It took me about 15 minutes to stop fidgeting with my hands.
At that point, I was more in control of how loud I was talking, and my voice had stopped shaking. I had started to understand the flow of the broadcast and when I was supposed to talk, every once in a while, throwing out an obvious observation from the basketball game in front of me. Boring as it was, I was at least relieved that nothing was going wrong. I survived the boys’ game with little issue and moved to the side as we added a third as the girls’ game began. At halftime, I got hit with an unexpected question: “You want to do play-by-play in the 4th quarter?”
I grew up on Tigers baseball. When I was as little as six, I would watch the games on Fox Sports Detroit every night and hear the voices of Mario Impemba and Rod Allen. Then, after I was told to go to bed, I would turn the radio on in my room to continue listening to the voices of Dan Dickerson and Jim Price. I absorbed what I heard from those voices and quickly put them into practice, playing outside by myself and narrating what happened. I even had my own replay system, “Let’s take a closer look at Victor Martinez…”
Baseball was obviously what I knew best, but I did my best to learn other sports, too. For NFL games, the likes of Jim Nantz, Joe Buck, Kevin Burkhardt, and Dan Miller were the voices I heard the most and tried to learn from. I’ve watched a lot of Pistons games, so George Blaha in particular has shaped my technique when talking basketball. None of these guys, however, have influenced me the way Jason Benetti has.
Jason Benetti, the Tigers’ TV broadcaster, is someone I’ve heard from long before he started in the booth in Detroit two years ago, mainly because he did everything. He’s done baseball, college football, the NFL, college basketball, and the NBA. I’ve heard him everywhere. As an outside observer, he’s endeared himself to me through his sense of humor and genuine love for everything he does. The number of games he calls and the traveling he does is truly stunning, and not a workload many would be able to shoulder. Just recently, I was lucky enough to meet him. His career is exactly what I want.
I realized pretty quickly that broadcasting was what I wanted to do, as I knew that there would be no path that I knew better than speaking about a sporting event. I badgered multiple people at FHC to let me broadcast football or basketball games at the school. While given the OK in senior year, we didn’t have the equipment or technological know-how to quickly get it off the ground. Despite our inability to set everything up, I was granted a chance to work with Catholic Central’s broadcasters in mid-January. I jumped at the offer and reached out to Catholic Central’s broadcaster about getting to work. I did 7 quarters of color commentary before my big break.
I eagerly accepted the opportunity to do play-by-play. After seven quarters of listening to Eric Wells, the man sitting next to me, do it, I felt prepared and more than a little excited to put my voice out there for the first time. Eric introduced me, and I promptly froze. I frantically hunted for some words and spoke about some surface-level happenings in the game. Then the quarter began. Everything fell right into place. I instantly felt more comfortable and called upon everything I had learned to piece together a quality call as the game came to a close. The game got more exciting, as a 13-point lead for Catholic Central was cut to 5. Everything went smoothly as the game came to a close. I was walking on air for the rest of the night, knowing I’d proven myself and practically praying for another chance.
The beat should go on. With luck, I’ll get everything set up here and continue to call games into college. It’s my passion. I’ve been told I was born for this. There will be more. Gibby Wierenga here with you. Glad to have you along.
