(September 26, 2017) Evan Pivnick was driving 45 minutes outside of Rockford, IL when his phone rang. He was three days from starting a hockey broadcasting internship with the Rockford IceHogs but the phone call changed his plans.
The Adirondack Thunder was calling with a job offer.
Pivnick accepted. He is now the play-by-play broadcaster, and an account executive, for the ECHL team.
It is a remarkable opportunity for someone who is just four months out of college.
“Credit to Rockford’s broadcaster Bob Mills, who was extremely awesome about me having to jump ship three days before I was supposed to start there,” says Pivnick.
2017 has been a quiet off-season for movement among minor league hockey broadcasters. “I was constantly keeping my eye out for the STAA job lead emails,” Pivnick says. “One came on August 21st with the Adirondack job in it, so I applied, texted everyone I knew that might know someone in the Thunder organization and waited from there.
Within days, Pivnick was granted a phone interview, then an in-person interview one week later. The job offer came that weekend, less than four months after Pivnick gradated from Bowling Green State University.
“I was very surprised, to be honest,” Pivnick admits. “I have a few friends who broadcast in the ECHL and they all took a few years between college to work either in the USHL or for a collegiate hockey team before making it here. So for me to be hired right out of college was very humbling, exciting, and surprising.”
Adding to Pivnick’s excitement is the fact that he is a native of Long Island, NY. “I never thought that I would be able to get a profession hockey broadcasting job in New York State. Being only four hours from home is a big plus.”
The play-by-play experience Pivnick gained at Bowling Green was considerable. “Being able to broadcast hockey there for three seasons, traveling, and being around a team definitely provided me an awesome experience that I couldn’t have gotten if I didn’t go to BGSU.
“Teams are looking for broadcasters that have done a lot of traveling with teams, so being able to go on the road with BG helped me gain that experience.”
Pivnick believes that research was a key reason he landed the Thunder job. “It helped that my dad used to go to games up in Glens Falls back when they were the Adirondack Red Wings and he’s always told me so much about the area and how special of a place it is. So when I applied for the job and prepared for my interviews, I read articles about the town and the history of hockey surrounding it. I’m still learning a lot every day about Glens Falls and I’m excited to learn more.”
Pivnick has been an STAA member since 2016. “STAA helps legitimize my candidacy when applying for jobs,” he says. “When someone mentions STAA, it is taken seriously. It also is the best way to be in the know about what is going on in the sportscasting world with the daily emails and the forums. Also, the network of people that STAA offers is second-to-none.”
(Visit Evan’s STAA Talent Page).