For those of you who’ve been wondering where I’ve been for the past several months…
…I’ve been getting out of my comfort zone and in front of the camera (or mic!) this year. I have always believed I prefer print to broadcast work (the blog name is Ryley WRITES, amirite), but I’ve been so surprised by how much I’ve enjoyed sideline, studio and color commentary work. It’s taught me that at the end of the day, my first love is not a medium — it’s storytelling. Camera work has stretched me and grown me. I have a long way to go, but the challenge has been crazy fun.
Besides that, I’ve been keeping busy by helping out with Men’s DII Hockey social media — putting together player bios, more human interest content and even a video piece for their Facebook and Twitter. The pages have seen steady growth — think we’ve increased about 200 likes since the start of the season, and it’s been really gratifying to interact with and try to engage/cater to those new fans. (Of course, it helps that the team is 15-1 on the season… makes my job easy when the hockey is top-notch!)
On Men’s D1 Hockey game nights, I have the pleasure of helping out our operations team on contract, mostly by managing customer service for the rink boxes and running random errands when I can. No one goes less appreciated in a rink than the ops guys — love getting to help them out, especially since most are good friends after working with them for three years. I keep offering to drive the zamboni during intermission and they keep kinda laughing it off and not taking me seriously…? Probably they will let me carve it up this weekend…? …guys?
I just finished up what is most likely my last season of feature writing for Flames football, and couldn’t be more thankful for all the experience — in interviewing, meeting deadlines and pulling creative angles from often-redundant material — that gig has given me over the years.
Other than that, I just keep seeking out opportunities in writing, media and marketing — my goal is to grow and learn and try new things as much as possible.
In the future, I’ll try and share more of those opportunities here instead of disappearing! At some point soon I’m aiming to put together a demo
video of my broadcast work, too. That way, you can watch me super professionally laugh at guys getting
pied in the face on live television for yourself. That’s what Erin
Andrews does, right? …right?