Colorado Avalanche Fan Blogger Finds His Voice
The Colorado Avalanche fandom is a small but proud group. Read about one fan blogger who was recently promoted to co-editor of the site.
Right now everybody’s talking about the Colorado Avalanche’s win streak. The team is currently unbeaten — they won all six preseason games.
Over here at Mile High Sticking, though, a change has been quietly taking over. Even while it was still summer, we got a lot of new writers who wanted to blog about the team. A couple of our writers hit their one-year anniversary.
And one writer got promoted to my co-editor. That man is a fellow writing major — Ross Sellers.
In the beginning of his tenure with Mile High Sticking, Ross went through a similar process that I did — making his style blog-ready. When you’re a writing major, you’re taught to use complex sentence structures and long paragraphs with complete rhetoric to prove a point.
That’s not how it works in the blogosphere. It’s more about lightning fast aerial strikes. Ross learned a lot faster than I did how to adapt his style, but his first fan post still read like a Hemingway-esque short story:
To be clear, a Hemingway-esque short story is something to be proud of, and I personally enjoyed the read. Nonetheless, it’s not exactly a blog. That said, Ross had it down perfectly the next time he wrote a fan post:
That’s one that really captures the feelings.
In the span of a year, Ross has written a lot of really good posts. However, one of his most popular posts is one that’s not even all that interesting to me because it’s about the video game NHL17, which I don’t play. Nonetheless, I don’t want you to miss out on Ross’s insightful look into the Colorado Avalanche’s player ratings, so here it is:
Frankly, I like the following post a little better:
It’s also one of my favorites, even though it was originally written as a reaction to one of my (typically controversial) posts!
Anyway, I asked Ross to answer a few questions about having been a Mile High Sticking contributor for a whole year. Here’s what he had to say.
What is your favorite post that you’ve written?
My absolute favorite post I’ve written is the “Offseason Narrative” Post because it’s got my no effs given flare, nice use of metaphors, and a showcase of good writing while also talking about the offseason in a roundabout way. But if we’re talking usefulness for the general population and a piece of writing that provides some hard nose information about the Avalanche then I’ll go with: “The Third Period Needs to be Shored Up” because that took me some serious time, and some real fact digging — I still have the notecard on my fridge that details all the facts I wrote down.
How did you become an Avs fan, and what do you love most about the team?
More from Mile High Sticking
Colorado is my home? Does the Pope sh*t in the woods, and does a bear wear a funny hat? In all seriousness, it kind of just became second nature after the first Cup, and when they won the second it became religion.
Sure, I had a lapse after they lost game 7 to the Wild in 2003 (my first playoff game, and Patrick Roy’s last game…) That was the end of an era, and I just couldn’t cope with no Peter Forsberg and David Aebischer in net. But, those times were necessary in order for me to come back to the team with a fiery passion. So I limped through the lockout season, and fumed over the Ryan O’Reilly saga (my favorite Avs player at the time) and eventually found my place back where I needed to be (right near the glass, banging with the figurative gusto only a TV Avs watcher can truly understand).
Additionally, I love their speed, their jerseys (more the colors and not the aprons) their short but prosperous history, the fact that I can get regional access to their games on TV in Montana, and that when I get froggy they’re only a ten hour drive away. Most of all, I love being a Colorado Avalanche fan because we are a rare breed, my friends.
What are some things you’ve learned from writing for Mile High Sticking?
Writing for MHS has been an eye-opener and world opener for me. I’ve found so many opportunities in writing because I can reference my writing at MHS. Suffice it to say I’ve found something I am extremely passionate about doing as a career, if the right people will have me, of course. I’ve found a niche, and people can expect to see me frolicking in my natural habitat for many years to come. I found a home here, and I intend to build on that foundation.
What do you hope to achieve moving forward?
Moving forward, I hope to make my way into locker rooms, interview players, and find a way into the press box with all the free food. I have found a few good opportunities out there already, and I intend to keep searching, but I am happy doing what I do. So writing about the Avalanche figures to be a part of my career plans (at least for a bit) moving forward.
What advice would you offer to new writers for the site?
New writers to the site should never lift a metaphorical finger to EJ in any slanderous form of text — all ye be warned the wrath of Nadia.
But on a more serious note, write what you’re passionate about, seek the unsaid, and give it a voice. Most of all, make it yours because no one can say anything the way that you do. People say that writing is cliche, that there is no way to say anything that hasn’t been said, but those people are wrong. People lay the fodder feeding the trough that says writers are a dying breed.
There are ways to challenge what has been said, and ways to find a natural voice where it may otherwise seem strained. So come here with an open mind, and pursue your writing, even if it seems futile — because I assure you that it is not.
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