Students get hands-on experience as play-by-play announcers for Boxer baseball and softball
Stepping up to the plate this baseball and softball season are Boxer students Evan Bleyer and Cole Weber with the newest addition of play-by- play broadcasting. While attending your Boxer baseball and softball games this season, you will be accompanied by the play-by-play announcing provided by our very own students.
Junior transfer Evan Bleyer has wanted to become a broadcaster for many years now. He is hoping to step into his father’s footsteps by working up towards the role that his father works for currently, as a play-by-play announcer for the Portland Timbers radio station, and has also had experience announcing for the Rockies as well. As a little kid, Bleyer recounted that would watch his father up in the booth, and dream of himself in the same booth one day; now that is all coming into play.
The new opportunities are part of the relatively new Sports Communication major, and part of an internship that the Media Arts Department has fashioned with the Athletic Department and Sports Information Office as a chance to provide real-life experience to prime students for professional opportunities.
“I have had no play-by-play experience,” shared Bleyer. “This is my first time calling games, I am learning as I go and looking to improve as more and more games go on.”
There are as many opportunities for play-by-play announcers as there are professional and college sports team, but many announcers hold their positions for decades longer than the players—and, as such, play-by-play announcing is a coveted and tough job to get. But experience is a leg-up.
And, it is more than simply showing up and being witty. There is understanding technology, and there is research—loads of researching, learning players’ names and playing styles, and finding stories to fill the down time.
For the upcoming season, Bleyer and Weber will sit in the announcer booth, and switch off by being the play-by-play announcer and caller during the games. It is a unique on-the-job training that both hope will just be the beginning of their broadcasting careers.
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