Re-entering the world of Public Address

Being 6'4" meant that I had the body for basketball. If I'd been able to use it, that would have been fantastic. Sadly my coordination didn't keep up with my growth and I spent 2 years on the end of the bench in high school before missing the cut on varsity at Aurora Christian. I was upset at the time, but in the end I think it worked out.

My junior year I had begun running the scoreboard at basketball games, and told people during my time there that I was probably the only person who really knew how to run the board. One night I decided to pick up the microphone to do PA for the game. Most fun I'd had at a game to that point. More importantly, the team and the fans loved it. A broadcaster was born that night, my friends.

6 years later I've landed a great "full-time" gig as the PA announcer for North Central women's basketball. I'd filled in a couple times last year, loved it, and I'm glad to have the gig to myself.

 Say you're interested in wanting to get behind the mic. It's a different animal from radio announcing, but still can be made easy and fun if you do your 2 main jobs as a public address person.

1. BE INFORMATIVE

I have this one listed first because it's the most important. If you're going to be describing the action, you need to know what's going on. Understand the rules of the game you're announcing. Make sure when you do talk, it adds to the experience. So as a major part of this, you need to BE PREPARED as well.


Before each game I work, I look through the rosters of both teams. Usually with the home team, I know how to pronounce their names, but the first game or 2 you should check to be sure. The road team always requires asking. Some names are easy enough (e.g. Sarah Jones), but you might get something a little trickier. One I would bet a fair number of announcers missed was NCC's Jackie Errico (err-ee-koh). Obviously being an NCC guy I knew the name, but road announcers might not. It pays to check with the visiting coach to make sure you have everyone's name right. And for that matter, numbers too. Sometimes people wear different numbers from the roster.

2. GIVE YOUR TEAM HOME FIELD/COURT/ICE ADVANTAGE

This one is more up for debate. When looking up opinions on some of the best NBA announcers, I came across this quote from Lawrence Tanter of the Lakers.

"My feeling was, years ago, that people paid money to come and see the Lakers, not to hear some clown on the PA. I use enthusiasm when the appropriate time comes, but I’m not a cheerleader and I don’t want to be."

I believe there is some truth to this statement. I believe Bill Simmons once said something to the effect of "If you need an announcer to tell you to stand up and cheer for your team to help force a key defensive stop, you don't deserve an NBA team." The announcer shouldn't have to tell fans to stand. Rather, he should work within the system of his job to get crowd noise going. I always try to put a little emotion into every home basket, but ramp it up for important situations such as:

• Home player hits a three ("THREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" is my favorite thing to do when announcing a game. I picked it up from an announcer at a tournament when I was in 7th and 8th grade, it's perfect.)
• Home player gets fouled and makes the shot for a 3 point play (A huge swing. Need to help boost the momentum.)
• Away team calls a time out in an attempt to stop a run (The home team is on fire. Usually the crowd will go nuts as the timeout is called. Milk the crowd noise while you can.)

And last, but not least, lineup intros (my other favorite part). I loved watching MJ and the Bulls growing up, but my favorite part of a Saturday afternoon was sitting down to watch NBA on NBC from the United Center, and seeing the Bulls get a 10 point edge before the game even started. Ray Clay did it best, and I can only hope to be half as good as he was. I even used Sirius one year for ACS' lineups. It is the greatest intro song in all of sports, and the Bulls of the 90's did it best.

So unfortunately, while I probably won't have access to Sirius this weekend, if you're free Friday or Saturday, come by North Central College and catch some great basketball games... and maybe stick around to hear me project into a microphone.