Daniel Cagen is currently sports editor for the wicked local website. He grew up in Rhode Island where at a very young age he developed an appreciation for writing.
“My father worked at newspapers before I was born, first at the Providence Journal and now at the Worcester Telegram. I went with him a few times to the newsroom and got to experience it, which appealed to me somewhat. More than that, though, I think I always liked the idea of reporting and writing interesting topics. I read the sports journal every morning and grew to love finding out the new tidbits of information good reporters could churn out on a daily basis.”
When Cagen was in middle school, Cagen decided to turn his interest into a craft and joined the school paper.
“This was before I knew I wanted to go into writing but, I wanted to give it a try. My first assignment was the school spelling bee. Every student in the school took part in the spelling bee, and as it turned out, I was a very good speller. I finished second in the school, actually runner-up to one of my good friends, so I ended up writing about myself, which was rather awkward.
However Cagen didn’t write his first sports until he was a freshman at Boston College.
“My first sports story was when I was a freshman in college. I covered the BC women’s basketball team against North Carolina State. BC had a pretty good team that year, but they lost that game. I got into the postgame press conference and had no idea how to ask questions. Luckily, there was an experienced reporter, I believe from the Boston Herald, who carried the interview. As I remember, the coach opened up quite a bit about some questionable officiating, so I lucked into a pretty good story.”
Even though Cagen didn’t write about sports until college it was an early fascination in his life.
“I became a sports fan at a young age, probably 8 or 9, and something about it just always thrilled me. It doesn’t matter how many times you see a game-winning shot or goal, it’s still exciting. I’ve always like figuring out why things happen, and sports provides an opportunity to do that on a daily basis.”
Even though Cagen covers a multitude of sports he has two that he thoroughly enjoys writing about.
“I cover mostly hockey now and I really enjoy that. There’s a flow to hockey and a combination of skill and physicality that you don’t have in other sports. I’ve heard other writers say they have a hard time writing hockey, but that’s mostly people who don’t understand the sport. If you know how to watch it, it can be fascinating. Hockey players are also generally very easy to talk to and will bend over backwards to help you write your story.
“I have to say, though, that a great basketball game may still be my favorite to cover. The back-and-forths and runs that are inherent in the sport appeal to me and I like how it’s so matchup-based. There’s also something to basketball that I like where a player can get by on great talent alone, but to truly be a great player there needs to be more. Something about having that need to be great rather than just average has appealed to me.”
Out of all the stories Cagen has written about throughout his career, one stands out amongst the rest.
“This would be the long piece I did two summers ago on concussions in high school football. I talked to doctors, concussion experts, coaches and players for it. It was really interesting to hear so many different perspectives on what’s become such a divisive issue in this country. We used it as the cover story for our high school football preview and it ended up getting nominated for best sports story by the New England Newspaper Association.”
You can read Daniel Cagen’s stories and blogs at http://www.wickedlocal.com/westborough/sports