Letter From the Co-Editor

Thanksgiving is a time to appreciate the people around us and the many fortunate opportunities and blessings that have been bestowed upon us.

Appreciation is a word I believe every person should understand. Appreciation for life. Appreciation for family. Appreciation for any positive event or outcome.

I have much to be thankful for today. I am surround by friends and family who love me and that love is mutually returned.

I am thankful to be a part of a city that lives and dies with its sports teams. Philadelphia fans get an unfair reputation because of our unyielding passion for our teams. It not the other fans’ fault. They have not lived here and experienced the culture and atmosphere to fathom what our boys in orange, red, midnight green and blue really mean to us. Those men on the field, ice, and court are family to us. Yes, we may be a little too tough at times, but would other cities rather us sit in our seats and say nothing? That would mean we could not care less about the outcome of the game, and that goes against everything we believe.

While today many people will say they are thankful for their friends, family or health, I want to say how thankful I am to be where I am today. To know what I want to do for the rest of my life.

Ever since I was a child, the game of hockey has consumed me. I loved everything about. The speed. The tenacity. The overall team-oriented style of play. Not to sound cliche, but the sport was magical to me. It turned into an obsession that could never be satiated. I close my eyes and can envision the Legion of Doom wreaking havoc on the ice, Jeremy Roenick just sniping one past Ed Belfour to send the Philadelphia Flyers to the Eastern Conference Finals and Claude Giroux just decking Sidney Crosby.

My infatuation with sports started when I was a child. At my school there was a trailer that was converted into a library, and my teacher would take the class there once every week. There was a corner in the back of the trailer that was filled from top to bottom with sports biographies. My eyes scanned each row, looking for someone I wanted to read about, until they stopped at the letter D. I pulled “Terrell Davis” off the shelf, read the summary on the back cover and walked over to the librarian to have the book checked out.

I blazed through the book in a day and decided I wanted rewrite it with my own style to it. So I read the book again and rewrote every sentence the way I wanted to. The next week, I pulled another book off the shelf and did the same thing. This went on for weeks until I had read every sports biography on the shelf.

My passion for covering sports continued. As I grew older, I read and wrote on a daily basis. I asked my parents to buy a tape recorder so I could call my own play-by-play during the Phillies games – no disrespect at all to the late Mr. Harry Kalas.  It was during those years, I decided I wanted to spend my life covering sports in some way.

I am a senior in college now and will graduate with a degree in communication with a concentration in journalism. I have no idea what the future has in store for me, but I do hope it has hockey journalist somewhere in the itinerary.

I want to end this post thanking all of you readers for coming to Broad Street Buzz for your Flyers news. David, the writers and I strive to bring you the best content possible. All of us are thankful for your feedback and continuous support for the website. Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving!