On her second day in the office and still unfamiliar with the layout that makes up ESPN’s compound in Connecticut, Hannah Storm took time to chat with me on the phone about being the anchor for ESPN’s new morning version of SportsCenter, being a mom in a competitive sports world, and of course, blogging.

Being a Sportscenter junkie myself, I was ecstatic to hear that ESPN was finally giving us new sports coverage in the morning instead of rerunning last night’s edition. I was amazed though to find out that ESPN had been running no new programming until around 3 pm in the afternoon each day. In the time of instant news, I found it shocking and that is precisely the reasoning behind launching morning and early afternoon editions. BUT…when I found out that Hannah Storm was going to anchor one of the new SportsCenters I couldn’t contain myself!

The morning version of SportsCenter will launch on August 11, 2008 and run from 6 am EST to 3 pm EST. Hannah Storm with anchor with Josh Elliot during the 9-12 EST window. Which means that if I want to watch Storm, her stage name which she chose during her radio days, live I will need to rejoin my gym and hit the elliptical! The expansion of SportsCenter will allow ESPN to cover breaking news as it breaks. Storm is excited about having more time to do in-depth interviews and reports on the issues facing sports. As witnessed by the recent midnight firing of the former- manager of the New York Mets, ESPN knows that sports news won’t wait, especially on days when the sports section of the paper looks more like the crime report. The expansions, while shown in the morning, will not deviate with the popular and successful mold that sports fans know as SportsCenter.

SportsCenter will also be getting its own website and yes, BLOGS! Storm said that she does plan on blogging on all things sports once the site launches as each anchor will have their own page. Fans will also be able to log in and see highlight videos from the show. ESPN also plans to include podcasts, webchats, and photo galleries to the new site. No word on whether us ESPN junkies will get to post our own blogs on a community site, but we will get to comment.

Storm also wrote a book, “Go Girl!” a few years ago for parents whose daughters play sports. I asked her to comment about Tiger Woods’ recent win at the US Open despite having a torn ACL. She spoke about teaching our daughters and sons the difference between playing with pain and playing when it is not healthy. “We have to listen to our bodies. And as girls and women, we have to especially listen to our knees. I just injured my knees while weight-lifting.” Storm, whose own daughters are active in different sports, talked about parents needing to dial it back. “We have to be parents first. We must be very firm with coaches on when our children can play. We also have to ensure that coaches are trained. This also means we need to learn to be on the lookout for our kids without hovering.”

Hannah Storm learned a lot about sports from her dad, Mike Storen, who was a sports executive. While Storm does work in a world larger than sports, I wanted to know how she handled breaking into a career where many already knew her as “Mike’s daughter.” First, her career and her dad’s didn’t overlap so there wasn’t a need to comment on her dad’s dealings. But Storm did find that it was nice to be able to walk into stadiums and arenas knowing the people in them from a different perspective. And yes, she did run into people who would talk about knowing her since she was a kid.

A working mom of three, Hannah Storm is one of the premier interviewers on television and will now bring that skill to ESPN each weekday morning. I’m looking forward to seeing her interview today’s biggest names in sports. I also am looking forward to her showing the world, yet again, that working moms bring it.