Finding enough content for five in-game “hits” during Pittsburgh Penguins games is a challenge for Hailey Hunter. The 29-year-old rink-side reporter for SportsNet Pittsburgh also hosts pre-, post-game and intermission shows and conducts on-camera interviews with head coach Mike Sullivan and players and produces player and staff feature stories.
Hunter, who began working at the network in September, also handles similar but lesser on-air duties for baseball’s Pittsburgh Pirates. “I’m a very competitive person, and I’ve filled that void with TV because TV is so competitive,” said Hunter, who played college golf at Ohio University as Hailey Hrynewich in 2013-17 before changing her surname for professional purposes. “I love the adrenaline rush of having to go live on TV and remember everything you want to say. I love live TV. Live TV is my transition to being competitive.”
Hunter, whose broadcast career includes on-camera work for PGA Tour Live and Golf Channel, rarely has time for golf, but she gladly traded it for a serendipitous job in sports journalism. “I have been an athlete my whole life and part of a team,” she said. “The last few years, I haven’t done anything that made me feel part of a team. Now I can cover a team and be their go-to reporter, and I’m traveling everywhere with them. You are a part of a team. I like that element of it.”
Adding to her enjoyability is that Hunter spent countless hours at a hockey rink because the sport has been a lifelong family endeavor. Her father, Tim Hrynewich, played 55 games for the Penguins in the early 1980s, and twin brother Reed advanced to hockey’s AAA level with his dad as the coach. Reed also played four years of golf at the University of Michigan. “The rink was more home to me than my house,” she said. “I was always there.”
Hailey Hunter gave pro golf a shot but soon realized that following her passion for journalism was the right move. USGA, Steven Gibbons Hunter was a competitive skater but preferred the fairways over the ice. When she finished her high school golf career at Mona Shores near Muskegon as a Michigan Super Team selection as a senior, she turned her focus toward journalism.
Hunter and her father developed a top-10 list for best journalism schools, and Ohio University in Athens was her choice. She developed into a second-team all-Mid-American Conference choice as a senior.
Ironically, with weekday golf practice from about 3 to 7 p.m., Hunter bowed to those commitments and was able to work as a school journalist only for home hockey games because they were played late at night. During non-school months, Hunter fully pursued her journalism track.
During the summer before her senior year, she obtained an internship with the Tampa Bay Storm of the Arena Football League. “Before my senior year, I was thinking I’ve had a good career, but I won’t play great because I didn’t practice,” Hunter said. “I went to my first tournament, and I played lights out and had a great season.”
“I like where I am at now.” — Hailey Hunter She won twice and decided to give pro golf a try. The run was brief – about eight months – mostly because she saw the difficult challenge at Q-School. Instead, she returned to her journalism passion and landed an internship and ultimately a full-time job at the LPGA before a two-year stint with WJTV-Channel 12, the CBS affiliate in Jackson, Mississippi, where she covered Southeastern Conference sports.
Hunter said she “developed an on-camera reel, which was huge for me because I realized how few experiences I had in front of the camera where I was going live every day without a prompter.” Then she spent almost a year as a team reporter and in-arena host for the New York Islanders during which she worked the 2022 Winter Olympics and continued freelancing for the PGA Tour and Golf Channel.
“All those things built up my resume so I felt like I could audition for the opportunity with the Penguins,” she said. She’ll continue to juggle as many gigs as possible. “I like where I am at now,” Hunter said. “I would like to cover more golf, if I can. My dream job has always been golf and hockey.” It’s a goal that’s been a lifetime in the making.
Top: Hailey Hunter considers herself fortunate to have found a career that combines multiple interests. Hailey Hunter photo © 2024 Global Golf Post LLC Share with the women in your life
