<ir="ltr">Less than 20% of Carleton’s student body population is from Minnesota. While this leads to an extremely exciting and diverse environment, it also makes it challenging for parents of student-athletes to enjoy the sporting events in which their children participate. Luckily, the Carleton Athletic Department provides student broadcasters and live online streaming for some of its sporting events.
According to David Pape, the Sports Information Director for Carleton College Athletics, the athletic department provides student broadcasters for men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s basketball, volleyball, baseball and softball. Additionally, the radio station hires a freelance announcer to call the football games on campus.While Carleton does not provide commentary for all athletic events, according to Pape, Carleton offers “live video streaming for select home swimming and diving competitions, as well as one outdoor track and field meet.”
For the sports that do have broadcasting, it is all done by Carleton students. The athletic department has 10 student broadcasters that regularly commentate games on campus. According to Pape, the job description for these broadcasters is to “describe the action for the viewers by providing both play-by-play and/or analysis similar to what happens on over-the-air television broadcasts.”
Student broadcaster, Henry Leidl, said that he became a broadcaster because he loved sports. Currently, Henry announces for both men’s and women’s basketball, softball, and baseball. Henry said that his favorite parts about broadcasting are “getting to familiarize myself with each player’s game, really paying attention to their technique, their strengths/weaknesses, their tendencies, watch them grow as a player and in their role on the team, and really letting them know that people care about what they’re doing.” Additionally, he “appreciate[s] the work they’re putting in, although it is easy to feel underappreciated and undervalued as a student-athlete here at Carleton.”
Carleton student broadcasters try to keep their analysis unbiased and somewhat neutral because often times, not only will Carleton parents and students be listening to the games, fans of the opposing team will tune in to the broadcast. However, this neutrality makes the broadcast attractive to Carleton students and fans alike.
Hailey Mair, a freshman and a member of the Varsity Women’s Soccer Team, said that both she and her parents “thoroughly enjoy the Carleton broadcasts because of their excitement, intrigue, and seemingly genuine care for athletics at Carleton and sports in general. But additionally, because of their ability to make smart comments about the athletic events seemingly on the fly.”
Indeed, Henry Leidl said this is one of the hardest parts about being a student broadcaster at Carleton. According to Henry, “There’s no script; everything is on the fly. You have to adjust fast.” Henry also said that since it is a live broadcast, they cannot slouch off or take a break at any point during the game.
According to Pape, the athletic department, through Knights Online, “has provided live video streams for 60 events (through April 6), with another 23 events on the schedule for this spring.” If students on campus are unable to watch games live and in person, Knights online is there for them to keep in touch with Carleton athletics. It is a fun and interesting way to spend an afternoon.