About PortlandSupporter.com

My name is Matt Bagley. I am thirty-four years old, and I have had the privilege of working in sports media across Oregon for most of my adult life.

I am also developmentally & physically disabled - born severely premature with four strokes at birth - and openly queer.

I became a women’s sports fan because of my friends growing up, as Karissa, McKenna, Nita, and others taught me about the toughness and dedication demanded of female athletes. That fandom surged after I began attending Portland Thorns matches in the Spring of 2023 - finding a progressive, queer community full of love for the incredible women who represent our city - and now I am a diehard.

This site is an outlet for my fandom, and an opportunity to hone my skills as a professional sportswriter. After nine years in radio, I took a career break. Two years later, I started a podcast for Oregon State Beavers onSI, and later that Fall fate pushed me into writing: on the day of that year’s Civil War football game, all of our writers were unavailable, and I was asked to write our site’s official game recap. It was the first time I’d ever written about a game, instead of performing live play-by-play or spewing takes on a talk show, and I was instantly hooked.

Since that fateful day, I’ve written extensively about Oregon State, the new Pac-12 Conference, and more. This site is an outlet to further my passion, and expand my portfolio in the pursuit of a career in sports journalism.