Earlier this month, Oneida County hosted the International Ice Hockey Federation Women’s World Championship, which brought excitement and revenue to the Mohawk Valley. Some Utica University students were able to experience the excitement firsthand through internships.

The IIHF Women’s World Championship is one of the most prestigious international women’s hockey tournaments and took place in Utica from April 4 – 14 at the Adirondack Bank Center, neighboring Utica University Nexus Center. With teams from ten countries playing in the tournament, ultimately, Team Canada defeated Team USA in overtime.

Graduate student Hannah Beckman worked as the mixed zone host and arrived at games an hour early to get situated. She was assigned to Team Sweden for the duration of the tournament and collected interview requests journalists had for Team Sweden’s media coordinator. 

Beckman had the opportunity to watch the game from ice level and under the 10-minute mark of the third period. She would make her way up to the Media Tribune, which is where all of the assigned journalists and media personnel were stationed. 

“Once I had all the requests, I would send the requests to Sweden’s media coordinator,” Beckman said. “Post-game, I would assist the media coordinators on chaperoning these players to the proper media personnel. This would carry on all throughout the tournament.”

Not only was she able to witness arguably the best women’s hockey tournament in the world, she was able to make connections. Beckman said her “game-plan” was to try and talk to people when they weren’t busy so that they had time to have a meaningful conversation. 

“I usually created a casual conversation first, especially if I was working with them, then I worked on introducing myself and pitching my strong-suits,” Beckman said. “I found this worked extremely well and I was able to walk away with a number of contacts.” 

Nicolas Leonard, a junior, was another student who had the opportunity to intern at IIHF. Leonard’s role was to be on the camera in the stands, and shoot the opening ceremonies, pre-game warmups and then move to crowd shots.

He made a connection with Natalie Noury, a host for the Boston Bruins, Red Sox and all of the Division I college teams in the Boston area, that he believes will serve him well in the future.

“The best part about the job was the environment for all the USA games I shot,” Leonard said. “It was fun to watch the games when I could and be in the stands for such a massive event right in our backyard.” 

For Beckman, being a part of it all was what she enjoyed most. 

“Being able to see how everything works as a whole up close and personal was an unbelievable experience,” Beckman said. “Being a hockey player myself, you’re used to just knowing that your job is to go play hockey, but as I grow up and am starting to get my foot in the door of sports jobs, I noticed that there is so much that goes on behind the scenes within production and content creation.”