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This morning will be the second of two consecutive Saturdays when I announced a Junior Varsity (JV) football game at Fisher Field. Prior to Saturday morning, September 27, I had not called a JV game since October of 2022.
It’s a different kind of fun. It was just as fun as I recalled when I announced it on a regular basis from 2014 to 2021.
Friday Night action is still my favorite way to spend time behind a mic, but there is something about announcing football games that makes you want to announce… more football games.
A typical varsity schedule has either four or five regular season home games, and sometimes there will be two consecutive dates where the local field is dark. This creates a three-week gap between the last varsity game (September 19 in my case this season) and the next one up (October 10 vs. NorthWood).
The two JV games I picked up satisfy that craving I get while Friday nights are dark on Fisher Field.
There are no gaps comparable to the football game day gaps because you only get to enjoy one game per week because of how physical and constructively violent the sport is.
There are weeks in boys’ and girls’ soccer where it’s easy to get my fill of the action because each side will have homestands resulting in calling as many as three matches in one week. Keaton Anderson, the voice of the Tiger Den, likely shares this same experience covering both boys’ and girls’ hoops action.
Things are not as compressed for Keaton in basketball as they are in soccer, but almost every scheduled contest is guaranteed two games for an announcer to call.
Soccer… when it rains it pours. However, Warsaw no longer hosts a sectional (it seems the IHSAA is leaning more heavily toward turf venues for the postseason), and the chance for postseason action is no greater than one shot when one of your sports’ sides gets to host a regional semifinal every other year if they win a sectional.
I move from a flurry of soccer action to… crickets… in a six- or seven-week regular season span. Soccer screeches to a halt after announcing the elementary school championship Monday night at the Tiger Soccer complex unless the boys’ side - due to sectional numbering this year - hosts.
Almost all spring sports have a feast or famine cadence to them, and if you’re an announcer who wants to get as many as six events in six days, calling spring sports action is for you.
The downside of spring sports for me, on the other hand, is most of the activities do not have a prescribed, timed format. Additionally, with earlier launch times for varsity sports not only am I fighting traffic and my work schedule (same as the visitors’ bus drivers are), I’m fighting postponements due to weather, and lightning delays (abundant in a Midwest spring) that now include thunder when it is likely lightning is possible within a certain radius.
Throw in the fact the only indoor spring sport is volleyball, and volleyball with its five possible sets is still closer to having a time constraint than any other spring sport… I’ve become increasingly averse to calling any action not subordinating itself to a play clock.
Am I getting older, busier, or both?
This coming spring will be my lightest sports season ever, but this is by choice. Unless I’m asked to relieve someone who needs an afternoon/evening off, all I’m doing in Spring 2026, in May only in fact, is calling a two-day track meet in another town, and our Unified track and field invitational in Warsaw.
This gap on the horizon is giving me greater appreciation of the sports I’m covering in these scholastic and collegiate sports years.
On a slightly different topic, but somewhat related, I have to say high school wrestling is the most efficient time-controlled sport an announcer can call. Officials want the next two competitors on the mat as soon as the previous competitors have cleared it.
I’ve even wondered, since I announce a face-off introduction by weight class at the opening of the match anyway, whether I should not even re-announce who’s getting on the mat at all when the next match starts unless a coach switches an athlete to another weight class.
Less seems to be more if I were to ask the wrestling officials. It seems the fans want to know – more than anything – who’s the guy or gal who won the match.
It’s funny… the more events I announce I find myself evaluating opportunities to determine if less is more although I’ll also admit I do this I because I guess I don’t mind hearing my voice scores of times in a 2–3-hour period.
Finally, rather than rank favorite sports I’ll discuss them in “award” categories.
Biggest Energy, and Brutal Efficiency Awards – boys’ and girls’ wrestling.
Head on A Swivel, Always Put My Cap on My Drink, and Why Am I Sore Even Though I Sat The Whole Time Awards – volleyball. In fact, the back of my neck hurts a little after each completed match.
Feel Like A Chaperone More Than I Feel Like An Announcer Award – soccer (I’m talkin’ to the grown-ups, not the athletes), and any track meet where the athletes lollygag and leave trash in the infield.
And finally…
Why Am I Making Indianapolis Based Healthcare Sponsorhip Announcements Instead of Northern Indiana Healthcare Sponsorships Award – the IHSAA.
