Cornell Hockey Coverage

Hello everyone!

My name is Jane McNally and I’m a student covering the Cornell hockey beat for the Cornell Daily Sun. I’ve seen some mentions on here of the Sun’s hockey coverage, so I want to personally thank all of those who tune into our coverage and read!

I’m going to be running for sports editor of the paper next semester, and one of my main goals is to expand hockey coverage and make it better than it’s ever been. I want to hear from those of you who are readers of the Sun––as well as those who don’t follow along––about what I can do to improve coverage of Cornell hockey (both men’s and women’s)! Whether it be the types of articles we publish, bringing back the newsletter, or anything new, please feel free to let me know on this post! You may also private message me if needed.

Thanks again! Go Red!

Jmcds
Hello everyone!

My name is Jane McNally and I’m a student covering the Cornell hockey beat for the Cornell Daily Sun. I’ve seen some mentions on here of the Sun’s hockey coverage, so I want to personally thank all of those who tune into our coverage and read!

I’m going to be running for sports editor of the paper next semester, and one of my main goals is to expand hockey coverage and make it better than it’s ever been. I want to hear from those of you who are readers of the Sun––as well as those who don’t follow along––about what I can do to improve coverage of Cornell hockey (both men’s and women’s)! Whether it be the types of articles we publish, bringing back the newsletter, or anything new, please feel free to let me know on this post! You may also private message me if needed.

Thanks again! Go Red!

I think you would make a great sports editor. I remember some of your work around NCAA tournament time last year being phenomenal. My two cents for the Sun’s coverage of the hockey team: in today’s age, it’s easy to find video and stats of games, so summarizing the action isn’t what makes the Sun’s coverage so valuable. Rather, what makes the Sun so valuable is its access to the players and the coaches. The quotes from Schafer and the players after the game are always very interesting, and they’re hard to find anywhere else. I enjoy the game summaries, but the key is to supplement those with plenty of reactions from the players and coaches. For the same reason, I would love profiles and interviews of the players and coaches. Brandon Thomas used to do a Freshman Friday feature when he was part of the Cornell communications department, but that has vanished. It would be amazing for the Sun to do something like that. Maybe an interview with a player each week, or something to that effect.

Jmcds
Hello everyone!

My name is Jane McNally and I’m a student covering the Cornell hockey beat for the Cornell Daily Sun. I’ve seen some mentions on here of the Sun’s hockey coverage, so I want to personally thank all of those who tune into our coverage and read!

I’m going to be running for sports editor of the paper next semester, and one of my main goals is to expand hockey coverage and make it better than it’s ever been. I want to hear from those of you who are readers of the Sun––as well as those who don’t follow along––about what I can do to improve coverage of Cornell hockey (both men’s and women’s)! Whether it be the types of articles we publish, bringing back the newsletter, or anything new, please feel free to let me know on this post! You may also private message me if needed.

Thanks again! Go Red!

Yes, BL’s comments are spot on. In the Stone Age I was a Sun sportswriter, and feature articles about the players are, to me, far more useful and interesting than basic game coverage. Pre-internet providing detailed game recaps was essentially the only way for people who weren’t at the game to learn what transpired, but that’s no longer the case. Features such as the “Freshman Friday” series that Brandon Thomas used to produce for the Cornell Athletics’ website would be terrific.

Good luck!

scoop85

Jmcds
Hello everyone!

My name is Jane McNally and I’m a student covering the Cornell hockey beat for the Cornell Daily Sun. I’ve seen some mentions on here of the Sun’s hockey coverage, so I want to personally thank all of those who tune into our coverage and read!

I’m going to be running for sports editor of the paper next semester, and one of my main goals is to expand hockey coverage and make it better than it’s ever been. I want to hear from those of you who are readers of the Sun––as well as those who don’t follow along––about what I can do to improve coverage of Cornell hockey (both men’s and women’s)! Whether it be the types of articles we publish, bringing back the newsletter, or anything new, please feel free to let me know on this post! You may also private message me if needed.

Thanks again! Go Red!

Yes, these comments are spot on. In the stone age I was a Sun sportswriter, and feature articles about the players is, to me, far more useful and interesting than basic game coverage.

Good luck!

Yes, and it’s fine to be somewhat formulaic. It’s always interesting to hear about players’ backgrounds, why they chose Cornell, how they see their own game, what skills they’d like to work on, favorite things to do around campus, etc. plus a few questioned tailored to the particular player. Here is one example:
[cornellbigred.com]

I would add one thing to what others have said. I streamed last weekend's BU game and found the announcers to be strong BU homers, which I would normally expect. Nonetheless, they provided insights into each team's strategy like I have never heard before. For example, they said Cornell defense appeared to be using man-to-man coverage.

I've never heard such analysis before in any broadcast hockey game coverage I've listened to. It would be great if the Sun's game coverage could also provide details into each team's tactics: besides man-to-man versus zone defense, things like line matchups, relative amounts of skating time for each line, etc., would give insights far beyond the usual sports page coverage.

Also, I think we'd all like to read interviews with various relevant administrators, especially the AD & University President. Also, more joint interviews with both Men's & Woman's coaches, as well as associate coaches and others involved in the success of the teams and who could provide insight into Cornell hockey.

The most important thing a senior editor can do is edit. Really read the work closely so you and your colleagues don't have a clip file that looks like shit. Some people here really seemed to like the MSG gamer but I didn't. It read like a livestream rather than a coherent piece of writing about the event. This isn't a critique about copyediting - though it's also not NOT that - it's about making sure that the Sun sports page has a voice not simply text.

ugarte
The most important thing a senior editor can do is edit. Really read the work closely so you and your colleagues don't have a clip file that looks like shit. Some people here really seemed to like the MSG gamer but I didn't. It read like a livestream rather than a coherent piece of writing about the event. This isn't a critique about copyediting - though it's also not NOT that - it's about making sure that the Sun sports page has a voice not simply text.

Agree with all of this but that presupposes that the writer has a voice. Not every writer does.

Swampy
I would add one thing to what others have said. I streamed last weekend's BU game and found the announcers to be strong BU homers, which I would normally expect. Nonetheless, they provided insights into each team's strategy like I have never heard before. For example, they said Cornell defense appeared to be using man-to-man coverage.

I've never heard such analysis before in any broadcast hockey game coverage I've listened to. It would be great if the Sun's game coverage could also provide details into each team's tactics: besides man-to-man versus zone defense, things like line matchups, relative amounts of skating time for each line, etc., would give insights far beyond the usual sports page coverage.

Also, I think we'd all like to read interviews with various relevant administrators, especially the AD & University President. Also, more joint interviews with both Men's & Woman's coaches, as well as associate coaches and others involved in the success of the teams and who could provide insight into Cornell hockey.

This is good but it assumes the writers know anywhere nears as much as Bernie in the BU broadcast knows. Unlikely. He’s a homer but is very informed.

arugula

Swampy
I would add one thing to what others have said. I streamed last weekend's BU game and found the announcers to be strong BU homers, which I would normally expect. Nonetheless, they provided insights into each team's strategy like I have never heard before. For example, they said Cornell defense appeared to be using man-to-man coverage.

I've never heard such analysis before in any broadcast hockey game coverage I've listened to. It would be great if the Sun's game coverage could also provide details into each team's tactics: besides man-to-man versus zone defense, things like line matchups, relative amounts of skating time for each line, etc., would give insights far beyond the usual sports page coverage.

Also, I think we'd all like to read interviews with various relevant administrators, especially the AD & University President. Also, more joint interviews with both Men's & Woman's coaches, as well as associate coaches and others involved in the success of the teams and who could provide insight into Cornell hockey.

This is good but it assumes the writers know anywhere nears as much as Bernie in the BU broadcast knows. Unlikely. He’s a homer but is very informed.

Yes. If you give most reporters (and most of us on eLynah) the task of analyzing the game the way he did on Saturday they will fail.

arugula

ugarte
The most important thing a senior editor can do is edit. Really read the work closely so you and your colleagues don't have a clip file that looks like shit. Some people here really seemed to like the MSG gamer but I didn't. It read like a livestream rather than a coherent piece of writing about the event. This isn't a critique about copyediting - though it's also not NOT that - it's about making sure that the Sun sports page has a voice not simply text.

Agree with all of this but that presupposes that the writer has a voice. Not every writer does.

Larry Brooks for example has a voice and knows hockey cold. Maybe as his retirement job….

99% of sports journalism is "people who can't write transcribing people who can't speak for people who can't read."

That's why it's such a pleasure to come across that 1%. Jane's writing is actually writing, not typing, and that puts her in the vanishing minority of sports journalists, already miles above everything that squeezes out of the Bristol sphincter. I wish her all the best in what I assume is a frustrating industry and hideous work environment.

Beats law school, anyway.

Trotsky
That's why it's such a pleasure to come across that 1%.

I grew up reading Red Smith in the New York Herald Tribune. Not a bad model for an aspiring sports writer.

arugula

ugarte
The most important thing a senior editor can do is edit. Really read the work closely so you and your colleagues don't have a clip file that looks like shit. Some people here really seemed to like the MSG gamer but I didn't. It read like a livestream rather than a coherent piece of writing about the event. This isn't a critique about copyediting - though it's also not NOT that - it's about making sure that the Sun sports page has a voice not simply text.

Agree with all of this but that presupposes that the writer has a voice. Not every writer does.

You don't have to be Faulker or even Albom. But you do have to be able to write sentences that turn into paragraphs in a way that the final product doesn't read like a wiki.

George64

Trotsky
That's why it's such a pleasure to come across that 1%.

I grew up reading Red Smith in the New York Herald Tribune. Not a bad model for an aspiring sports writer.

Yeah, Red Smith is also my standard from growing up. Pretty much everyone else has been trite (Wilpon, Shaughnessy, Ryan) or cringe (Kornheiser, Albom, Deford).

It's a really low bar. Hopefully we'll begin to see something like the flowering of scriptwriting after fifty years of stifling by the networks, and we'll begin to see actual writers who cover sports, rather than the low effort, LCD hacks of the bad old days.

Trotsky

It's a really low bar. Hopefully we'll begin to see something like the flowering of scriptwriting after fifty years of stifling by the networks, and we'll begin to see actual writers who cover sports, rather than the low effort, LCD hacks of the bad old days.

[futurism.com]

BearLover
My two cents for the Sun’s coverage of the hockey team: in today’s age, it’s easy to find video and stats of games, so summarizing the action isn’t what makes the Sun’s coverage so valuable. Rather, what makes the Sun so valuable is its access to the players and the coaches. The quotes from Schafer and the players after the game are always very interesting, and they’re hard to find anywhere else. I enjoy the game summaries, but the key is to supplement those with plenty of reactions from the players and coaches. For the same reason, I would love profiles and interviews of the players and coaches. Brandon Thomas used to do a Freshman Friday feature when he was part of the Cornell communications department, but that has vanished. It would be amazing for the Sun to do something like that. Maybe an interview with a player each week, or something to that effect.

This is pretty much it. You want the right blend of Filling A Gap and Actually Achievable.

If you had someone who REALLY knows their stuff, and can find a way to write great in-depth explorations of things that can't be gleaned by Scouting the Stat Line, fine. But even most folks who think of themselves as Real Xs and Os types don't know what they're talking about most of the time. Pulling that off is unlikely.

So instead the focus should be on being the best student reporters you can be. The coverage can be serious of fun, hockey-focused or otherwise... but it should be different from what a bunch of fossils can manage on their own from Googling and an ESPN+ subscription.

Yes, Brandon Thomas's Freshman Friday pieces were great. Mimic them if you can get access to the players.

The Bed Red Hockeycast podcast was useful (for fans of the Men's team) its first season when they interviewed players on the Men's team. It wasn't because the two guys yakking on it were talented or insightful or knew-anything-about-hockey. They really, really didn't. So their recaps of the previous weekend were wastes. But they had an actual interview with a player each week and got a chance to ask a lot of questions. So even with most of the questions being dumb, there'd still be at some least good answers yielded. What's more, the "student perspective" was actually really great to have! It just happened to be limited to the two dumb students who happened to host that podcast. Something broader would be even better.

Dumbdumbs

BearLover
My two cents for the Sun’s coverage of the hockey team: in today’s age, it’s easy to find video and stats of games, so summarizing the action isn’t what makes the Sun’s coverage so valuable. Rather, what makes the Sun so valuable is its access to the players and the coaches. The quotes from Schafer and the players after the game are always very interesting, and they’re hard to find anywhere else. I enjoy the game summaries, but the key is to supplement those with plenty of reactions from the players and coaches. For the same reason, I would love profiles and interviews of the players and coaches. Brandon Thomas used to do a Freshman Friday feature when he was part of the Cornell communications department, but that has vanished. It would be amazing for the Sun to do something like that. Maybe an interview with a player each week, or something to that effect.

This is pretty much it. You want the right blend of Filling A Gap and Actually Achievable.

If you had someone who REALLY knows their stuff, and can find a way to write great in-depth explorations of things that can't be gleaned by Scouting the Stat Line, fine. But even most folks who think of themselves as Real Xs and Os types don't know what they're talking about most of the time. Pulling that off is unlikely.

So instead the focus should be on being the best student reporters you can be. The coverage can be serious of fun, hockey-focused or otherwise... but it should be different from what a bunch of fossils can manage on their own from Googling and an ESPN+ subscription.

Yes, Brandon Thomas's Freshman Friday pieces were great. Mimic them if you can get access to the players.

The Bed Red Hockeycast podcast was useful (for fans of the Men's team) its first season when they interviewed players on the Men's team. It wasn't because the two guys yakking on it were talented or insightful or knew-anything-about-hockey. They really, really didn't. So their recaps of the previous weekend were wastes. But they had an actual interview with a player each week and got a chance to ask a lot of questions. So even with most of the questions being dumb, there'd still be at some least good answers yielded. What's more, the "student perspective" was actually really great to have! It just happened to be limited to the two dumb students who happened to host that podcast. Something broader would be even better.

While I agree with you that the hosts of the Big Red Hockeycast (2021-22 season) weren’t brilliant hockey tacticians, neither are any of us on this forum, and neither are 99.5% or Cornell students. Your comment is quite rude, especially given some students read this forum. I thought the two hosts were good at asking questions and I enjoyed their rapport with the players. The podcast was clearly a fun hobby/activity for them rather than training for a future career in sports media, and despite this I really enjoyed the podcast and listened to every episode.

BTW, I thought the podcast would be alternating between the men’s and women’s teams? I’m curious why it’s doing the women’s team for the second year in a row. Alternating makes sense, and I support the women’s team, but why not back to the men this year?

All that said, yes, the key to the Sun’s coverage is access to the players and coaches and asking them interesting questions. Hearing about the players’ classes, favorite things around campus, interests outside of hockey, is very fun in addition to the hockey stuff (why did you choose Cornell? What was your junior hockey experience? How do you view your own game?).

RichH

Trotsky

It's a really low bar. Hopefully we'll begin to see something like the flowering of scriptwriting after fifty years of stifling by the networks, and we'll begin to see actual writers who cover sports, rather than the low effort, LCD hacks of the bad old days.

[futurism.com]

Or... we'll see that.