Crushing Cabin Fever

Brian Mozey is a prep sportswriter for the St. Cloud Times. What does that mean? He covers seven local high schools and their athletic programs year-round. His writing career started in college at Iowa State University and has taken him all over MN, to a co-op with The Boston Globe, and here – to St. Cloud – when he accepted a job in January 2020. But in the last year, Brian pivoted (like the rest of the world), and began a different writing topic – Crushing Cabin Fever.

“When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the US and Minnesota, my job changed quite a bit because sports were put on hold. Due to this change, I started to help out on the news desk more … Sports came back in the fall and this winter, but I wanted to continue working on some news stories because I enjoyed it. The Crushing Cabin Fever series came from the overall feeling of winter, especially with the COVID-19 pandemic, and wanting to find a way to enjoy life with the circumstances minimizing what we can do. When the calendar flips to November and December, there’s a huge smile on my face because I enjoy everything there is about Thanksgiving and Christmas. Once those months go away, there wasn’t much I was looking forward to for the other winter months. I wanted to find a way to continue putting a smile on this community and also give people something to do or look forward to for the rest of the winter. That’s been the fun part about the Crushing Cabin Fever series because it’s not just my suggestions, but the entire community.”

And the community has played a huge role in the writing of this series, for Brian – but it didn’t come without challenge. He grew up in Crystal, MN (a northwest suburb of the metro) and was new to Central MN when he came year just over a year ago to work with the Times. “When I moved over to St. Cloud, I was worried about the new changes and the new communities. As a reporter, you want to build a strong bond with community members and I feel like I’ve built some good relationships with many people in this area. My main goal as a journalist is to give you the best and most accurate stories to read, so you can be well-informed and excited for what St. Cloud and the surrounding cities are doing currently or what its future will be looking like.”

“The best part of this series has been learning from the community. Like I said, I’m rather new to this city and there are plenty of traditions and activities that I’m not aware of that make the St. Cloud area special. I’ve received emails and phone calls from members of the community wanting to suggest places, recipes, or activities that have become traditions for their family and this community.”

And though temps are rising, we may not be free of winter just yet. “If you have ideas or suggestions for the series, I would encourage you to email me at bmozey@gannett.com or call my work phone and leave a message at 320-255-8772. Leave your name and number and if I have more questions, I’ll call you back!” You can read the entire series on the St. Cloud Times’ website at https://www.sctimes.com/search/?q=Crushing+Cabin+Fever.

“I want to say thank you to everyone who has helped provide information for this Crushing Cabin Fever series because your help has started this series on the best foot. I appreciate everyone’s passion for these cities and their love for their communities.” #StCloudShines