One of my best experiences as a reporter was covering a game that never happened. 

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For the 2020-2021 school year, I was one of four members of the hockey beat for the Michigan Daily. However, due to Covid-capacity restrictions at games and remote production for editing articles — the four of us had never spent time together in person. 

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When Michigan was placed in the Fargo, North Dakota region for the 2021 NCAA Hockey Tournament, we were thrilled to secure press passes, allowing all four of us to cover a game together in-person for the first time all season. Despite the daunting 14-hour road trip from Ann Arbor ahead of us, we were excited for the journey. But 13 hours in, we received word that a positive Covid test had forced Michigan to withdraw from the tournament. All of a sudden, we were in northwest Minnesota putting together a breaking news article on the side of the highway and it appeared that our experience covering the hockey team would end on an extremely unsatisfying note. 

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I thought about what I had been able to write about while being on a beat. Some of the most useful advice I received was to not just recap games but incorporate details that you could only pick up on if you were there. That advice was paramount covering hockey games during the pandemic. With no fans in the arena, I observed players cheering after a goal, chatter from their benches and the crunch of the open ice hits and used those elements of the game as ledes and to add to the play-by-play.

 

I also got the chance to write some intriguing features.

 

I wrote a feature about Ian Hume, the Michigan hockey team’s equipment manager. I realized that no one had ever profiled Hume even though he had been with the team for 30 years, worked for multiple head coaches, interacted with hundreds of players, and had fascinating insights on the game of hockey. 

 

I was pleasantly surprised when Hume agreed to meet for an in-person interview in his office at Yost Ice Arena. Media opportunities had occurred almost exclusively on Zoom due to Covid restrictions so being able to meet Hume face-to-face was a chance I couldn’t pass up — and ended up providing details for the article that I would not have incorporated if we interviewed virtually. When I met Hume, he took me up to his office which turned out to be an equipment room with a skate sharpening machine that was loudly whirring for our entire conversation.

 

Those little details from our in-person meeting ended up becoming central to the story. I thought Hume would be an intriguing person to profile because he had a very compelling background but was a relative unknown in the college hockey world. I trusted my instincts and found a good story that no one had done before and also took advantage of the in-person opportunity to enhance the story with details others might not have picked. I enjoy feature writing and this story pushed me to find other interesting people to profile. 

 

I loved the work, but due to the virtual nature of the paper over the past year, there was always a part of me that felt disconnected from the other people on the beat. 

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In the end, more than any game or story I got to work on, the time I spent with the hockey beat on the trip gave me memories that will last a lifetime. Whether it was calling other people on the section to help keep us awake as we drove through Wisconsin in the middle of the night or getting brunch in Chicago with money Daily alums had sent by Venmo after hearing about what we had been through, there will always be stories to tell.

 

I realized that what makes the Daily so special is not necessarily the events you can cover; it’s the community. Despite writing with this group for an entire year, no game could bond us like the 27 hours we spent in a Ford Explorer together — driving almost to North Dakota and back.