More Than Just Games: Reflecting on My Time in Quinnipiac Student Media
- Ryan Holden
- May 13
- 6 min read
Updated: Jun 10
When I first joined the Quinnipiac Bobcats Sports Network in August of 2023, I knew I loved sports and photography, but I did not fully understand how much those next three years would shape me. At the time, I was simply looking for an opportunity to get involved, improve creatively, and immerse myself in college athletics. Looking back now, QBSN became much more than that. It became the place where I found my direction, developed my voice as a photographer, and learned how powerful sports storytelling can really be.
From August 2023 through May 2026, I had the opportunity to cover all 16 Quinnipiac athletic programs that hold their home events on campus. Every sport taught me something different. Ice hockey taught me anticipation and emotion. Basketball taught me pace and intensity. Soccer taught me movement and storytelling. Volleyball taught me timing and energy. Softball and baseball taught me how quickly everything can change in a single moment. Lacrosse and rugby taught me controlled chaos and physicality. Tennis taught me patience and focus. Acrobatics and field hockey taught me precision, trust, and attention to detail. Every environment forced me to adapt, improve, and approach storytelling from a completely different perspective.
One of the most meaningful parts of my QBSN experience was seeing my work become part of the organization’s larger identity. Over the years, my photos appeared throughout the QBSN magazine, including on the cover of the Fall 2023 and Fall 2024 issues. Seeing my work printed in the magazine was always special because it made the photos feel permanent in a different way. They were no longer just images posted after a game. They became part of something people could hold, save, and look back on as part of Quinnipiac sports history.
My work was also regularly used by QBSN and Q30TV in other ways, including on the QBSN website, social media graphics, and Q30 show graphics. That part meant a lot to me because it showed that the work had value beyond my own portfolio. It helped tell stories across student media, supported other creators, and gave Quinnipiac athletics more visual identity across platforms.
During my first year with QBSN, everything still felt new. I was learning how to work in live sports environments, how to handle pressure, and how to capture moments that carried meaning beyond the action itself. That year included several milestones that completely changed my perspective on sports photography. I was named Photographer of the Semester in Fall 2023, covered my first conference championship at the 2023 MAAC Women’s Soccer Championship, captured my first Quinnipiac trophy and title win, and later covered my first NCAA Division-I national tournament at the 2024 NCAA Men’s Ice Hockey Providence Regional.
Those two tournaments shaped the way I saw sports photography early in my time with QBSN. The 2023 MAAC Women’s Soccer Championship was the first time I experienced the emotion of a conference title through the lens, from the pressure of the match to the celebration after the final whistle. The 2024 NCAA Men’s Ice Hockey Providence Regional was different. It was the national stage, and it was the first time I truly understood that some of the most important sports photos happen after the play is over. The emotion of an overtime goal, the silence after the season-ending loss, and players realizing their careers had just changed forever all stayed with me.
By the 2024-2025 school year, my role within QBSN changed significantly when I became the second-ever Photography Manager in organization history. That position brought a completely different kind of responsibility. It was no longer just about the games I personally covered. I became responsible for organizing photography coverage, helping photographers develop, assigning events, and creating consistency within the department. It pushed me to grow creatively, but it also pushed me to grow as a leader.
That year became one of the busiest and most rewarding stretches of my time at Quinnipiac. During my tenure as Photography Manager, QBSN saw the highest number of individuals participate in photography roles within the organization. At the same time, I personally became the organization’s most traveled member and photographed more games than anyone else in QBSN. Those achievements mattered to me because they reflected both the work I was putting in personally and the growth of the photography side of the organization as a whole.
The 2024-2025 year also brought several major tournament opportunities. I covered the 2024 MAAC Volleyball Championship, the 2024 Nutmeg Classic, the 2025 MAAC Basketball Championships, and the 2025 MAAC Softball Tournament. Each event had its own feel. Volleyball brought the intensity of a postseason environment. The Nutmeg Classic showed the pride and pressure of in-state hockey. The MAAC Basketball Championships brought the energy of a true tournament setting. The MAAC Softball Tournament showed how quickly a season can come down to one game and one moment.
By the 2025-2026 school year, I felt like everything I had learned over the previous two years started to come together. I was honored to be named Photographer of the Semester again in Fall 2025, but more importantly, I felt more confident than ever in my ability to tell stories through sports. That year, I was once again the most traveled member, photographed the most games, and also covered or worked the most games out of all QBSN members. At that point, the numbers were not just about volume. They represented consistency, commitment, and the amount of time I had dedicated to documenting Quinnipiac athletics.
That final year included some of the most meaningful events I covered. I photographed the 2025 MAAC Volleyball Championship, the 2025 Nutmeg Classic, the 2026 MAAC Basketball Championships, the 2026 Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament, the 2026 MAAC Tennis Championships, and the 2026 MAAC Softball Championship. Each one represented a different chapter. Some ended in celebration, others ended in silence, but all of them added to my understanding of what postseason sports really feel like from behind the camera.
One moment from that final year stands out more than almost any other. Covering Quinnipiac women’s basketball’s first-ever WBIT victory eventually became even more meaningful when I realized it was also the final win of legendary head coach Tricia Fabbri’s career at Quinnipiac. At the time, the focus was naturally on the excitement of the postseason run and the significance of the victory itself. Looking back now, being able to document the final victory of a coach who helped define Quinnipiac athletics for decades carries an entirely different meaning.
Another major part of my QBSN experience was the travel. Over those three years, I set and completed several personal coverage goals that went far beyond campus. I covered games at every MAAC school, every ECAC Hockey member institution, and every Division I school in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. Those goals required a lot of planning, driving, long days, and commitment, but they became some of the most rewarding parts of my college media experience.
Completing those travel goals gave me a much deeper appreciation for college athletics. Every school had its own environment, its own traditions, and its own way of presenting the game. Covering Quinnipiac on the road also helped me understand how different the same team can feel depending on where the game is played. Home games, road games, neutral-site tournaments, and championship stages all tell different stories, and being able to experience all of them made me a better photographer.
Moments like that reminded me why I fell in love with sports photography in the first place. It was never just about the final score or the highlights. It was about the people, the emotions, and the moments that exist around the game itself.
Over these three years, QBSN gave me opportunities I never imagined I would have when I first picked up a camera. It gave me championship environments, national tournaments, leadership experience, friendships, travel, magazine covers, and moments I will carry with me for the rest of my life. But more than anything, it gave me perspective.
Sports move quickly. Seasons end before you realize it. Players graduate, coaches move on, and teams change constantly. What feels permanent in the moment suddenly becomes a memory. Photography allows those moments to stay frozen long after the final whistle.
That is what I will remember most from my time covering Quinnipiac athletics. Not just the championships or the celebrations, but the moments in between. The conversations before games, the emotions after losses, the silence after final buzzers, and the relationships between teammates that only become visible when you spend enough time around a program.
Those are the moments QBSN and student media taught me to see.
Looking back now, I realize these last three years were never just about covering sports. They were about learning how to tell stories that matter.
