Ready for the Drop
Natalie Gore ’24 is behind the scenes — and ahead of the game — as the Carolina Hurricanes chase the Stanley Cup.
The Carolina Hurricanes may have lost Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals on Tuesday night, but Natalie Gore ’24 was already looking ahead. The senior marketing coordinator for the Raleigh-based NHL team had a full day — notifying fans about away-game watch parties, helping pack and ship a surge of Hurricanes gear orders, and prepping communications for ticket holders about the next day’s home game.
“Everybody wants to win,” Gore says. But for her, just a couple of years into her career, being part of a Stanley Cup run is something she doesn’t take for granted. “I feel so lucky,” she says.
Gore grew up in Southern California watching sports with her dad, but not hockey. That changed after she moved to Raleigh, where high school friends introduced her to the Hurricanes. At NC State, where Gore majored in communications and media studies, she began following the team more closely and set her sights on a career in sports. A college classmate mentioned interning in public relations for the team, and Gore asked for a contact.
“Since then, it’s been zero to 100 of learning the sport and the fan culture,” Gore says.
Gore served as a public relations intern during the 2022–23 season, returned as lead intern the following season and landed a full-time digital marketing coordinator job three months before graduation. She was promoted to senior marketing coordinator in November 2025.
Today, Gore, 23, manages a wide range of fan-facing and behind-the-scenes digital and traditional marketing tasks. Fans with the team’s app have likely read her push notifications about ticket sales or promotions. Diehards probably get her Monday newsletter, Storm Tracker, in their inboxes with the latest team news. She also coordinates photo shoots for the team’s shop, Carolina Pro Shop, often using NC State students as models.
“Everything is just heightened. It’s time sensitive. It’s fast. You have to be on top of everything and paying attention and ready to pivot.”
With the team in a Stanley Cup run, the daily to-do list “is on steroids,” she says. Thousands of eyes are on the team. Helicopters circle the Lenovo Center daily. TV crews are stationed outside her office building.
“Everything is just heightened,” she says. “It’s time sensitive. It’s fast. You have to be on top of everything and paying attention and ready to pivot.”
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