Even though I have made a lot of football contacts, I didn’t know anybody at the station or know anyone who knew someone at the station. How should I contact the station? Email, phone call, a letter, or just drop in?
I chose to mail a letter and resume to the General Manager and the Director of Sales outlining my years of experience as a radio statistician. They were mentioned in the article from the newspaper.
Yes, folks, I printed some paper, folded it, placed it an envelope and licked the envelope to seal it (yuck) and then I had to drive to a post office to get a stamp. A lot of work! Man, I really could have used stamps.com (they are a sponsor in some of the podcasts I listen to)!
The Director of Sales, Dean Radla, forwarded my information to the Director of Operations, David Ostmo. I didn’t know it at the time, but Dean worked for the Texas Sports Radio Network a long time ago. Dave Ostmo was going to be the one producing the games.
Dave and I played phone tag for a few days. When I finally spoke to him, he told me he was impressed with my background. Well, who wouldn’t be? We talked about high school football in general and during our conversation, he offered me the job as a statistician! I was super excited and accepted immediately. That was the easiest job interview I have ever had!!! Wow!!! I am a television statistician!!! Sweet!!! The first call I made was to my parents to give em this great news!!!
I finally got to meet David in the production truck at the first game in 2009. When I arrived at the TV booth, I met Dean first, he was the color man and I thanked him for forwarding my resume. A few minutes later, I met Ernie Zuniga, the play-by-play man. Ernie is also the morning news anchor on KABB. They made me feel so comfortable and I felt really good. My nerves disappeared quickly as the night went on.
After that first game ended, my parents got a few calls from friends who heard my name mentioned or saw my name on the ending credits!!! Awesome, I am kinda famous!
Yes, there is a camera in the TV booth and I am aware when it is on and where it is so I don’t bump into it!!! Don’t laugh, but I have bumped into the camera a few times and also the temporary lights. Ralph Lopez, the camera operator, will tell me if I need to move. I think my butt was on camera once but they quickly switched to another camera! Hmm, I wonder if my wife saw it?
Dave and I always chat before each game as he tells me what stats I really need to focus on; whatever it is, I
add it to my repertoire. All the stats I provide to Ernie, Dean, and the graphics operator enhances the presentation which makes it sound and look great. I even have freedom. By that, I mean, if I see a trend or a stat that pops out to me, I tell Dave and they have the capability to create a graphic.
The cool thing about doing TV is I feel like a “super star”!!! Everything is setup and ready to go. I just put on my headset and make sure I can be heard in the truck. Then, I am ready to crunch numbers for the broadcasters and the television viewers. And when the game is over, I get to leave, no dis-assembly of the equipment. Pretty cool, heh?
There is always food and water at the production truck which is very nice and I don’t have to pay for it. The main sponsor is Church’s Chicken so sometimes we get chicken sandwiches and hot apple pies bought up to us during the game. I don’t care if it is a spicy sandwich, I eat it!!!
There are many many many crew member’s involved in Thursday Night Lights. So, this is my shout out to all of them…Thanks.
For the Thursday Night Lights game on Thursday’s (duh), we have the time slot on CW35 from 7:00pm till 10:00pm. Around 6:45, we have a walk-thru. Basically, they do the intro along with the appropriate graphics and videos. The opening teaser always gets a laugh from us in the booth; it is Dave Ostmo’s voice and imagination running wild! I can’t wait to see what he is in store for this season. Dave, can my wife lend her nice sounding voice?
At some point during the game, our sideline reporter, usually Hector Ledesma, interviews the sponsor from Church’s Chicken, but it is always his son who steals the show and the mic.
We have to be off the air at 10:00pm sharp! Usually 3 hours for a tv game is plenty of time to count for everything, but one one game I worked ended really early. It was at Lenhoff stadium in Schertz; Dean and Ernie had to talk for like 30 minutes. I, along with a few crew members were watching them talk and waiting for it to be over. By 10:00pm, they were exhausted and like finally!
After the game wraps up, Ernie and Dean record a little highlight reel for the High School to the Max that airs on Friday night’s.
My Dad came to one of our television games last season. I gotta give him huge props for snapping all the pictures in this blog post and for feeding me cheeseburgers. Thanks Dad!! Check out his website @ 65andalive.weebly.com. That was only the 2nd game he has attended in my long career as a football statistician. The first was at the Alamodome, I wanna say two years ago, for a playoff game featuring the Stevens Falcons when they had Mykelle Thompson, he is now at UT Austin. During one posession, Stevens had the ball and I told my Dad to watch Mykelle….well, on that particular play, Mykelle had a very impressive and long run. I know he came to a basketball game when I was in High School, but I was filming the game not playing. That was so long ago that he had a HUGE bag as his cell phone!!!!
This year marks my 4th as a TV statistician. Wow!!!
Thursday Night Lights starts on August 30th at Heroes stadium as the MacArthur Brahmas host the Warren Warriors.
I am going to write about each game I work this season and they will appear on my BLOG on Saturday’s and Sunday’s. So, if anything funny happens in the press-box, I will tell you.
This Sunday, I will have my July health and exercise update and next Tuesday, I will share my thoughts on the number 4 team as ranked in the preseason from the Express News.