The venue last fall was Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, where the two called the shots for opposing American Hockey League teams: Plagens for the Lake Erie Monsters and Rea, the Texas Stars.

“It was funny to look down at the other end of the broadcast booth and see Brien calling the game for his team,” Plagens said. “It was really cool, like coming full circle.”

Rea thinks the reunion says a lot about their early break in broadcasting at Lake Forest. “We’re both thankful we had the opportunities we did, because we got so much hands-on experience we could not have gotten at a big state school with a broadcasting program,” he said.

While at the College, Plagens and Rea covered men’s hockey—at home and on the road— and other sports. “We got to learn on the fly. I was able to gain confidence in doing that and develop my own style,” Plagens said.

That’s not something they would have done in a big, competitive broadcasting school, where such opportunities are hard to come by, both agree. Today, the communication majors are as close as they can get to their goal of becoming NHL broadcasters.

And that brings them back to their roots.

“Two kids in a [then] 1,200-student Division III school with no broadcasting program somehow found a way to get to Triple-A hockey—one level away from the NHL,” Rea said.

“That’s the true benefit of going to a school the size of Lake Forest,” Plagens said.