Tomorrow the Georgetown Hoyas and the St Johns Red Storm basketball teams will square off on the hard court in the Verizon Center. The game will be broadcasted on ESPN2. Yours truly will be in attendance. But, if you think I'm going to be sitting in the stands, you're wrong. Allow me to explain...
About a year ago I decided that I wanted to be a sports broadcaster for the ESPN family of networks when I grow up. To prepare myself for my future, I have been announcing freshman and JV football games (I played varsity), girls/boys varsity basketball games, and even girls/boys varsity soccer games at my high school.
About six months ago my friends mother told me that she knew the director for ESPN2. She said she would contact him and see if maybe I could at least meet him and he could tell me what to expect if I pursued this field. What happened next nobody ever saw coming. The director then emailed the man in charge of the internship program for ESPN. For about a week, the two men emailed back and forth about me and how they could help me in the future. They concluded that by announcing games I was already strengthening my resume. They also said they couldn't really do anything about the internship until after my junior year of college. To be honest, I never really thought that they were just going to give me an internship. All I wanted was just to talk to the man!!
My friends mother then reported to me about all this going on and I decided to drop the director a line...join the conversation.
He told me that next time he was down in this area producing a game he would be glad to meet with me and let me sit in on a production. Fast forward to the new year, 2011. I hadn't heard from him in about a month so I dropped him a line to make sure he didn't forget about me. Let me tell you, the reply made me drop to the floor:
"Hey Brian,
Thanks for checking in. I have a 7pm game 1/26 at the Verizon Ctr. Let me know if its something you could make. If so I will check on protocol to see how and if its ok to sit in the production truck or court side with announcers.
Let me know,"
Of course I responded with an ecstatic, but professional, YES!!! The opportunity of a lifetime. Very few people ever get to experience something like this and tomorrow I get my chance.
The details of what exactly I will be doing are very vague. But I do get my own credential and get to go into the Verizon Center media gate as a member of ESPN2!!! So tomorrow when you're sitting at home, or at wing night, around 7 o'clock, make sure you've got your TV set to ESPN2. You never know, you may see, or even hear, someone familiar.
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