Voice of the Cowboys

As I completed high school, I remember that my life plan was to become a teacher and to come back to Grantsville and teach math and coach at the high school (this is essentially what my brother Scott did do). Life ended up taking me in a different direction and those plans never came to fruition. I did major in math in college, but never went into Math Education. About midway through my math degree, I discovered computer science, minored in that, and that has ended up being where I have spent my career.

While I did coach my boys a little bit as they were growing up, primarily in Junior Jazz, and all before we moved back to Grantsville, I have never become involved in coaching at the high school like I thought I might and like some of my brothers have (Scott has been involved with football at various points, including this year, and has also coached tennis and cross country and spent the last few years as the school's athletic director, Alan has helped coach football for several years, and Brent runs the clock for football and basketball. At one point, Brent had a rule that if there was a Cowboy athletic event within 45 miles of wherever he lived at the time, he would attend, and famously posted on Facebook when the Cowboys won a baseball state championship the same weekend his first child was born, that the Cowboys winning state was the best part of his weekend. He was kidding. I think). While I attend games when I can and definitely still enjoy supporting the Cowboys, I haven't had the same level of involvement that some of my other brothers have.

But when Scott opted to step down as athletic director to return to the classroom, Aaron Perkins, who had done the PA for football games the past few years, was hired as the new athletic director, which meant they needed a new PA announcer. Scott and Aaron discussed some possibilities and Scott said he would ask me. I got this text on May 24:

Scott (7:34 AM): With Aaron Perkins being the new AD would you have any interest in being the announcer at the football games?

Me (7:35 AM): I don't think so. I just don't want to commit to being at every game.

Scott (7:36 AM): I understand.

Me (7:37 AM): Sorry. I'm just not as committed as Brent.

Scott (7:38 AM): Haha. No worries. Aaron asked if I had any ideas and I told him I would ask you.

That would have been that. They would have found someone else and probably someone who would do a much better job than I would. But I talked it over with Jeanell, and she thought I should at least consider it. I thought more about it and texted Scott back the next evening, May 25:

Me (5:32 PM): So I've thought about it some more and talked to Jeanell and if you haven't already found someone else I'd be willing to give it a try. I don't know what the schedule is. I know I will be out of town September 20 and October 11. I'd only be able to do the varsity games.

Scott (5:33 PM): I don't have the schedule memorized I will send it to you and I will forward this information on to Aaron Perkins and I'll be in touch with you.

Me (5:33 PM): But if they've already got someone, that's great.

Scott responded to please plan on it and they'd make arrangements for the weekend I would be out of town.

Once I agreed to do it, I thought of the people I remembered that had announced games over the years. When I played, it was Teryl Hunsaker. I believe Jerry Hurst took over after Teryl and did it for several years. I remember Dave "Gumby" Gumucio and Don Wayne Nelson, and of course Aaron who had called the last few years. I'm sure there have been others I am missing. A great tradition that I would now have to try to not screw up.

I told my other brothers that I was planning to do it when we were gathered one Sunday evening. Kevin joked that I had a leg-up because I already knew how to pronounce "Mouritsen."

I was in touch with Aaron sporadically over the summer. We arranged for Taylor Schofield (who has helped in the past) and my brother Kevin (Glen) to help as spotters. Scott got me setup with an hour-long online PA announcing class that I watched. But beyond that I didn't really know what to do to prepare. And as the summer wore on, I started to get nervous about it. I was also going to be out of town for the Red/White scrimmage so my first opportunity to announce would be a real game.

That opportunity came about this past Friday when the Cowboys took on the San Juan Broncos (winners of 37 straight games and the last three 2A state championships). I had emailed San Juan's coach (Barkley Christensen) a few weeks ago for help with any pronunciations that I might find tricky. He graciously replied and in our email conversation, I learned that he was born the same year that San Juan ended my own football career when they defeated us in the state quarter finals 24-16 in 1994. If nothing else, this made me feel old.

(He also mentioned that his older brother was on the team that defeated my brother Alan and the rest of the Cowboys in the 1998 state semifinals).

I also told him how I had played in the 1A/2A vs 3A All-Star game that following summer, and that the coach our 1A/2A team was legendary San Juan coach Art Burtenshaw (Art's son Brad, who also went into coaching, was my teammate on that team).

I have to admit that I became quite nervous as game time approached. I printed out multiple copies of each team's roster that I could make notes on, and another sheet of things I needed to say during the course of the game. I arrived at the field an hour before kickoff, found Aaron, and he gave me a quick crash course on how to use the mic, when to make some of the announcements, and his suggestions on how to execute the announcing (always announce the offensive player first, then the defense).

I went over to the booth where the San Juan crew was setup for their broadcast and asked for some additional clarification on how to pronounce some names. I then did the same with Grantsville crew on the other side of the press box. Brent arrived to run the clock, and Kevin and Taylor showed up as well. We quickly came up with a system and decided that Kevin would spot the offense and Taylor would spot the defense. Time went quickly and before I knew it I was welcoming the fans and announcing the national anthem. The game got underway and of course San Juan came out in a no-huddle offense which made it hard to keep up with everything. I could tell I was pretty nervous and I believe the fans could tell that I was.

But as the game went on, I got more comfortable, and began to enjoy it. Kevin and Taylor did a great job of identifying the players involved with each play, and Brent, while doing a great job running the clock, was also a great help at calling out the penalties that occurred (and there were a few).

The game turned out to be a great one, with Grantsville prevailing 36-30, sealing the game with a late interception in their own end zone. (Amazingly, with 11 touchdowns scored, there was not a single successful post-touchdown conversion in the entire game. Both teams tried both kicking and two-point tries, but nothing was successful).

I don't know how I did, but I enjoyed it. The few people I talked to after the game all told me I did well, but what are they going to say? I was anonymously informed during the game that I needed to talk louder (we instead turned up the volume on the mic). But our only real snafu was when I turned off the mic after the game, without first muting the sound system, which caused loud static to blare from the speakers for a minute or so (both Scott and Aaron were trying to call me to tell me what to do to stop it, finally Scott got me to answer).

I don't know if this will be a long-term thing or not, but I had a lot of fun at the first game and am looking forward to the next one. Go Cowboys!