About Mike Deak

In nearly two decades serving as the Sports Editor for The Papers and Ink Free News, Mike Deak has been at the forefront of sports coverage for scholastic and local athletics.

Deak has a diversified portfolio of coverage opportunities, having worked over 30 unique sports on a regular basis in and around northern Indiana. Deak also has worked on site with NCAA and NAIA collegiate athletics, minor league baseball with both the South Bend Cubs and Fort Wayne TinCaps and with hundreds of Indiana high school athletic programs and its athletes.

Deak is a 2003 graduate of Purdue University, earning a degree in history and a minor in sociology. While on campus, Deak began writing sports features for The Exponent, including stories on the football and baseball programs.

Other areas of experience for Deak aside from sports coverage include photographing local and national rock bands including a wide range of scopes including Kiss, Foghat, Sevendust, Theory of a Deadman, Nonpoint, Aaron Lewis and several local and regional bands; serving as a photographer for Kosciusko and Marshall County Visitor’s Bureaus; and model photography. Deak also served six years as an assistant coach for the Wawasee High School softball program, helping the team to a 2010 sectional title.

Deak has been recognized for his work with The Papers and Ink Free News, earning over a dozen state awards for photography and writing from the Hoosier State Press Association and the Society of Professional Journalists, including four first-place honors from the HSPA.

Married in 2011 to his wife, Angie, the two live in Milford with their two daughters, Caraline, born in February 2014, and Camdyn, born in September 2016. In his free time, Deak enjoys playing golf and vintage base ball with the Elkhart County Railroaders Base Ball Club as well as furthering his passion for photography and music.