Midway through a weeklong summer orientation thing for my school I met a guy who would change my life. I have always been into sports and I especially like watching them so when this guy asked the question I happily said yes. We were in the auditorium playing those dumb ice breaker games that your teachers make you play on the first couple days of school. I didn’t hear what he said at first but one of my friends told me I should raise my hand, I didn’t because I didn’t know what the question was but then I heard the guy ask again, he just asked who likes sports. Obviously I raised my hand because why would I be on Fanspo if I didn’t like sports. He then said I was gonna be trained to be the new announcer and broadcaster for my school’s sports teams.

We started in the fall with soccer, field hockey, football, and volleyball. I remember my first game, it started at 4 so I stayed after school and walked around feeling awkward, I remember sitting at the announcing tower 30 minutes before we were supposed to start watching the football team practice, they weren’t very good this year. The first few games were just me sitting and watching but I finally got to start when the guy training me had some stuff and couldn’t make the next game. I was thrown into doing a whole field hockey game after only seeing soccer games and announcing one lineup. It wasn’t my best performance but it was memorable, most likely because the guy doing the scoreboard farted in between quarters and just didn’t acknowledge it but it was still fun. About two weeks later I went up into the tower and saw a girl there who I didn’t know, I thought it was probably the guy’s girlfriend or something but it was actually a girl who was homeschooled and wanted to do this too, she was in my grade and we became friends. My next games were homecoming where I had to arrive at 8 and announce until 1 before watching the football game. I remember making my history teacher do goal calls because the guy was gone and I didn’t want to do it. I still remember how fun it was after the games just walking with the girl who joined me, soon she would leave homeschool and join my public school, we became closer and it made sitting in the tower so much more fun, soon came the end of the season and we had our final game against our biggest rival, sadly we lost after double overtime and penalty kicks. Then came the break, it was probably the longest month of my life.

But before I knew it, it was basketball season and I was right back into it but with a twist, I wasn’t announcing anymore, I started broadcasting. I wasn’t sure what to expect but I was a little disappointed when I wasn’t able to be on the mic game one. It was fine since the next game was in 4 days and there was another one 3 days after. I remember that first game the opponents came out aggressive slamming our guys. We had 3 injuries, they all returned. But still it was tough with our best player out for another month. The next two games were great, being on the mic was one of the best parts of this month and having winter break interrupt it was one of the saddest parts of the job.

That brings us to where we are today, we just started the basketball season and after that we have spring sports, baseball, softball, and lacrosse. With the guy teaching me being a senior likely going to Syracuse for announcing next year I will be the full time announcer and broadcaster for my school. I have already had some of the best experiences of the year while announcing and broadcasting and the journey ahead is gonna be very fun.