Wheatley Raabe
Reporter
As teachers begin to wrap up their classes, the overhead announcements come on and finally second period is over: “Would all teachers please turn to channel 78 for this morning’s announcements”. It’s Friday morning and students begin crowding around TVs in the lounge, classrooms and the library to watch.
Senior Taylor Wilson first entered sports broadcasting his junior year. “I wasn’t in any of the TV Broadcasting classes, but last year my friend Harrison Harkey asked me if I wanted to start announcing the New Canaan Boys Hockey games. So I said yes, and ended up loving it,” Taylor said. “So then in the beginning of this year, I signed up for Advanced TV Broadcasting.”
The other Rams Sports Report sportscaster is sophomore Brendon Baker. “In eighth grade, I was the host of an online sports talk show,” he said. “Every Wednesday I talked about professional and college sports over the internet. My broadcast was called ‘smashmouthsportstalk with Brendon Baker’. I loved doing it, and I instantly knew I wanted to get into sportscasting in the future.”
Besides his online talk show, Brendon has also been to a specific sports broadcasting camp. “For the past two summers, I’ve gone to Bruce Beck and Ian Eagle Sports Broadcasting Camp,” he said. “This past summer I was taught by MSG Varsity’s Mike Quick and we had to anchor a six minute sportscast on the final day. The week leading up to the day of sportscast was spent hectically preparing our scripts and highlight packages. There are a few long days and a lot of yelling involved, but I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.”
For Mr. Cebulski, Brendon Baker was not a new name to him, having read an article written about him in the Courant. “A couple years ago, the Courant did a story on him, and after reading it, my immediate reaction was, why is this kid not on TV?” he said. “Brendon wanted to get involved as soon as possible, so freshman year he took Intro to TV Broadcasting to learn the basics and get a general idea of what broadcasting was like.”
On TV, these two sportscasters seem like professionals; their abilities to play off one another and get the hand movements down perfectly seems effortless. But what Brendon and Taylor do behind the scenes leading up to those Friday mornings is a lot more work than just their natural broadcasting ability.
“Thursdays are by far the busiest days for everyone in NCTV,” Brendon said. “In class Thursday I have to go through all of that week’s games and get the scores for the script we write and then read on camera.”
However, Brendon’s work doesn’t just end in class. “After school I go through different game footage to create a highlight package,” he said. “Plus we have to rehearse our broadcast two or three times after school, and then another two to three times Friday morning before school. The Rams Sports Report is more than sitting in front of the camera on Friday mornings.”
Taylor added that writing his scripts for the sports report can be last minute. “Writing the scripts gets tricky,” Taylor said. “Sometimes, we don’t get results of games until Thursday night or Friday morning. So right before we air, we’re always adding scores of last night’s games to our scripts.”
Watching Brendon and Taylor on TV, the two look like nothing can phase them and that their nerves are nonexistent. While this may seem true to viewers of the Rams Sports Report, these two sportscasters think differently.
“The nerves never go away, they are something you have to try and get used to,” Brendon said. “Right before Erika [Jensen] and Rock [Thomas Rochlin] segway to me, I feel so nervous that I can’t speak. Knowing 1,300 people are watching you is tough to deal with, but I love it and wouldn’t trade the experiences for anything in the world.”
Luckily, Brendon believes being nervous helps make a better broadcast. “The more nervous I am, the better I do,” he said. “If I didn’t get nervous I wouldn’t care about my performance.”
For Taylor, he enjoys being filmed live, although he was nervous his first couple of broadcasts. “I love it,” he said. “It doesn’t feel any different being filmed live, or just being filmed for a later airing. I did get nervous the first couple of times, but I’m used to it.”
Although Taylor and Brendon both have their own spotlight, alternating who reports sports every Friday, the two work together as if they’ve been collaborating for years.
Mr. Cebulski sees the chemistry between Brendon and Taylor most evidently when they announce games together. “When they’re announcing games, they feed off each other so well,” he said. “They know exactly when the other ends and when the other starts. None of it’s scripted either.”
Brendon couldn’t agree more. “Working with Taylor is fantastic,” he said. “We’ve become close friends off-camera, which makes our on-camera chemistry that much better.”
Mr. Cebulski has definitely taken notice of the amount of time Taylor and Brendon spend together and it’s positive influence on their studio performance. “When announcing a game, Brendon and Taylor could spend a whole week preparing for it,” he said. “They make charts of the opponents and all their statistics, as well as ones for New Canaan teams. They have to be able to talk about the players on both teams as the game is going on, which requires a lot of off camera research that they have to do together.”
