FEATURES Women sportscasters were not common in the early 1990s. But when Jennifer Hedger saw Hannah Storm covering NBA on NBC she knew that her career path was set. Fastforward a few years and Hedger is one of the most respected voices of TSN. With over a decade experience and a career highlighted by Olympic Games, Jennifer Hedger still enjoys her day-to-day job of covering sports. She has a passion for all things sports which is visible when you watch SportsCentre. FACES had a chance to catch up with the TSN anchor to discuss her passion for sports, how she began her professional career and her favourite moment in her already-impressive career. What was life like growing up in London, Ontario? Were you part of any school teams or clubs? It was awesome! London is a pretty good city to raise a family. I grew up with a younger brother, and we were both very active in sports. Tennis, soccer, ringette, baseball, you name it and we played it. My dad made an outdoor rink in the backyard during the winter and we would have all of the neighbourhood kids over to skate and play hockey. Now that I have a son of my own, I’ve thought more about my childhood and I realize how ideal it was growing up in London, Ontario. When you’re a kid, you don’t realize how much this stuff costs, or the fact that it’s a lot of time or that the arena is really cold at 7:00am on a Saturday morning. But my parents did it, and London was a great place to grow up. What types of sports did you enjoy watching as a kid? What sports did you play? I was and still am a huge fan of watching basketball. I remember watching the NBA on NBC and Hannah Storm was the host; she was the one that I watched because I wanted to do her job so badly. I thought her job was something I could definitely see myself doing. I was a huge Chicago Bulls fan; Jordan and all those boys were awesome to watch.
TSN SportsCentre Personality
Basketball was my first love for sure, but I’ve always been a huge tennis fan. I played tennis and I remember watching a lot of tennis tournaments like Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. Hockey was also always on TV and living in London, which is kind of a border town, half the people are Detroit Red Wings fans and the other half are Toronto Maple Leafs fans. For me, I’m a Maple Leafs fan and when it comes to baseball, I’m a pretty diehard Blue Jays fan.
Jennifer Hedger 12 | September 2015