PITTSBURGH — Today is National Girls and Women in Sports Day, and WPXI has two of the best.
Jenna Harner started at WPXI in 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic sent everyone home. She met people and made contacts online. When everyone started to meet in person again, she already gained the respect of her colleagues and the teams around the city.
Shelby Cassesse joined the team in 2024. Her passion is sports storytelling, and she loves to take viewers behind the curtain and show sides of athletes you don’t usually see.
Viewers will see both Harner and Cassesse a lot with WPXI’s upcoming 2026 Milan Olympics and Super Bowl LX coverage.
Harner has won a Murrow Award for her story on Pitt Basketball assistant coach Milan Brown, who recovered from a sudden cardiac arrest.
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Cassesse took home an Emmy for her story on Olympic gold medalist Michael Grady, and the ceremony he attended in Paris to honor his late great-uncle, a WWII veteran whose plane crashed in that region.
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The National Girls and Women in Sports day started in 1987 when President Ronald Reagan signed a proclamation. It aims to acknowledge the accomplishments of female athletes and to embrace the influence sports and participating in sports have on girls and women.
The day also honors the push for equality in women’s sports.
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