Eva Herinkova is a jazz and grunge drummer, a video gamer who likes role-playing games and a mountain biker, but their most intense undertaking might be their new day job at The Park Record as the Summit County beat reporter.Herinkova, who started at the newspaper on Nov. 11, succeeds Toria Barnhart, who was promoted to deputy editor.Herinkova comes to The Park Record after two and a half years at FOX 13, working on the assignment desk.“It was mostly listening to police scanners, and calling people,” they said. “I worked with the digital team and photographers a lot, and I also handled all of our court tracking.”One of the reasons FOX 13 hired Herinkova was because of their background covering the courts.“My previous job before FOX 13 was doing crime, courts and government and things like that for the LaFollette Press in LaFollette, Tennessee,” they said. “FOX 13 wanted to revamp their courts coverage, so I came in and redid the calendar, and made a bunch of spreadsheets and spent hours in court exchange every single day.”While Herinkova enjoyed the job, they wanted something more “hyperlocal.”“FOX 13 was great, but it was statewide, and I felt like I wasn’t reporting on local community stuff, especially when you’re covering everything from Logan to St. George,” they said. “So I looked at different newspapers in northern Utah, and I found The Park Record opening on Linkedin. I found out The Park Record was covering local government, and I thought it was perfect.”Herinkova found themselves in reporting by accident.“I decided to major in journalism because someone at my church told me that they thought I’d be good at it,” they said. “I was 18, and didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. So I decided to go into journalism.”Herinkova double majored in Spanish and journalism at the University of Tennessee.“I initially got involved in the student radio station, and I did the whole morning show for the full four and a half years while I was in college,” they said. “I thought I would do more with entertainment and music.”The coronavirus pandemic changed Herinkova’s trajectory.“I graduated right in the middle of 2020, so it was impossible to find any jobs, but there was an opening at the local newspaper,” they said. “I tried it because I needed a job. But I stuck with it because I liked it.”At the LaFollette Press, Herinkova won a couple of awards — Best Feature Story and Best Column/Editorial — from the Tennessee Press Association.The Best Feature was about a LaFollette resident who covered British politics, and the Best Column/Editorial focused on video-game retailer GameStop’s “short squeeze,” its dramatic stock drop in early 2021.Herinkova, who has played drums since they were 8, packed up their Alesis Crimson II SE nine-piece electronic drum set and moved to Utah with Yara, their chihuahua, cattle dog and husky mix, because they wanted a change in the scenery.“I’d been at the Press for a while, and it was 40 minutes outside of Knoxville where I grew up,” they said. “So, I kind of wanted to live not in my hometown for a while.”Herinkova’s partner lived in Ogden at the time.“I applied all over the place, and it worked out that all the jobs that called me back were in Salt Lake City — FOX 13, KUTV and KUER,” they said. “So I decided to try TV to see what would happen, and that’s how I ended up here.”Herinkova enjoys covering Summit County because it’s more rural, like LaFollette.“There is a lot going on up here, and a lot to do, but it’s not like the Salt Lake Valley area, which can feel so crowded to someone who is from rural Tennessee,” they said.Herinkova also looks forward to getting involved in the community through their Park Record stories.“I want to get to know County Council members and local residents,” they said.The post A drummer takes up the county beat appeared first on Park Record.