COMM coverage
It’s 11 p.m. on a Friday night in October. Eighteen Waynesburg University students are gathered at Applebee’s in Washington, Pennsylvania, eating half-priced appetizers. By some measures, this is not a typical way that college students would spend their Friday nights.
However, the reason for this seemingly random gathering of Waynesburg students is that they have all just come from covering high school football games across Western Pennsylvania.
Anywhere from 15 to 20 students in Waynesburg University’s Department of Communication work for various companies and organizations that require them to cover Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League (WPIAL) football games every Friday night, often for pay. Some just for the experience. Additionally, there are several Waynesburg alumni that have stayed involved with some of these organizations since they have graduated.
“There is no doubt in my mind that the more Waynesburg University people, either current student, faculty or staff members or alumni…go out and are seen covering sporting events and are interfacing with people in these different locations, it…establishes Waynesburg University sports announcing program as one of the best in this part of the country,” said Lanny Frattare, assistant professor of communication at Waynesburg.
On a given night, many of these students have to travel long distances from Waynesburg University to cover the games, illustrating the number of hours required of them.
“It is certainly a commitment; I’m not done when class ends on Friday at 1 p.m.,” said Andrew Stanko, a senior sports broadcasting/sports information (SB/SI) major at Waynesburg. “I work every Friday night. I drive, give or take, 45 minutes to an hour and fifteen minutes to get to my venue and back, and so usually we get back sort of late.”
Some of the companies that these students work for include, but are not limited to: MSA Sports Network, WTAE, the Herald-Standard newspaper, ROOT Sports and GreeneSports.net.
Stanko has been working for MSA Sports for the past two years as a color announcer and a play-by-play announcer. He has learned from talking with professionals that the only way to get better at announcing is to announce often. So, when he graduates, he will have had a lot of experience from TV and radio announcing.
“Here at Waynesburg we’ve got great opportunities [through] the university team,” Stanko said. “When I get out of here, I will have done 20 combined high school and college games in a play-by-play capacity, and even more as a color analyst.”
Senior SB/SI major Kyle Dawson works with Stanko for MSA Sports Network but also does work for Greene Sports. Dawson feels that he is doing something that he really enjoys, but it also is an opportunity to expand on a passion he has had since he was in high school.
“I think, in general, it’s a fun time for me. I go under the idea of ‘if you enjoy what you’re doing, you’re not working,'” Dawson said. “I grew up in this area so I fell in love with high school football very early… so now it is kind of routine for me.”
Frattare helps get his announcing students involved with different companies, such as MSA, who he works for as well. Because of the time commitment for the students, he commends them for being willing to put that extra time in on Friday nights to further their skills.
“It speaks volumes about the students that they want to put in the practical experience [and] time necessary to propel their careers forward,” said Frattare. “I know the reason that they do this is they understand that if they want to be successful in broadcasting and want to be successful as a sportscaster, then they have to go out and cover sports.”
In addition to the announcers, senior journalism major Jacob Meyer has covered WPIAL high school football games through the Herald-Standard since his sophomore year at Waynesburg. According to Meyer, one of the biggest differences between what he does and what the announcers do is that a lot of his work is done after the game, as he has to write game stories to a deadline of 11 p.m. A lot of games start at 7 p.m., so the time constraint is something he says is often a struggle.
Meyer is grateful for the opportunity that he has been presented with, as he has been able to garner a lot of experience in his field throughout his three years working for the newspaper.
“The biggest benefit is that it is great experience and preparation for me for when I am a professional, which isn’t too far away for me,” said Meyer. “I’ve been doing this for three years now…so I have gotten a good amount of experience over the last three years with them, and that’s going to help me a lot once I graduate and become a professional.”
Another front that is covered by Waynesburg University is television, where there are multiple students that are working for WTAE, one of the major Pittsburgh TV news networks. The students work through the school to shoot highlights of WPIAL football games.
Junior electronic media major Brennen McCall is currently in his first year working for WTAE, shooting video highlights that are used for their sports segments later that night. After shooting game film for half of the game, McCall and the others he works with will head over to the main station in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, and sit down with News Anchor and Action Sports Director Andrew Stockey and walk him through what happened in the game.
This experience, McCall said, was intimidating at first but extremely rewarding.
“The very first time I did that, I was a little overwhelmed because this is a big time news station, you know, this is for real,” McCall said. “It was just a really cool experience to be there among those professionals in the field working for a professional organization getting to meet those guys you get to see on TV every morning or evening.”
McCall understands that, although he does not have as much free time, he has an opportunity as a student to get experience that is extremely valuable and are a better use of his time than staying in on Friday nights.
“I’m not going to school to play the next Call of Duty or Battlefield on a Friday night, I am here to get an education,” said McCall. “There are opportunities here in this department, like WTAE, where I could go out on a Friday night and get experience that I want to do in a field that I am paying for, basically get an education for. So, I think being studious like that and taking those opportunities is a lot smarter than sitting in your room at night.”
Through all of this work the numerous students are putting in on Friday nights, Stanko believes that Waynesburg is really building a positive reputation in the area.
“I’m really glad that it is something that we can claim as our own,” said Stanko. “A lot of the guys I work with that are a little bit older than we are come from Point Park [University], and so they have a big Point Park contingency in the WPIAL and I think we are building something similar with Waynesburg, and that’s in a whole bunch of different capacities, whether it is stringing for newspapers, shooting highlights, or announcing.”