Prior Preparation, the New Technology Way

Prior Preparation, the New Technology Way

Preparation is what separates the best from the rest.  If you properly prepare, you’ll be ready for any situation, any name, and anything else that might come your way.  Prep time has become a lot easier for announcers over the last few years thanks to technology. Social Media P. A. announcers can connect via social

Preparation is what separates the best from the rest.  If you properly prepare, you’ll be ready for any situation, any name, and anything else that might come your way.  Prep time has become a lot easier for announcers over the last few years thanks to technology.

Social Media

P. A. announcers can connect via social media, Facebook and Twitter being the two most important.  You can get hold of just about any announcer through these two mediums, but you still may have to go the “old” way by contacting the team and asking for the phone number of their P. A. announcer.

Video On Demand

Most professional sports are streamed somewhere.  Whether it’s the league that supports it or the individual teams, there’s a good chance you’ll be able to see or even hear the games broadcast on the internet or your mobile device.  Amateur leagues are starting to follow suit, while most NCAA sports matches can be found through the school websites.  Video broadcasts give you the ability to get an idea of the game production, the announcer (if they go to the announcer during play-by-play), and other little nuances of what other teams do.  You can also find out if they have something particular they like to do game ops wise and choose to not do it for your game.

Websites

Rosters are readily available for most sports teams, whether it’s professional, college or high school.  Even some youth organizations offer their rosters online, making it easy to follow them through the course of the season.  Use the websites to find rosters and maybe some video highlights.

YouTube and Vevo

This could be considered any one of the previous three but there’s something to be said for YouTube.  People post videos of their experiences at sports events, it can give you an idea of what other teams do, but you can also hear other announcers do their job.  Maybe even grab a pronunciation or two.

Email

Well, obviously, this would be one of the easiest methods.  Sit down, type an email to all the teams you’re going to announce.  In the email you should ask for a roster, pronunciations, point of contact and announcer information.  Not only will this help grow your network, you can form relationships with other announcers and be prepared before you leave.

Calling

Yes, there’s always the trusty old phone.  Build your network, call the schools, call your fellow announcers and get names ahead of time.  The biggest piece of preparation is getting name pronunciations.  If you can get names ahead of time, that allows you to properly prepare at the game the night of.

Jarrod Wronski
ADMINISTRATOR
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