Hoping to Inspire

My "broadcast booth" at Brunswick for hockey

I taught sports reporting today at the Connecticut School of Broadcasting.

It's hard to believe that I've done this for roughly fifteen years now, but I once saw where they were recruiting instructors and I decided to give it a try. It's important to me to give back to the place that helped get me into broadcasting back in 1990.

I know the drill. Every time I walk in there, I can just the feel the...er...lack of enthusiasm.

"Oh yay. The sports guy is here."

It can be a touch daunting and a little soul-sucking, but I see it as a challenge.

So, working with the great Andy Madison, I set about trying to win the class over.

It's usually a small group -- only a smattering of people for both the day and night classes -- but that means we can give the students the attention that they deserve.

Inevitably, there are one or two sports fans and the others are...meh.

Ninety-nine percent of the time they are still respectful but students are all different. I once had a student who listened to music under headphones while I was teaching and said she wasn't interested in talking sports. I've had others who talked over me. Then there are the students who think they know more than I do.

Today, I had a few students that looked like they rather be in a police lineup, but again they were respectful and listened and participated. That's, honestly, all I can ask for.

One student took a different approach to the project in question (a one-minute sports report) but I tend to go easier on students who are clearly not there for sports. So I wasn't bothered that he did this. Besides, I wasn't sure he was grasping the project but he surprised me with his report, which was more like a vignette than a report. It was quite good.

Still, I figured these people were just content to be done with me after 3.5 hours. But I do my best to show them the passion and energy that I have for sports media, and radio and TV overall. Plus new media and, yes, newspapers.

I try to get them to understand that they can take the skills that I teach them and use it in whatever they do. It's reporting and writing and storytelling and describing and so on. These are transferable skills.

I tell stories. Lots of stories. Of where I started and where I've been. Of Majic 105 and WREF and WGCH and HAN and the Renegades and Sound Tigers and Yale and St. John's and Local Live.

I tell them whatever I can remember.

I tell them about Jeter and Mariano and Dan Marino and Kay Murcer and Loretta Swit and Terry Bradshaw and countless other interviews.

I tell them about the great partners I've called games with.

I let them watch Boom Goes the Dynamite and let them know what Eat a Sandwich, Catch a Touchdown is.

I tell them about Scully. Oh you bet I do.

I tell them I won't lose them. They don't have to be sports people, but so long as they try, they'll have an ally in me.

At the end of the day, out of nowhere, the student who took the different approach to the sports report spoke up.

"I was dreading today since I'm not a sports person," he said. "But you made it engaging. I really enjoyed it."

The others agreed.

These words matter. A lot.

*****
AJ and I are on for hockey tomorrow. Salisbury and Brunswick -- two of the best programs around -- meet at 5pm. I suggest you join us for the broadcast.

Oh, and remember all of the unique original broadcasters I listed the other night? I forgot Mike Lange of the Pittsburgh Penguins. You want pithy, silly lines? Then go watch this.

I repeat: the wheel has already been invented.