Hey UMass hockey fans, remember me?
I’m back in the Pioneer Valley, this time as the Daily Hampshire Gazette’s newest sports reporter.
For those of you who don’t know who I am, my name is Ryan Ames and nearly six years ago, I graduated from UMass.
I wrote for The Massachusetts Daily Collegian all four years, where I primarily covered the Minutemen hockey team, highlighted by their run to the national championship game in Buffalo during my senior year in 2019.
I got to see Marc Del Gaizo’s golden goal in overtime against Denver during the national semifinal round send UMass to its first-ever Division 1 championship game on April 11, 2019. To this day, that remains the most memorable moment of my journalism career… ‘Watch out!’
I got to watch future Stanley Cup champion, Norris Trophy and Conn Smythe winner Cale Makar dazzle every night for two seasons. Not to mention multiple other players on that 2018-19 team that have seen time in the NHL in Mario Ferraro, Mitchell Chaffee, John Leonard and Matt Murray, to name a few.
I got to watch Greg Carvel turn a five-win team that lost 17-straight games his first year behind the bench (which I was also there for) into a powerhouse that would eventually claim the national crown in 2021.
I had no journalism qualifications before my time in Amherst, yet four years later, I felt my experiences as a student journalist prepared me better than I ever could have imagined.
The COVID-19 pandemic halted my professional journalism career not even a year after walking out of Mullins Center with my journalism degree, but I stayed active, covering – you guessed it – more hockey, ranging from NHL playoff games to college games in upstate New York.
Now that I’m back in familiar territory, expect to see more UMass hockey stories from me, but I’ll also be around at the local high schools, taking in the Hampshire County sports scene.
Originally from Lowell, I was an athlete my entire childhood. Hockey and baseball were my two sports, but I also won a state championship in cross country my senior year of high school.
As my competitive playing days came to a close, I altered my focus to writing about sports. Writing and getting paid to watch games, at any level, is better than most jobs, in my humble opinion.
Hockey is my favorite sport, but I’ve also developed a love-hate relationship with golf in the last few years. For context, this past summer I carded a 12 on one hole – I think I blasted three balls out-of-bounds in a matter of five minutes – then parred three out of the next five… ah, the joys of golf.
I can’t wait to sink my teeth into this job and I’ll do my best to provide insightful and informative coverage of UMass and the local high school sports teams for one of the most well-respected newspapers in New England.
Coincidentally, I found out not long after I accepted the job with the Gazette that my birthday is also the same day the paper was founded – only 210 years apart.
It’s almost like it was meant to be.
Ryan Ames is a sports reporter at the Daily Hampshire Gazette. He can be reached at rames@gazettenet.com