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My Social Identity

My social identity is made up of quite a few characteristics that feed into the way I am both perceived and how I perceive the world around me, but two stand out as the most important. I have grown up and exist now in a space of privilege because I am white. Although I spent my childhood in a fairly diverse and progressive place, that does not take away from the fact that I experienced white privilege in ways I both recognized and did not. My social identity is also formed by my being a woman. This part of myself is something that I didn’t realize affected my life in such a great way until high school. I grew up in a very masculine household; with two brothers and a dad who deeply ingrained in me an excitement around sports, which I am grateful for. What came with that, however, were expectations that did not really fit how I viewed myself. I need to be serious, but not so much that I can’t have a little fun, I need to be gentle so as to not appear unladylike. I need to figure skate instead of play hockey like my brothers because there weren’t opportunities for young girls to play on a team altogether like the boys had. It was marked up to not enough interest from the girls, but when that interest isn’t sparked like it is for boys, how can that be the explanation? I always had to push a little harder to get where I wanted to be. I find that this has fueled my desire to become a sports reporter even more. These two identities can present bias in the way I consume and contribute to journalism, but also an alternate perspective that I think can be powerful. I will never understand how it feels to have a target on my back because of my race. This means that I need to do my research, I need to consume media from POC writers and sources and educate myself to be able to write and speak on these subjects through these people as a journalist. From being a woman and facing sexism on different levels, ranging from passive comments to fully being told that I cannot do something because of my gender, I can provide a perspective that may be important to the conversation.

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One Month in Quarantine

It’s definitely interesting being a college student in the middle of all of this right now. The one thing that we are expected to focus on is school. What if we can’t focus?

When emails pour in about work that needs to be done, they always start with the same lines: “It’s easy to be stressed or anxious during this time,” “in these uncertain times,” “I hope everyone is staying positive,” and then it leads to an addition assignment or expectation that needs to be met. What if I can’t meet it?

It’s the lack of motivation, the lack of seeing school as something of importance when I haven’t seen my mom in two weeks because she’s the head of a respiratory department at a hospital. It’s hard to see the importance of school when people are dying, but it’s also hard to find the balance between allowing yourself to feel sad and angry and scared, and then calm and motivated enough to do school work.

In other news, life without sports sucks. It sucks even more this week with the news of the passing of former Bruin and present Oiler Colby Cave, who was only 25. Times like these are hard as it is, but I couldn’t imagine what his wife and family are going through right now. 

So that’s where I’m at. I’ve been thinking about Cave a lot, and talking about him with my dad. It’s all we can really do right now.

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Game Stories

2/22 Senior Night For Amherst Women’s Hockey

Orr Rink in Amherst was a sea of purple and white this afternoon, from the streamers wrapped around the handlebars of the bleachers, to paintings reading “We Love Our Seniors,” and “2020!” done on the glass boards of the rink.

The Amherst College women’s ice hockey team held their “Senior Game” on Saturday in honor of their five seniors who will be graduating this spring, including the Mammoths’ two senior captains, Eliza Laycock and Anne Malloy.

The teams had matching records going into this afternoon’s game (14-5-4). The game ended in a 2-2 tie after one five minute overtime. The goals came in the second and third periods, the first was an amazing give and go shot executed by Amherst’s #6 Rose Mroczka as she launched out of the penalty box, and the assist went to #9 Kaitlin Hoang.

The other three goals came back to back in the third period, by Kaitlin Hoang of Amherst and Lexi Cafiero of Colby. Finally, Colby College’s captian, #17 Tess Dupre scored a goal that had the Mules bench cheering for a couple minutes straight. Her goal was assisted by #21 Madi Brown. This goal tied up the game, and neither team could secure another to add a win to their records.

The Mammouths dropped their Friday game the night before against Colby 1-0, but that didn’t hold back the team when they were preparing to take on the Mules on Saturday.

“I think when we’re going into a game, were always trying to play like its zero-zero, so that includes forgetting about yesterday. It’s a new game, new day, and were ready to bring it, no matter what.” Said senior captian Anne Malloy.

Head coach Jeff Matthews had similar feelings on how his team got in the mindset for todays game: “We didn’t make many big adjustments. In our league, you always play the same team twice, so there’s certainly minor adjustments here and there, but we’re happy with our style of play. We played our game, and we thought we had a good game that could have gone either way.”

“It was another great hockey game.” Said Matthews.

The game was highlighted by a bittersweet ceremony that took place before the starting lineup was called. The families of each of the graduating seniors, #15 forward Sarah Melanson, #33 goaltender Caroline Booraem, #3 defender Ava Simoncelli, and forward captains #23 Anne Malloy and #14 Eliza Laycock, joined their player on the ice to for a picture and a bouquet of flowers.

Of the seniors, Jeff Matthews had nothing but good things to say about how the 5 women who were honored tonight contributed in shaping their team bond this season.

“Our seniors did a fantastic job at establishing the foundation that you need to be a good hockey team. All five of them were a huge part of our success and establishing our connectedness, and our culture. It starts with your seniors, and I think they did a terrific job of that this year. I am very proud of them.” He said.

“I was going into the game thinking I don’t want to focus on any of this senior stuff, I just want to think about the hockey. There’s only so many games left and I can enjoy everything, all of this other stuff, after those games. But for now, I just want to stay focused.” Said Malloy. “We appreciate everything that our team has done for us, its been a great year. They have been a great team to lead too.”

When asked if they could pick one favorite moment from this season, the senior captains Anne Malloy and Eliza Laycock both agreed that their ability to come to the rink everyday and just be with their team was their favorite parts of the season.

“I dont know if I can pick one. I just love coming to the rink everyday. This team is the biggest blessing for me and everyday is amazing.” Said Laycock.

“I couldn’t pick a win, I couldn’t pick a comeback, not a shootout win or anything. It’s the everyday. Getting to come here and distress from school, and see all of these people who support you. It’s awesome.” Said Malloy.

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Game Stories

2/8 Amherst College Men’s Hockey Soars Past Bowdoin

AMHERST, Mass—The Amherst College men’s hockey game against Bowdoin College was filled with surprises (and penalties) on Saturday afternoon. The Mammoths beat the Polar Bears 5-2 at the end of the three periods, after scoring three unanswered goals in three minutes to solidify the win. 

Amherst was looking to better their record and finally score a goal against the Bowdoin, who shut them out 5-0 back in January. 

The first period was characterized by one Bowdoin goal by Bradley Ingersoll, and seven penalties; three for Amherst and four for Bowdoin, all of which were killed off by the teams respective penalty kills. 

Joe Arena, the head coach for Amherst, was absent from today’s matchup, as he was attending a funeral. However, the Mammoths had nothing to be worried about, as their stand in head coach was T.J. Snyder, former University of Massachusetts Amherst ice hockey captain. 

“Our first period was pretty bad,” said Snyder. “Something we can work on is playing a full 60-minute game. No breaks in effort. Playing right to the buzzer.”

Their break finally came in the second period, when Connor Merrill, a freshmen from Brentwood, Tennessee, scored a clean backdoor goal to open the floodgates for Amherst. 

When asked how it felt to score on a team that previously shut them out, Snyder replied, “It feels great. We were really struggling for goals there for a little while, so any time we get a goal, even on a power play, and especially against this team, it feels good.”

Amherst College senior Giancarlo Ventre, the starting goalie, stood on his head for most of the game, and especially in the first period, where he was forced to make some difficult saves to preserve the score. 

In the end, Ventre led the Bowdoin goalie, Alex Zafonte, 37 to 23 saves. 

“I unfortunately had to watch [the January game] from the stands,” said Ventre, “I had an injury. But it was great to be back in net and get the win tonight.”

“It’s a fantastic feeling,” said Ventre, “we struggled at the start of the season, and we’re finally starting to string a few wins together and make a good playoff run. I’m really excited.” He continued. 

Patrick Daly made the score 2-2 at the very end of the second period on a 5-v-3 power play. Then, the Mammoths scored twice in the first two minutes of the third period, bumping the score up to 4-2 on a goal from freshman Joey Verkerke, and one from junior Matteo Mangiardi. 

There were plenty of penalties to go around, and by the end of the game, both teams had racked up sixteen penalty minutes, eight penalties for each team.

Finally, in one last attempt to score, the Polar Bears pulled their goalie Alex Zafonte with 2:10 remaining, but quickly put him back in when sophomore Sean Wrenn lobbed one down the length of the ice and into Bowdoin’s empty net. 

This win propels the Mammoths to 7-9-4 on the season and 5-6-3 in the league, while Bowdoin bows to 9-10-1 and 5-8-1 in the league.

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Reactions to the Life and Death of Kobe Bryant

Kobe Bean Bryant, best known for his impressive career and contributions to the sport of basketball, died in a tragic helicopter crash in Calabasas, California, on Sunday afternoon at the age of 41. His daughter, Gianna Bryant, along with seven other people were on the aircraft when it flew too low trying to escape the fog that had rolled in. 

“My friend texted me, like, ‘oh, Kobe died,’ and I said, ‘Kobe Bryant like the basketball player?’ Then I saw on Twitter that TMZ had reported that he had died in a spontaneous helicopter crash. It was just so random, that is just the oddest situation that you would never expect.” Said Abby Quinn, a sophomore marketing major from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. After graduating from high school and going straight into the NBA, Bryant went on to have a hugely successful life, filled with numerous highs, but with that came a low that has been brought up in the news cycles in the wake of his death. 

Back in 2003, Bryant was accused of sexually assaulting a 19-year-old hotel worker in Colorado. Bryant admitted to a sexual encounter with said woman, however, he denied the allegation. The case was then dropped after his accuser refused to testify in court. 

“When I first looked up his name to clarify about what had happened, an article about his allegations popped up. I thought that it was interesting because I think that [journalists] should include it in their stories because it was a part of his like, and that shouldn’t be erased. In the end, I feel like it is valid to report on is all of the facts are correct.” Said sophomore finance major Arielle Roos. 

When asked if he could sum up his reaction to Bryant’s death, UMass Amherst senior Lukas Alvarez states, “I don’t know if I can put a word on it. It’s weird, because athletes are a strange group. We almost know them and we don’t know them.”

“I’ve never been hit with a death in the family, fortunately enough, and this was the first time where I actually felt this very strange sadness. It was weird because I don’t think about Kobe all the time, and then when I heard the news, you don’t realize the impact certain people can have on you from your childhood.” He continued. 

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No Cheering in the Press Box

I think that the whole concept behind ‘no cheering in the press box,’ comes down to a more broad ideal in journalism that revolves around maintaining objectivity. Of course, everyone has their teams that they are fans of, who they root for from home, but I completely understand the importance of keeping that energy out of the press box.

For starters, the press box is a professional space. Just like an office, the press box should be free of outside conversation that doesn’t pertain to asking questions about stats or things of that nature. However, unlike an office space, the press box is only covering around two to four hours of a game, which is different than an office job where you’re there for nine hours. What I am trying to get at is being in the press box should be like working at an office. You do your job and watch the game, but in the end, there is so much you need to be focused on that cheering would one, take away your objectivity, and two, distract you from doing your job. 

I believe that this ideal is a rule because people will always have an attachment to a certain team or outcome, but by stating this ahead of time, it is known that once you do your job and get the story, you can go home and watch whatever you want, wear your teams jersey and cheer as loud as possible, because you aren’t working anymore. 

I feel as if this rule is significant because, even internally, it is very difficult to be one hundred percent, completely objective in sports writing. This rule, I believe, makes the goal of being objective a little more achievable, because it completely takes away the option of being non-objective in your professional space. However, when you’re sitting in a box in an arena surrounded by cheering fans who are absolutely not being objective, or when you’re covering one team for a whole season and have been with them through their highs and lows, I can definitely see how this is something that people struggle with. I do feel, though, that by maintaining the right about of professionalism, not cheering in the press box won’t such a taxing process. 

I also think that with the development of sports journalism, the prevalence of actual fan bloggers in the press box has gone up. Even in this instance, where you are literally covering a team as a fan, there should still be the expectation of professionalism the second you walk into the press box. 

I do believe that I will be able to abide by this rule. I am not too much of a vocal fan, which, in this case, works in my favor. I think that covering these beats will be a test of that, but I am excited to see what happens (and stick to this rule the best I can).

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