Rookie Chronicles: Kylie on Interviewing Stuart Skinner, Dylan Holloway, and Emerance Maschmeyer
By Kylie Salai
1 year agoKylie the Intern here, many of you may not know me so here’s a quick intro. ‘Kylie the intern’ is a nickname I gave myself, but only because it’s accurate. I’ve been working with the nation for just under a year now, but mostly with content creation on social media. I love doing content for the Nation, but now, I make my writing debut.
Last Saturday I was given the amazing opportunity to go to the Boundary battle of Alberta, put together by boundary ford gives. Woz, Kennedy, and I were given media passes for the event and had the time of our lives! At this event, I was given my first opportunity to do behind-the-scenes work with a media pass, giving me the opportunity to interview two of our rookies and an Olympic gold medalist.
My first interview was with Emerance Maschmeyer, my first interview ever. For me, it was very comforting to have her for my first interview. If you know me you know I love celebrating women in sports or sports media. That being said, it was a very full-circle moment for me to not only interview her but also have my first interview ever. This being my first interview I wanted to keep it light and fun to reduce the pressure or stress, but also for her to have some fun with it!
After my interview with Emerance, the autograph signings began and we were taking photos and videos, and creating other content. When there were lulls in the line, and the players weren’t signing for fans, I got to spend a bit of time chatting with Stuart Skinner. Being able to speak with him before the interview was very nice and VERY Stress relieving. In the interview, I got to ask him some more personal questions, about what it’s like playing for the team he grew up watching, and how it feels to play in the same jerseys he got to watch. I asked him how excited he was to be taking on a bigger role, and finally, the most exciting one, how excited he was to be a dad soon. This lit his face up and he was GLOWING talking about his excitement to have his son come into the world in such a short amount of time. Having this opportunity to speak to him about this upcoming season and all the excitement going on in his life was amazing. It has made me ecstatic to have him on our team. I know we all talk about how sweet Soup is and how he’s a little (he’s not little at all but you get what I’m saying) earth angel, but nobody gives Stu that same energy, and after those conversations, he deserves it.
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Finally, I got to interview our prospect Dylan Holloway, who I hope earns himself a roster spot this year. I got to talk to him about junior hockey in Alberta and what it was like for him to make his NHL Debut in the absolute madness that is Rogers Place in the playoffs. For my final question, I asked him something I’ve wondered about many players over the years…
“how do you grow up cheering for a team, and deal with getting drafted to another team?”
In Holloway’s case, it was simple and like many of us, he said “screw you flames the Oilers are where it’s at”, and his friends jumped ship with him. Okay, maybe he didn’t say quite that, but he was a good sport about my possibly controversial question. He admitted his faults (cheering for the flames as a kid), then he fixed them by obviously becoming an Oiler, and converting his friends and family as well.
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Basically, I had an incredible time speaking to all these amazing athletes and being around Edmonton Oilers ‘Greats’ for the day. My first time as ‘media’ for an event will definitely go into my win column.
You can watch all these interviews and the other content we’re working on over on the Nation Network Youtube channel.
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