I’m not even really sure where to begin. But here goes nothing.
I’ve always been a quiet, shy, awkward person, but anyone that knows me knows that I love hockey. Watching hockey (go Devils), playing hockey, and hoping to one day make a career out of writing about hockey.
Two and a half years ago my professor said I should go and give commentary a try. So I went, sat alone at the rink, and called the game into my phone just to practice. I stuttered (still do), couldn’t remember names, and was overall terrible at it. But it didn’t matter because I had an absolute blast. So I did it again, this time live on YouTube. And again it wasn’t great but I couldn’t get enough. The season ended and I was ready for the next one to begin so I could be back at the rink.
The next season came around and I was ready to go, the only problem was I had to learn how to set all the equipment up on my own. The executive producer of Sko Buffs Sports at the time, Aidan Young-Sgoutas, helped me figure it out the first few times, but there was one morning where I was all on my own. It was a women’s game against Utah at 10 in the morning. It was just me. I was running the camera, announcing, making sure the stream was working… Long story short, it was a disaster.
That’s where Aidan Glockner and Alex Roberts come in. I needed help. I needed other announcers and I needed people who knew how to make the quality of the live streams better. Aidan was the first one I got to help, a freshman who loved hockey and was willing to give color commentary a try. And while the commentary was awesome, the best part about Aidan was that he wanted to make the stream look perfect. He made a scoreboard, graphics, and all of these things that took the stream we started with to a whole new level. Then there was Alex. I hated doing play-by-play, but it is his dream job. So, I found myself an announcer and I was able to do color commentary. From the start, I could tell Alex was great at calling games, but he also needed to learn more about the game of hockey and I was happy to help with that. And now after two years, I wouldn’t hesitate to call him the “voice of Colorado Buffaloes hockey.” So thank you to both of you who helped me grow this to something bigger than I could have imagined and being part of the journey for the last two years.
I also want to thank everyone who watched and supported our streams. At first, I just thought about how much I enjoyed doing the streams, but then I would have parents or friends of the players walk up to me and tell me that they appreciate what we are doing and I realized how much this truly meant to others. Being able to watch their kids play and even when there were five games in a weekend, we would be at the rink because we knew that we were the only way that people could watch the games. And every time someone would tell us how much they appreciated us I couldn’t help but light up and smile.
Lastly, I need to thank the teams themselves. Thank you for allowing me to be part of something that is so awesome. From the post-game interviews to coming on the podcasts, and letting photographers hang around to get great shots. But most importantly, taking time out of your lives to welcome me and my team into what felt like a friendship and something that I was happy and proud to be a part of.
For the last two and a half years of college, I’ve been spending my Friday and Saturday nights in a freezing cold ice rink at the CU Rec Center, but I wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else.
My only regret is that I didn’t start sooner, because two and a half years doesn’t feel long enough.
To everyone who made this possible,
Thank you,
Jared
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