The National Sports Media Association (NSMA) has announced Joseph “Mojo” Hill from the Devils Lake Journal as the award winner for the North Dakota Sportswriter of the Year, recognizing him for his outstanding contributions to sports reporting in North Dakota.
“It was definitely a surprise,” Hill said. “I remember seeing the nominations last year, (thinking), ‘I wonder if I could ever get nominated,’ but I definitely didn’t expect to win just in my second year in North Dakota. But it was definitely gratifying to know that I’ve been able to reach outside the immediate area and I’ve gotten some recognition.”
Hill noted with a soft smile that with all his work as a sports reporter, this was one of his few experiences being the interviewee. “I’m not used to being on the other side of the desk,” he said.
Hill said that previous honoree Tom Miller of the Grand Forks Herald, who won the same award in 2019 and 2023, messaged him via X, formerly known as Twitter, to congratulate him on the honor. “He reached out to me last night and said, ‘You had my vote,’” Hill said. “He follows me on Twitter; he’s been following me for a while, so yeah, I think it’s cool to see that he’s noticed me.”
Hill’s recognition is especially noteworthy as it marks the first time since 2014 that a North Dakota paper besides the Grand Forks Herald or Fargo Forum has won this award and Hill noted that it was only the second time that the Devils Lake Journal has won this award, citing the late Mike Bellmore who won in 1986. “A lot of people have talked about, I’ve heard stories about (him), because he was the longtime Devils Lake Journal sports reporter,” Hill said. “Since then, they’ve had a kind of rotation … someone will come for a year or two, and they haven’t really had a longtime guy since Mike Bellmore.”
Coming to work for the Journal in North Dakota two years earlier was an adjustment for Hill. “I didn’t know anyone, and I’d never lived in a small town before,” he said. “And I came here right in the middle of winter, too.”
Hill added that he’s spent a lot of time, especially over the last year, reading the work of sports reporters writing for the Herald and the Forum. “I think that’s made me a better writer too, reading the guys who’ve been doing it for a while, and seeing how they go about things,” he said. “I think that’s helped me.”
Given his L.A. roots, Hill’s favorite baseball team is the Dodgers, with former pitcher Clayton Kershaw as his favorite player of all time. However, he also follows the Mets as his father grew up in New York City. “I kind of got a start in sports writing with a Mets blog that I’m still with,” he said, referring to the blog MetsmerizedOnline.com which he began writing for during his junior year of high school, and still works there part-time as an editor.
Regarding other sportswriters and sportscasters who have influenced his work, Hill cited the work of Will Sammon, Ken Rosenthal and Tim Britton of The New York Times’ sports magazine The Athletic. “Gary Cohen is probably my favorite,” Hill said. “He’s the Mets play-by-play guy, and Joe Davis (with the Dodgers).”
Growing up in Los Angeles, Calif., and a graduate of Notre Dame High School, Hill then earned his bachelor degree in journalism at the University of Oregon, where he served as sports editor and writer for the college newspaper, the Daily Emerald. There, Hill had multiple sports beats with an emphasis on baseball, covering every single Oregon baseball game in 2023, ultimately leading him to report on the Pac-12 tournament in Scottsdale, Ariz. The Oregon Ducks, one of the top 25 teams in the country, won the championship with Hill covering their every move from the press box in Scottsdale Stadium.
In the summer of 2023, Mojo interned as the beat reporter for the Bourne Braves in the Cape Cod Baseball League, the country’s premier collegiate summer league, spending two months with some of the best baseball players and young journalists in the United States, as the team won its second consecutive championship.
In 2020, Hill found himself becoming an avid movie buff, with two of his favorites being “Requiem for a Dream” and “The Place Beyond the Pines.” Among his favorite sports movies are “Moneyball” with Brad Pitt, “The Way Back” with Ben Affleck, and “Bull Durham” with Kevin Costner, which is also one of his father’s favorite movies.
“I kind of got into movies in college when I was in Oregon because my freshman year was the COVID year,” he said. “And so I was moved into a triple dorm all by myself, and in-person classes were canceled, and the baseball season was canceled. So, suddenly I had all this free time I wasn’t expecting, so I kind of randomly just started getting into movies … that’s become a hobby of mine.”
After his internship with the Braves, Hill took on a passion project based on his newfound love of movies and drove 13,000 miles around the country as a relatively inexperienced driver, tracking down obscure movie locations from all around the U.S., going from Oregon, through Utah and Colorado, up into Michigan, over to New York, down to Florida, across to Los Angeles and back up to Oregon. “I had only just gotten my first car a month ago,” he said. “I was still kind of learning how to drive … but I just dove into the fire. … Over the last two years in North Dakota has required a lot of driving, especially in the summer. I’m constantly driving to Fargo or Grand Forks or other towns or Bismarck for tournaments.”
One-time captain of his high school tennis team, Hill still finds time to play the sport when he can, in addition to reading and writing fiction in his spare time.
Perhaps the one detail that Devils Lake Journal readers most want to know, how did Hill get his nickname? It’s derived from his family name, passed down from father to son in previous generations. “Joseph Earl Hill V is my full name, and my dad’s the fourth,” he said. “And I guess my parents were just like, ‘Oh it’s one more Joe,’ … it just kind of got shortened to ‘Mojo.’ … and it just kind of stuck.”
The NSMA will honor its award winners and Hall of Fame inductees during the organization’s 66th awards weekend and national convention, to be held June 28–29, 2026, at Grandover Resort & Spa in Greensboro, N.C.
