New Discoveries

 

Screenshot of Alaina Morris from X

You know I've never been the type to just pat on the head.

Especially when it comes to play-by-play.

Students get honest assessments that attempt to be hard, fair, and also encouraging. But so many simply want to hear they're great.

So I was on the interwebs in the dark hole known as X (and I still say Twitter) this morning when I encountered a post from Kris Freeman who does PA announcing, play-by-play, and is an adjunct professor of media and broadcasting.

Sounds like my kind of person.

Kris shared a reel from a young broadcaster named Alaina Morris. Alaina is a student at Lipscomb who has served, per her bio, as an analyst for soccer and a women's basketball beat writer covering Vanderbilt. 

But she also called some play-by-play recently for women's basketball as Lipscomb hosted Florida Gulf Coast.

Final score: FGCU 75, Lipscomb 54. 

Nervously, according to Kris Freeman, Alaina shared her reel on Twitter.

And. She. Was. Awesome.

She is composed, measured, clear, and precise, with a wonderful voice and a masterful attention to detail. There's excitement in her voice but she uses it properly as a tool to demonstrate when it's time to get to the next level.

The video doesn't make it clear if she has an analyst but it sounds like she is alone which I also find impressive.

Additionally, she is doing a radio call which I can't stress enough how important it is to learn and, in my opinion, start with. The play-by-play announcer is so important to radio and teaches the broadcaster the skills to be detailed before heading to video.

I realize these are just 58 seconds of her work but I'm impressed and intrigued. There is no sense of entitlement or attitude in her call. 

She's just a pro already. It's obvious. From what I hear she has wonderful talent to be a multimedia star and her future is wide open.

Again, it's only 58 seconds (the link to the reel is here), but I immediately followed her to keep in touch and watch how her career develops.

These are the stories that, as a teacher, mentor, and honest critic, I love to discover. I'll help guide in any way for a person like this.

Sometimes, hard love (and a little karma) is what is needed.

So far, I sense none of that is needed here.

Keep it going, Alaina.

Now, I have two games of my own to go call!