Sportscaster returning to dream job with home team

Jen Lada

Jen Lada, who’s been a sports anchor and reporter at WITI-TV in Milwaukee since 2006, is coming back home and moving up to Comcast SportsNet Chicago.

“For my parents to have the opportunity to see me on a nightly basis would be a dream come true,” Lada once said in an interview when asked about working in Chicago. “I grew up following the Cubs and the Bulls.”

Starting Wednesday, Lada, 32, will join Comcast SportsNet’s anchor/reporting team, contributing to its on-air and online sports coverage. As a free-lancer, she steps into the role previously held by Nicole Darin, who left last November to join Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic, based in Bethesda, Maryland.

The oldest of four children, Lada grew up in far west suburban McHenry and was a star athlete in cross-country and track at Marian Central Catholic High School, where her father was a coach. A 2002 graduate of Marquette University, she worked for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s PrepsPlus sports show before joining WREX-TV in Rockford as weekend sports anchor and feature sports reporter. Unhappy with her promotion to news anchor there, Lada jumped at the offer to return to sports at WITI.

“I feel so lucky to have been a member of the Fox 6 Sports team for the last seven years!” she told fans on Facebook. “I've worked with terrific people, told some cool stories and covered a lot of awesome events!”

Still competing in marathons and triathlons, Lada made local headlines in 2011 when she broke her clavicle in a bicycle crash and was sidelined for weeks.

“I honestly thought my insides had been squished,” she told the Journal Sentinel at the time. “It was the most serious thing I’ve ever experienced and easily the most painful. It really shook me, and these nightmares I’m having make it difficult to think about getting back on the bike.”