When your work is free-lance, it's good to be busy, and I'm fortunate enough to start one of my busiest weeks of the year today.
I'm flying to Pittsburgh Wednesday evening to start a stretch that will see me call four games in six days (Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday) and fly five different segments before returning to an airport for a second time. It's going to be intense, and it's going to be fun!
I start in my current season, college soccer, returning to the scene of the above vista to see the same game I called a year ago, West Virginia against Texas Tech on ESPNU, although I'm working with Kate Markgraf this year instead of Cat Whitehill. One ridiculously good defender and partner for another!
From there, I'll keep moving for the next week, possibly the longest I've ever been away from my daughter in her young life, to cover this set of games:
Upcoming broadcasts
Date
Game
Media
Partner
Oct. 19
5 pm ET
West Virginia vs. Texas Tech
(NCAA women's soccer)
ESPNU
Kate
Markgraf
Oct. 21
8 pm ET
Houston Rockets vs.
Dallas Mavericks (NBA)
NBA League
Pass VR
Viani /
Rogondino
Oct. 22
6 pm ET
Auburn vs. LSU
(NCAA women's soccer)
ESPNU
Cat
Whitehill
Oct. 24
7:30 pm ET
Boston Celtics vs.
New York Knicks (NBA)
NBA League
Pass VR
Viani /
Rogondino
It's a lot to prepare for, a lot of phone calls to squeeze in, and a lot of clothes to pack into one trip! But I intend to manage with a smile on my face, so check it out when you can.
We had a crazy one today in Athens, Georgia. Not so much because of the game, which was plenty exciting and had tremendous scoring chances throughout. No, the weather kept us on the edge of our seats today.
With Hurricane Nate reaching the US mainland late Saturday night on the Gulf Coast, we knew our game, about 75 miles northeast of Atlanta, would likely be affected by rain and wind from the outskirts of the storm. We mentioned it briefly with the coaches on our Friday calls, but when models didn't show too much wind expected in the area for game time, we didn't think much of it.
But we did find out on Saturday that the coaches were considering trying to move the game to an earlier start time and discussing with ESPN SEC Network officials just what that would mean for the game broadcast. When I woke up Sunday and did not find an email outlining a change to the game time, I figured we were home free to kick at the scheduled 5pm time.
But in checking Twitter a little after 9 am, Texas A&M's soccer account posted that the game time had been changed to 2pm Eastern Time. So that was quite a way to find out. I immediately heard from Todd Jones, our producer, and we quickly met downstairs at the hotel with my partner, Jill Loyden, for our production meeting.
It was an accelerated timeline, but nothing outrageous. We got underway at 2pm under steady rain, beginning on the SEC Network alternate channel and moving over to the main channel after the 1pm volleyball match finished. But the rain began to intensify after about 25 minutes, and by 30 minutes into the game, we couldn't see the far sideline due to the heavy rain and the wind, and I don't think our viewers could, either! The game was stopped shortly after, and we turned things over to taped programming and sat around to wait.
We watched other SEC games via the ESPN app, we talked to the Texas A&M radio broadcasters, we tried in vain to get some lunch, and we talked with our very helpful stage manager and statistician. We did two on-air updates to keep fans abreast of the schedule. All the while, Jill was having to rearrange her flight out of town, which I (thankfully) was spared.
Finally we got to resume at 4:50pm and enjoy the rest of the game, which saw Georgia goalkeeper Louise Högrell credited with 14 saves as the Bulldogs stayed with 19th-ranked Texas A&M and took them to overtime. Naturally we went all the way to the 109th minute, just 90 seconds before the game would have ended in a tie, with the game wrapping up more than four hours after it started.
Thankfully, it was well worth the wait! Texas A&M sophomore Grace Piper ended things with a really powerful left-footed shot from outside the penalty area, ending the day (that turned into night) on an exciting note!
I was really pleased with the effort from our entire crew to put together the post-game package, which we tape for the SEC website ... but unfortunately it doesn't embed well, so I'll just link to it here.
The game highlights, as they sounded in real-time, are right here:
It's been almost two full months since I've last posted, and I've called 9 soccer games in that time for a variety of outlets, including some terrific non-conference college action and New York Red Bulls games on both radio and TV. But maybe the busiest portion of my year is about to start.
College soccer is a big part of my workload, and I will be on the road on each of the next six weekends calling games, with a few other games thrown in. That schedule includes SEC women's soccer, Big XII women's soccer, Big Ten men's soccer, and, most notably, the ACC championship game in both women's and men's soccer. October and November are going to be busy! This stretch of games starts on Sunday, Oct 8, when I've got No. 19 Texas A&M facing Georgia in SEC women's soccer action.
The preparation for it, however, goes back to mid-August. Since the SEC Network launched in 2014, I've been part of ESPN's team covering the conference, so I track how each team is doing, what formation they're using, and who's playing in what spot(s). So I watch a lot of games each week, mostly replays via WatchESPN. Sometimes I will sit and watch the games and take notes, particularly if I know I will be calling one of the teams. Other times, I will watch long enough to understand the starting lineups, then skip around looking for the goals.
But adding in both ACC tournaments this year, along with the ACC's agreement to stream its games on WatchESPN, has really given me a chance to focus on the nation's best soccer conference. So that's more than 40 teams I'm tracking every week of the college season, and it should really pay off when I need to research a team and can quickly access their lineups, results, and key moments in their season. Being able to put a team's season in context and understanding at least a little bit of their journey is really critical to a good telecast, and I'm looking forward to learning more about each of the teams I'll call over the next six weeks.
So that's part of what us announcers do when we're not actively calling a game or typing up notes for the next one. Preparation, both on a big-picture level and for specific teams, really never stops.
