Today we’re talking preparation, specifically basketball prep. Prep is arguably the single most important aspects of sportscasting. You can be an average play-caller and have good prep and churn out a good broadcast. But a stellar play-caller with poor prep will execute a bad broadcast every single time.
Knowing your stuff will not only make you feel more confident as a sportscaster, but it will help get you out of tough situations on air, make for a more interesting broadcast and paint you in a better light to prospective (or current) employers.
Say the Damn Score’s Logan Anderson recently tackled this on his sportscasting blog, by detailing his basketball prep. The beautiful thing about sportscasting is that everyone does it a bit different, so while Logan’s process won’t work for everyone, it’s a great look at how a talented sportscaster executes the pre-planning for his broadcast and how he filters it into his broadcast.
My preparation goals have changed a bit from covering small college to now covering local small town high school. When I covered small college, I really dug for every little biographical tidbit I could find. I called SID’s, pored over stats, talked with opposing media, and watched any highlights or video I could find on YouTube.
I was extremely frustrated the first month or so of doing high school sports because I tried to do things the same way, and it became apparent very quickly that much of the information I was used to having was simply not available. There are no public stats available, most teams had no opposing media coverage, and SID’s are not a thing at that level.
What I quickly found is that coaches are your lifeblood, and to them we are not a priority. Most of them, in addition to coaching, are either teachers or have jobs outside of the school district. This is important because the first key to prepping for high schools games is to build relationships with coaches. If you are the voice of a team, you have to start with the coaches for your team. You don’t have to be best friends, but you have to establish a relationship and prove yourself trustworthy. Over time trust grows and there is a great chance that they will start to share more and more inside perspective about what makes their team tick.
Click here for the full article on Logan’s basketball prep.
