We Lose Brandon not Brendon

Brandon Thomas
About a week ago, a link to a YouTube video was posted on eLynah that showed Mark McRae's overtime game-winning ECAC Hockey championship-clinching goal over Harvard in March 2003.

It seemed like a strange time for such a thing to surface, but — at least from my perspective — it's about as poetic as it gets. That moment was my first vivid memory of Cornell hockey ... and this moment may very well be my last.

I have given up my duties as a sports writer at the Ithaca Journal, ending a two-year stint as the Big Red's beat writer.

But that McRae goal will always be a vivid memory. I was a senior at Springfield (Mass.) College at the time, but I was also dutifully decked out in some sort of red garb cheering away in the upper deck somewhere in what was then called the Pepsi Center. You see, my new girlfriend at the time and for many years following was a Cornellian — first undergrad, then many more years at the vet school.

My home base changed frequently after that. Northampton, Mass. Rochester. Corning. Trumansburg. And then, finally, the job with The Journal — where I've been for the last three years. Not bad for someone still in his 20s. But through all of these chapters, the only constant wasn't that girlfriend — it was Big Red hockey.

Through college, I freelanced for numerous newspapers covering the American Hockey League, which is what I followed religiously as a teenager in Rochester. But I'll never forget my first game at Lynah. The energy. The pace. The physicality. The intimacy of the building. And I thought, 'How come I've never heard of this?' And the game wasn't as robotic as the pros, which was in the drudges of the trap, clutch-and-grab era that made Derian Hatcher a superstar. In college, kids make mistakes. There's offense. It was a different brand of hockey. The college game was bound to grow on me.

Despite never being a student on East Hill, I was actually a season ticket holder for two seasons before I came to The Journal. And even as my boss at the time wrote about Big Red games during the 2006-07 season, I was standing on my aisle seat in Section D annoying people in the rows behind me with my 6-foot-3 frame and Minnesota North Stars toque with that little yarn ball on the top.

Then, the opportunity came to cover the team — and I was much more at home in the press box instead of intentionally embarrassing people I was standing with by doing the now-extinct macho man dance.

The years of background knowledge in the stands coupled with my training to cover a pro hockey team were a perfect match, and I like to think it showed — even if there were a few speed bumps along the way. The semantics of covering the pros and covering the college game are very different. In the pros, a beat writer just shows up at morning skates, walks into the locker room and talks to whoever he/she pleases at any given moment. In college, there are A LOT of restrictions ... and I had to learn that the hard way.

But hockey is hockey, and — quite frankly — the last two years have been a dream come true.

The Off the Crossbar weekly column was born, also deservingly expanding our coverage of the ever-popular Ithaca High hockey teams. A blog by the same name — the first ever staff blog at The Journal — followed soon thereafter. Getting the thumbs-up to cover eight non-home games this season. Weekly radio spots on WHCU-AM. Paid advertisements referencing my work. It's very nearly overwhelming.

All of it is a major credit to my editor, Brian Delaney, who trusted me do whatever I wanted to when it came to hockey coverage. That's a rare commodity in this field, and that freedom allowed me to accomplish what I did.

But what made this job so great was having the opportunity to write for such a fantastic Big Red fan base, and that's the whole point of writing such a cliché farewell message. I want to thank everyone reading this and everything I've ever written ... because having such a knowledgeable audience only spurred me to do my best work. Plain and simple, half-assing anything wouldn't be acceptable for this crowd. And, as any successful backchecking Big Red forward would tell you, being held accountable only helps you grow.

Many of you have been in touch through e-mail or have been kind enough to say hello in the hallways of Lynah. I can't stress enough how much that interaction has meant to me. In journalism, we're used to fielding complaints, but I've had the good fortune of having mainly candid conversation with Big Red hockey fans and parents over the last couple of seasons. You're a fantastic bunch and I will miss it. I really, really will. I'll be working in Binghamton, but will still reside in Ithaca for the foreseeable future (blthomas@gannett.com will still be my e-mail).

But, hey, it's a guarantee that I will be at games in future years — even if not in the press box. But these memories won't ever fade. Thank you all ...

— Brandon

cbuckser
Hopefully, the Ithaca Journal will get a lot of first-rate applicants to replace him.

Brandon Thomas
About a week ago, a link to a YouTube video was posted on eLynah that showed Mark McRae's overtime game-winning ECAC Hockey championship-clinching goal over Harvard in March 2003.

Josh '99
B) Mark McRae's goal sent the game to OT; Paolini's goal in OT won the championship. [/nitpick]

DeltaOne81
[nitpick]You're missing the opening nitpick tag[/nitpick]