So I know Quesnel is a hockey town, when I moved here I was told I'd be doing a lot of hockey coverage and I dreaded it.
I didn't know a single thing about hockey. I've never skated, I've never really watched a Canucks game. Best I've done is watch Olympic hockey.
But throughout the season, covering hockey games became one of my favourite parts of the job. Being in the West Fraser Centre with hundreds of people cheering on our home teams felt really special, and it gave me the opportunity to take some pretty amazing photos.
I have a friend who refs hockey, so throughout the games I'd message him.
"What's icing?", "What's slashing?", "Are headlocks allowed or did the ref just miss that?"
I still don't understand what happens half the time the whistle is blown, I suspect by the time hockey season starts back up I'll have forgotten almost everything I've learned. Luckily there will always be friendly faces around the rink I can oblivious ask "what was that about?" and then ask them to explain it to me like I'm a five year old when they say there was interference call.
It took me awhile to figure out how to take good photos of hockey, the best spots to take pictures were scuffed up from the puck hitting them and the lights in the West Fraser Centre gave photos a yellowish look. But I think I got the hang of it. I also stopped trying to get pure action shots and some of my favourite photos are closeups on players' faces between plays, when they're at the ready and intensely staring, waiting for the puck to drop.
I genuinely enjoyed watching our Rush and Roos boys battle on the ice and I'm going to miss it for the next six months.
Over the next six months, I'll be able to cover spring and summer sports. If there's a sporty event going on that you're excited about, think people should know about and think it'd be fun for a local journalist to swing by and take photos, shoot me an email at austin.kelly@quesnelobserver.com and let me know about it! Whether it's school volleyball, recreational slow pitch, rodeo events or competitive raccoon racing (I don't know if that's a thing but I can dream), shoot me an email about it and I'll try my best to get it in the paper.
