Reporting the Rink: Rachel Luscher’s Life Inside Islanders Hockey

This past week I had the amazing experience of speaking with Rachel Luscher. Rachel is the Digital Media Coordinator for the New York Islanders. Her job entails covering the team day-to-day and writing for the team website. During the season she covers each practice, game, and event that the team does and she writes features. During the offseason she continues to cover events, attends meetings for the upcoming season, does in-person reporting, and interviews.

Courtesy of Rachel Luscher

She started this position in September of 2023. Prior to this she actually was an intern with the Islanders. During this time, she was an update anchor, gave live intermission reports, interviewed players and produced features. She was also a digital intern for the Islanders and worked on writing, editing, and reporting. In 2022 she was an intern for NBC New York. 

Rachel attended Hofstra University and was a Journalism major. She mostly focused on audio and broadcasting, but still learned about all aspects of it. Her main goal was to be well versed in multiple things. All four years in school she also did radio, and eventually became the station manager.

Rachel has always been interested in writing, even at a young age. That was her original dream, to pursue writing. She didn’t really decide on a career in media and sports until around high school. It was unexpected to get into sports, but around the age of 15 it became her dream. She went through some health issues and turned to hockey and baseball to get through those tough times. Following sports helped her get through this, whether it was looking forward to a puck drop or first pitch to get her mind off of things. She gets to experience the other side of this in her job now. Getting to see others use sports to get through their own tough times. Especially when the players visit hospitals. Getting to see the happiness from the families, when they get to meet and talk to the players, and they don’t have to think about other things that may be going on. It really is what makes it all so important, getting to bring joy to families. Whether it’s when they are visiting people in the hospital or it's getting to see parents taking their kids to their first hockey game, it all really shows just how meaningful what she does is. Her passion for sports got her through, and if she can do the best job she can do, it makes it possible for fans to feel closer to their favorite players and team.

Courtesy of Rachel Luscher

Rachel’s biggest inspiration in sports is Shannon Hogan. Shannon is the Sportscaster for MSG Networks, and covers the Islanders. She is very encouraging for Rachel, especially when she was just starting out. She helped her get out there to make her mark, “get out there, they hired you for a reason.” She helped a lot with gaining her confidence.

Another inspiration as well as one of her favorite players is Henrik Lundqvist, former New York Rangers goalie, even though he used to play for the rival team. He actually went through the same surgery that she did, and it was inspiring to see someone go through the same thing as her. 

There are of course challenges that come with any job. For Rachel, self doubt was one of the main challenges she faced. Learning the basics and going over them helped a lot. Remembering to believe in herself and give herself grace also helped a lot. 

Being a woman in sports can be hard sometimes especially from people on the outside. Thankfully, she has a great circle of people around her, so she hasn’t had any issues with people like this and even if she did, she would have a great support system to help her through it. 

Rachel’s least favorite part of this job is the schedule. Just about any job in sports is going to have an unconventional schedule. This isn’t really a 9-5 industry. It is very common to get there early and leave really late, since it is an around the clock job. To counter that though, there is a lot of adrenaline that comes with events and games, thankfully she hasn’t had to experience that “I want to go home” feeling. Her favorite part of the job is the connectivity of it all. Not only does she get to work with others in her own department, but she also gets to work with other departments. Getting to connect with them as well as the players and fans is a rewarding experience. Seeing fans come together in support of the team and getting to be part of that process. She also enjoys getting to talk with the rookies. Whether it is because of the difference in how the team travels to just the atmosphere, getting to see their point of view is interesting.

Courtesy of Rachel Luscher

If Rachel could give any advice to herself from a year ago it would be: It takes time to settle in, just because you do belong there doesn’t mean it feels that way at first. Don’t rush your comfort. It takes time to feel comfortable. “Confidence is just as important as hard work and talent.” 

Some important tips Rachel has for anyone looking to go into this field: Be open to everything, be able to think on your feet, learn as many things as possible (writing, editing, video, etc), give yourself grace! You are trying your best, take advice from as many people as you can, be eager to learn. Writing is the fundamental skill to reporting. Conversational aspect of interviews, be in the moment. Control the pace and get used to that. Be able to learn on the fly. Live broadcasting and radio are important to know. Know that not everything is going to be perfect. Working on anything live is very helpful. 

I’m super thankful for the chance to get to talk to and learn from Rachel. Learning about what she does with the team, daily team coverage, writing for the team website, covering practices, games, events, and features, reporting, and interviews is really helpful for someone looking to be in this career. Be sure to keep an eye out for Rachel’s work on the Islanders’ social channels this season!