Something good to tweet about
Niagara IceDogs online media intern hopes to work full-time in major junior hockey
When the Niagara IceDogs hosted the Erie Otters in their home opener Friday, Jordyn Moussa was part of the home team.
She wasn’t wearing a uniform, shooting pucks or stopping them on the ice, but the graduate student in Brock University’s applied health sciences program was instrumental online telling IceDogs Nation what their favourite Ontario Hockey League team was up to every skate glide of the way.
If last night’s game against the defending league champion Otters was a typical game, the 24-year-old would have sent out 30 to 40 tweets by the time the final buzzer sounded and the three stars selected.
“If it’s a high-scoring game, like our game against Erie last March when we scored nine goals, then I’ll send out more tweets to keep our fans informed of what’s happening, but typically I’ll stay in the 30-40 range,” she said.
Moussa is starting her second season working in the IceDogs’ promotions department as online media intern. Among the Ottawa native’s duties are managing and monitoring social media platforms and websites, as well as online analytics.
She also mentors players on the 21 and younger team on ways to build their presence online in a professional and positive way.
Knowing how to stickhandle their way around the potential traps in the online world of instant communication, and long-lasting regret, is something anyone in the public eye needs to appreciate.
“It’s so important for aspiring professionals, whether you want to play on a team or work for a company, to realize that once something is posted online, it could follow you throughout your entire career,” Moussa said.
Managing social media for an entire team and not just her own was a learning curve for Moussa.
“In that first year (with the IceDogs) I wasn’t just learning how to manage another person’s brand,” she said. “I needed to learn about all of our players, both past and present, and then establish myself as the person who was following them for all games.”
Throughout the internship Moussa is fulfilling a goal of wanting to do something outside of school that can help her grow “both professionally and academically.”
The one-time competitive dancer began developing a love for hockey watching the 2009 world junior championships on television while bed-ridden and recovering from a dislocated right knee cap and sprained ankle suffered in dance class.
While those types of injuries typically don’t confine someone to bed, the timing couldn’t have come at a worse time, given the typical Ottawa winter.
“Being on crutches and in a full leg brace, trying to walk through feet of snow and ice wasn’t a smart decision, so I stayed home for much of that time,” Moussa said. “Even trying to get around my house was a challenge.
“Luckily, I was a good enough student in high school that I didn’t suffer academically from the time spent away.”
The more she watched the top junior players competing to win a world championship for their home countries, the more she came to appreciate the game.
“My mother explained hockey to me and what it meant to be a player at that level,” Moussa said. “After that I just wanted to keep learning.”
And learning and learning. Interest in Canada’s national winter game eventually led her to a masters thesis about the impact of historical change on the organizational design of major hockey leagues in Canada.
Going back to the 1960s, when major junior hockey was created, Moussa is researching events that may have prompted change in the design, structure, ownership and values of hockey organizations.
“I study how leagues operate in their own environment and how in Canada they’ve gone from operating with a few teams in their leagues to expanding to 22 in the Western Hockey League, 20 in Ontario and 18 in Quebec.”
Moussa, who hopes to work in major junior hockey once she completes the thesis and graduates with a masters degree, said her work is not intended to offer criticism but to better understand how the three major junior leagues exist in Canada today and potentially make recommendations to help them moving forward.
“At Brock we’re very fortunate to have the most-diverse sport management faculty in Canada,” she said. “I’ve been able to read literature from well-respected researchers, who are here on campus and then approach them and ask questions about something they wrote several years ago to gain further insights.”
Balancing her job as an intern with the IceDogs with the demands of being a full-time graduate student at Brock requires some juggling.
“Interning for the Niagara IceDogs has helped me develop interests similar to, but outside of, what I am studying,” Moussa said. “It’s a lot of work doing both, but it’s very rewarding to be able to grow my professional knowledge in an area that is extremely important to me.
“I have two communities: one among the applied health sciences students on campus and then I go downtown and have this whole other community with the shared interest of representing the IceDogs brand.”
Moussa grew up in an Ottawa Senators household, but as a hockey fan is drawn to players rather than to teams.
“I follow many NHL teams primarily because I’ll start following players in their junior or NCAA careers and continue to follow their careers into the NHL and beyond,” she said. “At the NHL level, I follow the Penguins the most.”
Her allegiances aren’t torn whenever the Ottawa 67’s visit St. Catharines or when the IceDogs travel to the Nation’s Capital for a game.
“Being from Ottawa, I always want to see local businesses thrive, but when the IceDogs play the 67’s, I want the team I spend so much time and energy working with to come out on top.”
Watching hockey as part of your job, while immensely satisfying for someone who lives the game, is not without its drawbacks.
“I miss little things that might happen during a game because I’m tweeting or updating our website in real time, but I still get to watch as much hockey as I would normally watch on my own, if not more,” she said. “I don’t really miss watching hockey as a fan, because I still get to watch the games and I still get to be invested in the outcomes.”