Western Massachusetts couldn’t get rid of me that easily.
After years spent chasing stories through Amherst rainstorms, late-night press conferences and more than a few frigid high school sidelines, I’m back — this time as the Daily Hampshire Gazette’s newest sports reporter.
My name is Mike Maynard, and I graduated from UMass this past May. Over the last three years, I dove into everything from conference realignment chaos and coaching changes to NCAA Tournament runs.
Somewhere between hustling from Mullins Center to McGuirk Alumni Stadium and filing stories at 1 a.m., I came to realize that I didn’t just like sports reporting… it was my calling.
I spent the last three years covering UMass football, hockey, basketball and baseball for the Massachusetts Daily Collegian. Those beats tossed me into some of the most memorable, chaotic and genuinely fun moments of my life.
UMass athletics opting to completely switch things up and jump to the Mid-American Conference? I watched that realignment whirlwind reshape an entire athletic department in real time. Don Brown being fired after multiple years as a beloved leader? I covered the final days of his second stint as well as the coaching search that eventually brought in Joe Harasymiak.
I even got my first taste of breaking news, reporting on the Midnight Ride Collective dissolving and the Mass. Collective stepping in. That one taught me the beauty (and terror) of sending a story you know people will definitely be talking about.
Minutemen hockey gave me NCAA Tournament runs and some of the most electric atmospheres I’ve ever been in, while UMass basketball gave me Frank Martin attempting to steady a roster after losing big names like Matt Cross and Josh Cohen.
In the middle of it all, I fell in love with feature writing. It’s stories behind the box scores, the ones that truly humanize and explain who the players and coaches really are, that became my favorite part of the job. They take time and patience, but when everything finally clicks, there’s nothing more rewarding.
With the Gazette, I’ll continue to cover UMass athletics, keeping up with everything regarding every major team and storyline in Amherst. But, I’ll also be back on the high school circuit across Hampshire County, a scene I had the pleasure of getting to know so well during my time with MassLive and the Boston Globe.
This past summer was one filled with applications, interviews and more waiting than I’d like to admit, but I believe my patience paid off. I’m so thankful to join the Gazette’s talented staff.
Between some freelance NFL coverage over the summer and three years working with the Hyannis Harbor Hawks of the Cape Cod Baseball League, I did manage to keep quite busy (maybe too busy), but those experiences shaped me in ways I never anticipated.
With the Harbor Hawks, I spent three summers living the grind of a baseball season, writing, producing, interviewing and working with future MLB players before they were household names. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to watch a kid go from Cape League dugouts to the big leagues… trust me, it never stops being cool.
I grew up in Newburyport with hopes of playing professional sports. Football and baseball were my life, although I played five sports as a kid. Eventually, reality stepped in, but so did something else: an appreciation for what sports actually mean to the communities that surround them.
Covering them became a new dream, one that I’m lucky enough to be living.
I am thrilled to be here, thrilled to get started and thrilled to tell the stories that make this region worth reading about.
See you on the sidelines.
Mike Maynard is a sports reporter at the Daily Hampshire Gazette. He can be reached at mmaynard@gazettenet.com.