When parents wake up and see their children in the morning, they expect a routine conversation. “How did you sleep?” “What are your plans for the day?” For my parents, this was never the case. Instead of getting a “Good morning” from me, they would hear “Line drive over Furcal!” or “What a play by Berkman!”

Broadcasting has always been one of the most important aspects of my life and identity. Ever since I started watching baseball as a young kid, I made it my goal to become the next Vin Scully, wowing the crowd with my knowledge of even the most obscure baseball athletes. With broadcasting as the goal for my future, I knew I needed to get my foot in the door during my time at Trinity.

One weekend toward the beginning of the fall of 2017, I stumbled upon an opportunity listed in the LeeRoy daily newsletter, offering Trinity students the chance to broadcast Trinity sporting events. The process for broadcasting was simple enough: Meet with Josh Moczygemba, the person in charge of broadcasting Trinity’s sporting events; talk a little bit about why I wanted the position; leave him with my contact information and eventually receive an email containing a spreadsheet with a list of games to sign up for to broadcast.

I expected the gig to be simple, too: Show up to the game, read over the names of the players on both teams and broadcast like I’ve always done my whole life, watch the plays unfold, always know what to say. I quickly found out that it wouldn’t be nearly as simple as I had hoped.

First, there was the embarrassing issue of not actually being familiar enough with Trinity’s athletics teams to know how to commentate for them. In broadcasting, the production goes a lot smoother and is a lot more interesting if the announcer has some sort of idea about the team he’s talking about. Countless Astros broadcasts started with something along the lines of, “The Astros are coming into today’s game winners of two straight games.” (Or, for much of my childhood, something more like “The Astros come into this game losers of ten straight games.”)

Being largely unfamiliar with Trinity athletics, I found myself heavily reliant on my co-announcer to provide me with enough context to make a successful broadcast. Fortunately, while Trinity broadcasting is a big deal to me and any fan of Trinity athletics, it is not the “big stage” yet. Continuing to broadcast at Trinity and hopefully beyond will give me ample opportunities to improve upon and perfect my skills.

In addition to my broadcasting opportunity, I also found an open position on the TigerTV show “End Zone,” a student-produced show dedicated to discussing both Trinity sports and professional sports across the country. I feel as though destiny played a part in landing me my role with End Zone. Who could possibly be a better fit for a show discussing sports than someone who spent hours upon hours of their childhood religiously watching highlights of 100+ loss Astros teams?

Bantering about sports is second nature to me, so having a weekly segment on the show dedicated to discussing professional sports with two other sports nerds is a dream come true.