Redmond reaches top five

In hockey, it's said: put the puck on the net, you never know what may happen.

Jackie Redmond has embraced that truth in her career.

When the 2010 Media Studies alumnus and hockey fan heard about Gillette Drafted 3 – The Search for Canada’s Next Sportscaster,  she asked herself, “Why not try out? It was worth a shot."

First, Redmond cracked the top 10 in the competition produced, judged and aired by theScore. Now, after six episodes, she's made it to the top five, the last woman in the field.

“More than anything else, passion for sports made me go for this,” she wrote in an email between shoots.

Paired with that passion, Redmond's four-year experience at University of Guelph-Humber helped too, she said. As a student, she learned the concepts, theories and principles, but also the lesson that “you have to go out there and apply it and be willing to work your butt off.”

Challenges on Drafted have included a studio roundtable where the competitors debate a “hot-button" issue. A solo test had each contestant record a podcast with theScore personality Tim Micallef. (See how it all plays out online.)

Redmond has made it this far by drawing on solid media production and hosting experience. While at University of Guelph-Humber, she filed to The Beat and Radix and interned at ET Canada. She worked off and on-camera for Rogers TV in London, ON. And, at 102.3 BOB FM in the Forest City, she reported on-air and hosted videos.

Competing on Drafted is the next step in Redmond’s education and experience. Besides getting the chance to cover sports – a lifelong goal – she’s received “invaluable” feedback. “After each challenge, the judging panel [of hosts from the Score] has met with us off-camera and given us constructive criticism,” said Redmond.

She’s combining that honest professional evaluation with another truth of her own: “Sports fans are passionate people and they know their sports inside/out,” said Redmond. “I’m not going to ‘fake’ knowing about any given topic because sports fans are smart enough to see right through that. I think just being myself is a major reason why I’ve made it through the fifth elimination in the competition.”

A Leafs fan, she recalls gathering with other citizens of Leafs Nation to watch on campus. Though she’s heartened by Kessel’s league-leading points total, the team’s impressive early record, she looks at other truths: one being the Leafs’ November losing streaks that have “plagued” them the last couple seasons. It’s an honest assessment.

Learn more about the Media Studies program at University of Guelph-Humber.

Sean Flinn, Web Communications Specialist, 416-798-1331, ext. 6299, sean.flinn@guelphhumber.ca