Lifelong hockey fan Josh Starr will be the new Director of Communications/Play-By-Play for the Danbury Hat Tricks in the FPHL/NAHL. He starts in early July.
Starr’s passion for hockey play-by-play comes not only from his love of the game, but also from his experience in announcing the sport. He explains, “You don’t realize how much goes into the description of the action on the ice until you have to do it yourself. It is such a fast sport with a lot of different things going on in different areas of the ice and I absolutely love the challenge of describing it all.”
Planting the seed
Starr’s journey to discovering his love of play-by-play began in his youth, when his dream was to be a professional athlete. He shares, “Once I realized that was not going to happen, I still had a desire to be part of the sports world in some way. Right before high school began, I decided becoming a sports broadcaster was something I could do as a career in the sports industry.”
That’s when he started preparing to become a sports broadcaster. His announcing skills began to develop in high school through calling public address for basketball and lacrosse games. But it was during Starr’s years at Penn State that he realized how much he loved play-by-play. He gained significant experience there.
Always learning
In his position with the Hat Tricks, Starr will gain even more experience, not just in broadcasting, but also in other important areas like social media and media relations. I believe these are things that will make me more versatile and desirable when applying to future jobs,” he says.
Relationship building played a significant role in Starr’s job search. He shares, “I used my network at Penn State to speak with broadcasters who have gone through the junior/minor league hockey circuit and learned a lot from them. It really helped me to prepare for interviews and know what to expect when searching for a job in hockey.”
Starr joined STAA last year and shares some advice with new members: “Use all the resources. I wrote my cover letter for the Hat Tricks using Jon’s guide for it. I’ve spoken to Jon and a lot of other members about how to go about my job search. All of it is extremely helpful.”
He also shares that he found the Hat Tricks job in one of the STAA job leads emails, and says, “I just wanted to say thank you. I appreciate all the work STAA does for members and it certainly helped me get this job.”