The Guy With the Headphones

 

It was soccer day for me.

Brunswick hosted St. Luke's at Cosby Field tonight.

Now, Cosby Field is the home of the Bruins football and lacrosse teams. A few times each season, the soccer team moves there from their normal Carroll Varsity Soccer Field across King St.

It can fit more people plus there's a press box.

There's also an installed LocalLive remote camera. However ... there's no audio jack to give them the play-by-play.

One of those does exist over at Carroll.

When I do a game at Cosby, a videographer shows up and I run my audio through an input on their camera. 

But there was no videographer tonight.

So, undaunted, I decided to stay and do an audio-only broadcast. I figured that I was already there and it's always good to practice my soccer play-by-play.

It was homecoming so a big crowd made their way to the field for soccer as well as the postgame bonfire and fireworks.

The results were to their liking as the Bruins scored twice in the first half and held on for a 2-1 win.

One thing to know about the Cosby Field press box is that it is set low to the point where I can have (and have had) conversations with people in the crowd.

To that end, I'm accessible.

In soccer, the officials have the scoreboard operator stop the clock with two minutes remaining in each half, which they do for stoppage time. They keep the time on the field.

That didn't sit well with a few kids in the crowd and, thinking they were being helpful, they told the dude in the press box -- the only person in the press box -- to start the clock.

Except, I have no control over that.

In fact, I never have control over the scoreboard.

Or the music.

Or the band.

Or (generally speaking) the public address announcing. That means I don't control the 50-50 raffle, the announcing of cheerleaders, the introduction of the dance team, and other minutiae.

I don't call plays. I'm not an official.

Don't yell at me when the team turns the ball over or a bad call is made.

I'm literally a voice. I'm the play-by-play announcer. That's basically it.

I talk.

But in the first half, I was told by numerous people about the clock. Well, thanks, but the clock operator was probably 50 yards across the field from me.

In the second half, I was asked if I could play a song. Nope, the person winning Bluetooth speaker was in the Brunswick cheering section.

Again, not me.

I've literally been asked about all this and more. Now, I have been asked on many occasions to be the public address announcer, even when I'm broadcasting the game. That means I'll host the senior day ceremony or, as I did tonight, introduce the national anthem performance.

But, in general, if you see someone with a headset on, they're likely working. They're doing play-by-play or color commentary.

They're part of a broadcast team communicating with a director. 

They're in some kind of official capacity.

They're actually coaching the game.

In my case, I'm broadcasting. But I've truly been asked -- and even yelled at about -- all of these things.

As if it's my fault.

An MSG Varsity producer got nasty with me one time at Trumbull High School about turning the in-house music down. How do you think that went over with me?

It becomes sort of laughable after a while, just as it was tonight.

Brunswick soccer is slated to return to Cosby Field once more, for senior day, in a few weeks. As of now, I expect to be there. We'll see about the audio situation.

*****

Tomorrow will be a busy one, so allow me to promote it now.

- The Greenwich High School Sports Hall of Fame is inducting their Class of 2023 tomorrow morning. There's a breakfast at 9:30 a.m. at Zody's 19th Hole in Stamford. I've been asked to speak about my connection to GHS football and sports as well as to introduce former Notre Dame and NFL star John Sullivan. Later on, there will be more ceremonies at Cardinal Stadium.

- Tomorrow is also homecoming for Greenwich High, though I don't think I'll be playing any role in that.

- The Cardinals host the Darien Blue Wave in football at 2 p.m. Chris Kaelin was supposed to join me for the call but it appears Uncle Kato has to tend to some family stuff. Kato was filling in for Chris Erway, who is also doing some family stuff. So Dan Murphy -- "Roadway Wiz" and all-around good guy -- will join me for his first broadcast. Dan and I did a practice inning of baseball back in July in Buffalo and I was impressed with his knowledge and understanding of the chemistry of a broadcast. Darien/Greenwich is getting thrown into the deep end of the pool but I'm comfortable that he'll be ready and understand the nuances.

If Kato is able to make it then we'll be a three-man booth. And I'm excited to have Sean Adams as our studio operations guy. It will be a very busy day but I think it's going to be great.

I also expect the game to be great. So I suggest you join us in person at the stadium but be listening on 1490 am, wgch.com, or robcasting.mixlr.com. You can also watch the game on Hudl at fan.hudl.com/gobigred.