John Walk lives in Lancaster, PA., where he was born and raised. In childhood, he often tagged along with his father to sporting events at J.P. McCaskey High School, his dad’s alma mater. John’s elementary school years included sixth grade teacher Bill Southward – head coach of the 2003 undefeated state championship Lancaster Catholic boys basketball team.
John graduated from Penn Manor High School in 2006. While he tried and failed at just about every sport along the way, John grew up with a love for writing, and combined his passions into a dream to someday become a sportswriter, preferably covering the Lancaster-Lebanon League. After graduating from Penn State University in 2010, John spent the first five years of his sportswriting career in York County. His childhood dream of working for his hometown newspaper became reality when he joined LNP | LancasterOnline on Feb. 23, 2015. He covered L-L League sports for the next 10 years, during which he not only won numerous awards, but served as a boys lacrosse referee for two seasons in hopes to shine a light on the need for sports officials.
In that 10-year span John also created and led the 100-episode Inspirational Athletes podcast, which has since morphed into the Inspirational Athlete Award given out annually at the Lancaster County Sports Hall of Fame banquet since 2019. The genesis of those efforts stems from John beating lymphoma cancer in 2015 at age 27, which later led him to raise more than $10,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society during a 10-week fundraising campaign in 2023, with a lot of those funds coming from folks with ties to the Lancaster sports community.
A father of three now working as a communications specialist for Lancaster General Health, John has been a member of the Board of Directors of Lancaster County Sports Hall of Fame since 2025.