10.11.22 HRY Mailbag

RALEIGH, NC. -Fresh off of her debut as a member of the team's official broadcast, Hanna Yates sat down with us to answer some of your questions.

(Note: Some questions have been edited for clairty.)
Welcome to North Carolina! Have you had Carolina BBQ yet? - @Tom\_Hannigan237
I have not had Carolina BBQ yet. I've heard a lot of good things and I've had a lot of recommendations, but I have not had it yet.
I'm open to more recommendations; I am going to try it.
Any history with North Carolina? Have you been here before outside of work? - @tweetsofcat
Yes! One time and it's actually a really funny story.
So about six years ago, when I first graduated from college, I was visiting a family friend with my dad who had a connection. He was a part of the board here at PNC Arena and he knew that I wanted to get into hockey.
So he said, "Why don't we just reach out to the Canes organization and see if someone would be willing to speak with you and give you some insight on steps to take just to get your foot into the hockey world?" And so of course I was like, "Yeah, if someone's willing to do that I would love it."
Don Waddell volunteered to do it.
He gave me a tour of the arena, then we sat in the stands on our own after practice. He just kind of talked to me about like, my goals and dreams in the broadcast industry and then gave me some insight on hey, you know, here's the type of people you could talk to to break in, here's what you can do to build a reel, different things that we look for when we're hiring and stuff.
Fast-forward six years and now here we are. It's all very surreal.
I wasn't trying to get any specific job at the time, there wasn't an opening, but I just wanted to pick as many brains as I could and see if someone was willing to talk to me. He was super friendly and helped me a lot.
What are you most looking forward to about this new adventure? - @T\_Mann30
I'm super excited and I'm just happy to be here. Everyone's been super welcoming. I'm thrilled to join this group plus the team.
They're going to make a competitive run towards the Stanley Cup. So it's just a great year to be here overall.
Outside of that, I'm looking forward to personal growth and professional growth. Having new teammates and covering a team that's had so much success in recent years, and that's going to be successful again this year.
There's a lot of new faces even on the ice. So it's been helpful coming in with so many others.

Favorite dessert? - @DugginsBetsey
Ice cream.
I'm not supposed to have a ton of dairy because of my stomach issues, but sometimes we just roll with the consequences.
If I had to be specific, a cookie dough milkshake.
Favorite Shania Twain song? - @jaredellis\_96
"Any Man of Mine" and "Man! I Feel Like A Woman!"
Do you have any pets? - @raleighcaniac
No.
I have a family dog and a family cat from growing up though. They still live with my parents. They're older, like 17, so they're a part of my childhood.
Bella is our beagle that we adopted from a stray rescue and Leah is our cat that we have.

What is your favorite sport to watch outside of hockey? - @EricBerte
College football. I love SEC football. Big Mizzou Tigers fan.
Every year growing up my dad and I would go to Mizzou games together as like a family thing. Then I went to Mizzou and we literally went to every game. He would come in town and then every year as our father-daughter bonding activity I got to pick one Mizzou road game and we would travel to it together. So, yeah, I love college football.
What's one thing we should know about Mizzou that we probably don't and what's one thing that you've shared with your family and friends about the Triangle already? - @dstafford
Eliah Drinkwitz, who is the head coach at Mizzou, spent a part of his career prior to there at NC State. He actually gave me pointers on places to eat and things to do before I came here and said this was his favorite place to live.
He loved all the people here so much.
As far as here, I'd say that the people are really welcoming. Everyone who lives here has been so nice and it's been really easy to fit in, make friends quickly. Both through work and then other personal things, like church.
And then also just how beautiful it is here. I flew in and I've never seen so many trees in my entire life. It's so green. It's so unique and there's so much to do outside.
Not a member of Twitter? We're always happy to take questions at [email protected] as well!
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