National Hockey League

sportswriting-debbie-elicksen
Objective

Cover stories about the National Hockey League from Alberta for an American sports service. Interview players, attend press events, and stay in the loop about Alberta teams and visiting teams.

Strategy

Starting out as a research reporter in Edmonton, I then graduated to an accredited freelance reporter in both Edmonton and Calgary. I attended both practices and games for home and visiting teams, including playoffs. Most assignments were human interest stories and some were game reports/clips.

Results

It started out being exclusive to one outlet, then I was recruited to pinch hit for other reporters and worked with other sports services filing stats during and after games. Hockey Canada asked me to write for their alumni newsletter, and I was assigned an online weekly column by NBC Sports. I subsequently wrote about six books that featured hockey stories.