally-recognized storytelling platform that celebrates local athletes and promotes community identity, please email: bvessa9@gmail.com.
More about the birth and growth of Metro Sports STL can be heard on the ‘Whales Certified’ podcast below:
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