Jason Botchford passed away in April of 2019 and the hockey world lost an amazing voice who brought passion to everything he did. He was a great promoter of localized sports coverage and championed mentoring younger journalists because of his passion for the industry.
Botch was excellent at what he did. He formed relationships with the players and then brought unmatched coverage of this team to the hungry Vancouver fanbase for nearly 15 years. Jason was an inspiration to many and if you look at the up-and-coming media, many of them will tell you that Botch was one of the main reasons why they got into journalism and content creation.
The Botchford Project was established for the 2019-20 season, and we are now in our fifth year of this program giving young people an opportunity to experience what it’s like to cover a Vancouver Canucks game and write an article that will be seen by tens of thousands on the NHL.com website.
This program means a lot to me for a multitude of reasons. I was a mega fan of Jason Botchford. This guy was able to have fun with players and have fun with the content he created. Whether it was screaming at Jeff Paterson on The Patcast about J-Pat's Cookie Cake, showing passion about his Eagles or throwing love to the Boy Genius, Harman Dayal -- Botch had a passion for sports coverage that was fun and entertaining, and he made us all laugh while delivering his content about the sport we love to follow.
I was lucky enough to be selected in the first year of the Botchford Project and the experience helped feed my passion for journalism and content creation. This program gives aspiring content creators, broadcasters, and journalists a chance to tell a hockey story at the highest level. Whether you are YouTubing, blogging, podcasting, writing for a school newspaper, or even making videos on TikTok, this program gives an opportunity to experience the NHL and have a chance to write a story about the local team and their players.
My Botchford Project day was exhilarating. I remember buying a new dress shirt and pants the day before and being so nervous the morning of as I prepared for my first time in an NHL locker room. My story was about Jason Botchford and I had all the support in the world from local media members like Wyatt Arndt, Tony Gallagher, Harman Dayal and Thomas Drance.
It felt like everyone was rooting for me and that was a pretty amazing feeling.
My former boss at CanucksArmy, Ryan Biech was the guy who greeted me at the door in the morning. We walked into the rink, chatting about my nerves and the story that I wanted to tell. Biech has been a critical part of this program and is one of the guys who got the Botch-bump for his work in prospects coverage.
From there, I wanted to speak with Elias Pettersson because he mentioned Jason in his speech after receiving the Calder Trophy for Rookie of the Year.
Pettersson was a bit banged up and didn’t take part in the morning skate that day. He wasn’t going to do media that morning and that was unfortunate and made me feel like my story was going to be missing a key piece of hearing from a player about Botch.
Then, Pettersson heard that I was there for the Botchford Project and that my story was about Jason and his impact on the market. Pettersson graciously opened up in a one-on-one format with me and said that he enjoyed the story that I was trying to tell about Jason.
This moment made me feel pretty special. It made me feel like I was doing something that Botch did on a daily basis.
I think that’s what the Botchford Project is all about.
From there, hard work and continued passion helped fuel my goal of making a living off of creating content about the Vancouver Canucks.
The night was basically a blur. I don’t even remember who they played to be honest because all I wanted to do was go home and write this story about my idol.
And then I did.
And here it is.
https://media.canucks.com/the-botchford-project/articles/botch-s-impact-chris-faber
This was something I was extremely proud of at the time and though the writing is not great, I’m still extremely proud of what I did back in February of 2020 because to me, that article had my passion in it – which was something we saw in all of Jason’s work.
Botch always promoted quality content that he noticed around the Canucks community and that is what we are trying to do here with the Botchford Project. Sometimes, the most difficult part of creating content is distribution and this program gives an opportunity for a platform to raise awareness of local content creators.
This year we will see Ian Wilson, Izzy Cheung and Tyson Cole participate in the program that helps aspiring journalists be seen and from here, it’s about what they do with the opportunity.
As I look down press row, I can’t help but notice three Botchford Project alumni: Noah Strang of Daily Hive, David Quadrelli of CanucksArmy and myself, Chris Faber. We’re all proud to represent the Botchford Project and I know that there are plenty more great names that will be found with this program for the future of Canucks content creation.
The platform that I was afforded helped expedite the ability to gain a following and have more people get their eyes and ears on my work. Now, in my role as the Senior Writer for the Canucks, it’s a treat to be able to be on the other side and assist in the careers of aspiring content creators.
The Canucks organization has been committed to the Botchford Project for five years now and because it’s so near and dear to me, I want to make sure that these folks get the best experience on their day but also understand what can come next if you seize the opportunity.
No matter if you write, talk, create video content or make whatever content the kids are creating nowadays, the Botchford Project will continue to be there as a springboard to those who are passionate about the content that they create and we are incredibly proud to work with Jason’s wife, Kat Botchford on helping support the next generation of content creators in the Vancouver market.
"For him, supporting young writers was critical to the future of journalism,” said Kat about Jason. “He was so passionate about this industry and seeing it evolve through young, emerging writers. This initiative enables a community to pay it forward by continuing what he started. My family and I are incredibly honoured and so grateful to see Jason's legacy continue through The Botchford Project."
It is great to continue with this program that helps the next generation and as someone who was supported by Jason while he was with us as well as after his passing, I am forever grateful for what he did to support the next wave of journalists and content creators. This man was my idol, and I am so proud to be a part of it as we continue to build on Jason’s legacy.
Our selected participants Ian, Izzy and Tyson will get a full day to experience what it’s like to cover an NHL game and will then evolve their day into a story that will be posted here on Canucks.com in the near future.
Big thanks to The Athletic, Jeff Paterson, Thomas Drance, Ryan Biech and Kathyrn Botchford for their continued passion for this program and I hope that they can all see how important this program has been and will continue to be to the future of Vancouver sports coverage.
