Monday Night in Danbury

 

Determined, Focused, and Ready ... to conduct the greatest ...
post-game interview ever.

I go into every broadcast thinking you just never know. That's the very nature of sports, isn't it?

There are two teams and, on paper, Greenwich at Danbury felt like a "W" for the Cardinals. But you just never know! You never know how the game or, for that matter, the broadcast will work out.

And tonight, a few minutes into the game, it was 8-0 Greenwich.

By the end of the night, it was 36-0. So it goes.

Greenwich is 3-0 heading into a bye and plays Darien next on Oct 14.

It will also be Homecoming as well as induction day for the newest members of the Greenwich High School Sports Hall of Fame.

I'm honored to say I've been asked to play a large role in that ceremony and I'm very pleased. I'll say more about it in the future but I encourage everyone to join us for the breakfast ceremony in Stamford.

But broadcasting a one-sided game is a challenge not intended for the weak. In high school sports, you must choose your words carefully because these are still 16-18-year-old kids playing.

Now add in that Chris Erway and I were working in tight quarters at Danbury High School, with the Hatter's assistant coaches and wonderful athletic director sitting right there. Words matter and, trust me, they're heard. They're also appreciated when framed appropriately.

So criticism has to be tempered and thoughtful. A bad play is still a bad play. The criticism can't be personal (it really shouldn't be at any level) but there's a really fine line in high school sports.

I think we handled that really well.

We also find things to talk about to keep the audience engaged. Listening to us means you can catch some of our snark. It means you can hear myriad mentions of the new "Jersey Mike's Post-game Interview" and smile.

(You can hear the interviews tomorrow with Tony Savino during the "NewsCenter" and with me tomorrow at 4 p.m. on "Doubleheader.")

Some nights, our late-game "B" material might drift toward other topics. Tonight, given it was a Monday night game, we touched on "Monday Night Football."

But, fortunately, running clock whittled the night away and we didn't need to dig too deep into our bag of tricks. The game, as always, remains the star despite any avenues we head off to.

I went to the field for the interviews and Chris held down the fort in the booth so that nobody locked the equipment up.

Then packing up is quicker than ever. Our days of lugging cell phones to broadcast on and wireless microphones and transmitters seem to be in the rearview mirror for the moment. Some of those things may return someday but we didn't need them tonight.

We don't roll big suitcases in anymore.

However, we were prepared to dig in the bag of tricks and did just that.

My small Zoom P4 mixer -- the one I used Saturday night and yesterday -- wasn't working. A small sense of panic hovered over me.

Chris could see it and volunteered to go back to my car and get a bag of WGCH equipment in the trunk of my car.

In that bag sat a Zoom P8 mixer.

Boom. That worked. Would we have been in bad shape if we didn't have that? No, there was at least one other mixer in my car so we were as prepared as ever.

And if that didn't work, we'd do the worst-case scenario: pass a cell phone back and forth between us.

Don't laugh. We've done it before.

The game always gets on and we got it on tonight.

Sean Kilkelly sat by in the studio and made it all run. Another Sean sat in the studio with him.

Yes, Sean Adams, who will be running the studio for the next Greenwich football game, against Darien, on Oct 14.

It's also Homecoming.

It's also Greenwich High School Sports Hall of Fame Induction Day.

But, for now, I'm off from calling games for a few days. 

A trip to Avon, CT with Brunswick awaits on Saturday.

Does anyone need a play-by-play announcer on Friday?

Have headset (and mixers). 

Will travel.