Liberty Flames hockey forward Bochinski has big goals, not just on the ice

• Jordan Bochinski takes inspiration from sports broadcasters Dan O’Toole and Cabbie Richards to interview athletes.
• With his digital media performance major, Bochinski hopes to have his interviews with professional and collegiate athletes televised.

 

 

According to Liberty Division 1 hockey forward Jordan Bochinski, sports reporting needs to be more about personality than dry stats and game performance.

 

Growing up, Bochinski found his inspiration from iconic Canadian sports television personalities

Dan O’Toole and Cabbie Richards.

 

“Those guys were my role models growing up,” Bochinski said. “I have always loved how (Richards) put a humorous, light touch on athletes who are constantly serious about their business, or getting asked every day the same questions.”

 

According to Bochinski, Richards went above and beyond the typical interviewing process. Instead of asking athletes the typical game day questions, Richards took an animated and light-hearted approach to interviewing athletes.

 

Because of Bochinski’s passion for broadcasting, he recently switched his major to digital media performance and said he is just following his dream of replicating Richard’s style of interviewing with his YouTube channel, The Bo Show.

 

On The Bo Show, Bochinski interviews professional hockey and football players. Although new, he mainly invites athletes close to Canada.
Some of the noteworthy guys he has interviewed are Nolan Patrick (Philadelphia Flyers), Mark Chipman (owner of Winnipeg Jets), Dustin Byfuglien (Winnipeg Jets), Kevin Fogg (Winnipeg Blue Bombers), and Chris Randle (Winnipeg Blue Bombers).

 

The show started when Bochinski was playing with the Steinbach Pistons, which is a junior “A” hockey team in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League (MJHL). While playing with the Pistons, he started interviewing Pistons hockey players for episodes on his show.

 

Because he played with the Pistons, he was able to get involved with the play-by-play radio announcer, Dave Anthony, who helped him shoot and edit the videos.

 

After interviewing most of the Pistons, Bochinski had to determine the next phase for his show. He quickly realized that he could progress his show with help from his summer job at the True North Foundation.

 

The True North Foundation works with the Winnipeg Jets, a NHL team, and it supports the youth in the city by doing special events and camps such as Camp Manitou.

 

 

Excluding Facebook Live and Twitter, Bochinski’s interview with Patrick generated over 12,000 views on YouTube.

 

“This was an awesome opportunity for me to continue The Bo Show with big names, but also give (the athletes) what they want with a little touch on Camp Manitou,” Bochinski said. “People can see that these guys really care about the camp and the city, so we combined The Bo Show and Camp Manitou.”

 

Being a fan of the players really allowed Bochinski’s passion to show in the interviews.

 

“Dustin Byfuglien was probably my favorite one because this was the first guy I had on the show where I was thinking I have watched this guy perform for so many years,” Bochinski said. “When I was a kid I went to go watch him when he played with the Chicago Blackhawks and he is one of my favorite players. Just sitting beside him and seeing how big he was, it was awesome.”

 

Bochinski hopes to continue the show at Liberty and interview athletes on campus, but also get interviews with professional teams around the area, like the Carolina Hurricanes.

 

“Ultimately, my goal is to get it to a platform where it could be televised, like a program on TSN or just to have a segment on TV,” Bochinski said.