Meet our newest sports reporter Madison Hricik

CEDAR RAPIDS — Madison Hricik wanted to spread her wings, pursue her passion but in a completely different environment.

Welcome to Iowa, Madison.

Hricik is the newest member of The Gazette’s sports team and will provide coverage, first and foremost, of the Iowa football team. She will have other duties, of course, but Hawkeye football, as many readers know, is king of Eastern Iowa.

Hricik replaces John Steppe, who has moved back to his home state of Wisconsin, covering, among other things, the Badgers football team for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

So who is Madison Hricik? Well, she’s a 23-year-old multimedia reporter who has excelled on air, in podcasts and, of course, the written word.

She recently got her master’s degree from Syracuse University in broadcast and digital journalism and has a B.A. from James Madison University in Media Arts and Design, journalism, with a minor and sports communication.

She’s lived most of her life in the Washington, D.C., area and made her first visit to the Midwest a week ago, looking for a place to live and getting familiar with Eastern Iowa.

“It’s a complete culture change,” she said.

She views that as a good thing.

There is nothing more Midwest than Iowa football, a team that proudly wears its America Needs Farmers stickers on its helmets and has a reputation for being a physical, meat-and-potatoes kind of program.

It’s kind of a trademark for many Hawkeye programs.

Hricik impressed us with her variety of skills, but also her enthusiasm. I think she will do the same for you.

“I’m going to bring as much of my personality as I can,” she said. “What you see is what you get.

“I want to be somebody who’s approachable and trustworthy.”

Of course, we look for, first and foremost, good journalists, and the trustworthy part is paramount. Those who have worked with Hricik gave her the ultimate compliment. They would hire her in a minute.

While she possess the skills all young journalists need — the broadcast/podcast, video and social media toolbox so important in today’s world — she also loves the gift of storytelling.

She said she has a flair for “in-depth personality profiles.”

“It’s learning about somebody off the field ... really kind of peeling back the curtain.”

She was a high school swimmer and field hockey player, but thanks to her late father Brian, she has a passion for hockey and, of course, football.

“My dad is pretty much the reason I got into this,” she said.

She covered football at Colgate, South Carolina and James Madison, as well writing about women’s hockey, men’s basketball, baseball, women’s basketball and countless Olympic sports. She has won state and national honors for her writing.

“I’ve had a pretty wide range of covering college football,” she said.

Football, like storytelling, is a passion.

“It’s such a different world,” she said. “When you start understanding the Xs and Os of the game ... there is such a level of precision.”

She’s eager to learn more of the “ins and outs” of the game and wants to share that with our readers.

“I love the strategy that goes behind it,” she said.

It’s also not lost on her that she’s a woman in what typically has been a “man’s world.”

“Sometimes it can feel a little daunting,” said the oldest of three girls in her family.

Daunting, but not intimidating.

She wants to get “more women engaged in the sport” and share the stories that matter to all of you, our female and male readers.

So welcome to Iowa, Madison — we’re all looking forward to this exciting journey.

You can email Madison at madison.hricik@thegazette.com. Her first byline will appear later this week.

Comments: (319) 398-5861; jr.ogden@thegazette.com