Meet Max Arnold

     I have known my place in this world since the day I was born. I was made to be a storyteller. Whether through telling make-believe stories to my mother and aunts when I was only a few years old or long winded tales of my school day to my brothers, I have always told stories. I used to keep notebooks as a kid. My mother would give me old scrap notebooks we had lying around to put my stories in. Regardless of whether this was just a clever attempt to keep her chatty seven-year-old quiet or not, I was hooked. I would write everything down I could, and I filled countless notebooks with tales of my recess football games or the high flying 2013 Denver Broncos offense. I was an addict. Not just to sports but to talking about them; telling their stories. When I was a little kid, and an adult would ask me that annoying question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I would always say I wanted to be like Chris Collinsworth or Al Michaels or the late great Fred McLeod.

     As I grew a little older I settled on “sports journalist” as the more proper title for my career plans. I read just about every great sports writer I could get my hands on, from Blackie Sherrod to Jim Murray to W.C. Heinz to Bill Simmons. I could not get enough. 

     During my freshman year, I took both the journalism classes my school offered to freshmen. It was in these classes where I met Joe Akers, the adviser at Noblesville High School. He introduced me to the school's broadcast and news writing staffs, both of which I would join over the next few years. Here I also found my passions for journalism fueled like never before. I had always had the passion for sports and for storytelling, but I had not found my passion for journalism until then.

     Over the next few years I was able to meet countless brilliant and insightful young journalists who helped me become the journalist I am today. Many of those I met felt like siblings to me, older brothers and sisters who took me in and taught me all they knew. I absorbed all I could from the older members on our staff. I was so blessed to have such a good group of smart hard workers I could rely on to help me grow.

     In the spring before my senior year, I was appointed as one of the editors of the broadcast staff and as the Sports Editor for our newspaper staff. In the summer preceding my senior year, I spent time at the High School Journalism Institute’s week-long camp on Indiana University's Bloomington campus. There I was able to meet like-minded young journalists who helped me expand my knowledge and shift my perspective heading into my senior year.

     Equipped with all I had learned from editors in previous years and those I had met in Bloomington, I came into my senior year more excited than ever. While there were, of course, ups and downs and growing pains early, our 2024-2025 journalism staff is the best I have ever been a part of. I am so lucky to be surrounded by a large group of intelligent and open-minded journalists. Our journalism program has always had a culture that demands greatness, and that trend continued this year while improving in many aspects. For the third consecutive year, our broadcast staff took home a Hoosier Star while our newspaper added our first Hoosier Star in two years.

     I have learned more from journalism than I ever expected too in just a few quick years. Journalism has taught me about leadership and how to work with those that look up to you and those who you've known for years, all at once. It showed my place in life and taught me what I was capable of. Journalism is so innately human. At our core we are all storytellers, and I can't wait to see how the rest of my story will play out.