KPU Alumnus Dan O’Connor is the Vancouver Giants’ New Broadcaster, Director of Media Relations

Dan O’Connor, Director of Media Relations and play-by-play announcer for the Western Hockey League’s Vancouver Giants, says that the hands-on experience he got while attending Kwantlen Polytechnic University was crucial to his success in broadcasting.

“I’ve known really since the very beginning that this is what I wanted to do. I was one of those very lucky people where, even at age five or age six, I kinda knew I wanted to broadcast hockey games,” says O’Connor. “As a kid, I would literally practice with the TV muted [and I] took every opportunity to practice.”

Now he travels with the Vancouver Giants doing play-by-play for all 72 regular season games and covering website content, media requests and inquiries, social media, and more. Aside from the responsibilities that his job demands, O’Connor helps organize the team by booking hotels and accommodations.

“It’s a lot more than showing up 15 minutes before the game and putting a headset on,” he says. “There’s a lot of preparation that goes into the job [and] travelling with a junior hockey team.”

As a graduate of KPU’s Journalism program, O’Connor doubts that he would be as successful in his field without his schooling. He says that the biggest things he learned from KPU was how to write and how to take photographs, adding that he “wouldn’t have traded [the experience] for the world.”

“Kwantlen’s Journalism program prepared me excellently for all that was to come, and I really owe so much of my skillset and what I’m able to do and what I’m able to contribute to a hockey team because of [the program],” he says. “I would recommend the program, absolutely 100 per cent, to anyone, and I’m definitely proud to call myself an alumnus of Kwantlen.”

O’Connor would like to thank “the teachers and the passion that they all had for the program and for the business” for providing him with a rewarding education at KPU.

“They just made it so much easier and worthwhile to go to school everyday and to look forward to it,” he says. “They taught me a lot of important lessons along the way.”

As for the Vancouver Giants 2017 and 2018 season, O’Connor says that the team is “coming together,” and that “the biggest thing is to get better every day.”