My blogging skills suck, the last real post (not including MFF) was in February, So here I am, with updates!
Early March, I did some color commentary during a hockey game, I froze up on the air, things I wanted to talk about didn't seem appropriate at the time, it didn't go well. Luckily, I was able to crack a few jokes, & a suspended player was also up there, so he filled in the rest of the time. A few weeks later, "my boss" filled in for the arena announcer, the person who was supposed to cover play-by-play for him didn't show up. Game time came, he still wasn't there, so I put the headset on & did my best. Apparently, people liked it! I know the GM & "my boss" were grateful I stepped up instead of broadcasting dead air, but one man left a comment on the team's facebook page stating he liked the young lady who called the game, also over the weekend the woman in charge of the facebook pages said she received several messages from people who liked me as well!
My play-by-play was NOT exactly how its supposed to be done, I had the microphone volume too high so I didn't feel like I was screaming over the largest crowd of the season (fewer listeners); the man on facebook liked hearing the background noises. I didn't talk as much as I should have, I couldn't catch all the players who played the puck during the game, my hockey knowledge is minimal; he liked my "less is more" approach. I cracked jokes, made observations ("I wish someone would tell [visiting team city] that this is a hockey game, not a figure skating competition!" for example), once I got past the "OMG I'm doing play-by-play for a professional hockey game!" shock, it was fun!
The next day, the arena announcer was back, so "my boss" was back upstairs & another man who used to be a sports anchor was up there as well. He's been wanting to start doing play-by-play, so "my boss" had invited him to come up & hang out. Him & "my boss" did that game, he was great! Definitely better than me!
Great enough, that when the arena announcer was unable to attend this last playoff game we had, "my boss" was the arena announcer again, the former sports anchor did play-by-play by himself, while I did my job tasks, along with some of the other stuff "my boss" normally does (I did both tasks when I filled in, so less pressure on them). It was also a big game, not only was it a playoff game, it was the first playoff game series the team won since 1994, & the team went from being 0-2 to 3-2 in this series. The newspaper sent a different reporter, so I had to give him some extra attention since he's not familiar w/the building or how things normally go up there. I gave the reporter, both play-by-play broadcasters, & the tv sports dept. (on the phone) the next set of playoff dates.
The last 2 or 3 games, I have also ran the sound for the post-game show, that's the part I love the most! I get to play with pots & stare at a computer screen. I also help set up and tear down the sound for the post game, then tear down & pack up the upstairs play-by-play stuff & the officials stuff that doesn't belong to the building. Vx helps out with that some, since items are store in the locker room so I'm not having to enter while men are changing clothes.
Despite the lack of pay, I'm love doing all of this, & I'm gaining experience that should really help me out! I've also done a lot of stuff on facebook for them, like promote games & broadcasts, especially for the away games. Mine & others tweets will show up on their fan page if you @ them, so I live tweet the games as much as I can. I do this on another twitter account I have set up as my full name, those tweets automatically posts on my facebook. I don't want to steal anyone's job, but maybe all of this will lead to me either getting a job w/them, or maybe another team or organization will see what I can do. I never had a job I interviewed for, word of mouth f/my mom or someone else got me in the door & I proved myself, so maybe doing all of this will help me out as well.
