English Alum Comes Full Circle with PWHL Boston

04/30/2024
By Ed Brennen

Carter Hochman ’19 has enjoyed some memorable moments at the Tsongas Center. 

It’s where the aspiring sports journalist covered UML men’s and women’s basketball games as a sideline reporter for ESPN3 during his junior and senior years of college. It’s where he donned the Rowdy suit and served as mascot at men’s hockey games. It’s where he walked across the Commencement stage to receive his bachelor’s degree in English with a concentration in journalism and professional writing.

And now, it’s where he works as social media and marketing associate for PWHL Boston, a new Professional Women’s Hockey League team that plays its home games at his alma mater.

“Walking through the halls of the arena is a full-circle moment for me,” Hochman says. “I owe just about every aspect of my career to UMass Lowell.”

Hochman was hired as PWHL Boston’s first-ever social media and marketing associate last October. Working with the team photographer and videographer, he produces sponsored and “organic” content for the team’s tens of thousands of followers on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, X and Threads.  

The job, he says, fulfills his dream of working as a creative storyteller in the sports world.

“Sports have always been a giant part of who I am,” says Hochman, who was goalkeeper for his high school soccer team in Lexington, Massachusetts, and was recruited to play for UML’s Division I men’s soccer team.

As backup goalie for the River Hawks, Hochman was part of the 2016 team that won the America East championship and finished the year ranked third in the nation. A program that hadn’t received much attention suddenly had highlights on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” and overflow crowds at Cushing Field.

“It affirmed for me that I made the right decision to come here. From an athlete’s perspective, experiencing that kind of atmosphere solidifies that what you’re doing is meaningful,” says Hochman, who keeps that perspective in mind in his role with PWHL Boston.

Off the field, Hochman leveraged technology to start creating his own sports content as a student. He and a few fellow English majors started a website and podcast about sports called “The Nosebleeds.” Hochman also started a blog called “30 Second Sports,” which he wrote for almost seven years. After graduating, he hosted two more podcasts, one about Boston sports called “Off the Post” and another about goalies, from any sport, called “Just for Keeps.”

“If you have a phone or a computer, there are so many things you can do yourself today with no money involved,” he says. “Even if six people are listening to your podcast, you’re getting your practice and getting a little better.”

While a student, Hochman found time to do “every job under the sun” for the UML Athletics Department, assisting with game-day operations and public address duties and taking on the role of Rowdy at hockey games. When he saw that the department was looking for a basketball sideline reporter for UML games on ESPN3, he auditioned and got the job — which “absolutely reaffirmed” his desire to work in sports.

After college, Hochman interned as the public relations and social media manager for Cape League Baseball and in the communications department of the America East Conference. He was a freelance writer for DraftKings and spent four years with Major League Soccer’s New England Revolution, assisting the broadcast team with statistics.

But it was Hochman’s “Off the Post” podcast that helped him get his big break with PWHL Boston. Surveying the local sports landscape, he and co-host Brandon Gagnon noticed that the Boston Pride, a women’s team in the now-defunct Premier Hockey Federation (PHF), didn’t get a lot of media coverage, even though it was consistently winning league championships. So Hochman began interviewing Pride players and gradually became an authority on the team.

“It was an opportunity to talk about women’s hockey, which was niche at the time, and become really good at it,” Hochman says. “It was my first real inkling that I wanted to work in professional women’s hockey, specifically here in Boston.”

When the PHF dissolved last summer and its players formed the six-team PWHL, Hochman jumped at the chance to work for the Boston club.

“I didn’t know this could be a full-time opportunity. And I didn’t think I could enjoy something like this as much as I do. It checks every single box,” he says.

Hochman has grown the team’s social media presence, particularly on Instagram, which has jumped from around 5,000 followers at the beginning of the season to almost 45,000 followers heading into the regular-season finale — with a playoff berth still on the line.

He works out of the team’s main office and practice facility in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and travels with the team on road trips. Before a recent home game against first-place Toronto, Hochman was at the Tsongas several hours before the 7 p.m. puck drop, creating sponsored posts for the starting lineup and the player “walk-ins” to the arena. Donning a rainbow bowtie to celebrate the team’s Pride Night, he also captured fist bumps with players Amanda Pelkey and Taylor Girard during pregame warmups. 

“We’re showing followers why these are the best players in the world,” Hochman says of a roster that includes Megan Keller, who won Olympic gold with Team USA in 2018 and silver in 2022, Alina Müller, a two-time Olympian for Switzerland, and Jamie Lee Rattray, who won gold with the Canadian Olympic team in 2022.

After the game, a thrilling 2-1 Boston win, Hochman created more sponsored posts of game highlights. Then it was home for a few hours of sleep before the team bus left for New York the next morning.

“There’s a lot that I’m proud of when it comes to the content that we’ve done,” says Hochman, who looks forward to helping the team grow its fan base in the coming years. “This is just the beginning, and it was whipped up in six months, which is unheard of.”

When Boston played its first-ever game on Jan. 3 at home against Minnesota, Hochman walked out of the tunnel and saw 4,012 fans packed into Tsongas.

“Fans were on the edge of their seats before warmups even started,” he says. “I got extraordinarily emotional, because that’s what it means to them. They’re the reason we do this.”

It was yet another memorable moment for Hochman at the Tsongas Center.