By Justin Ganz
For as long as I could remember, I had always wanted to call a sporting event.
It didn’t matter what kind of game it was as long as I could call it. I’ve known since a young age that sports broadcasting was what I was passionate about.
When I first started at Irvine Valley College I didn’t think anything about broadcasting. This was partially due to the school not having any broadcasting classes on campus.
Once I switched to Saddleback College in fall 2021, I found out about the radio station there and decided to take a radio broadcasting class. The reason why I took the class was because it sounded interesting and I wanted to learn more about the radio as well as have my own radio show.
I spoke with my professor beforehand and expressed to her that I was interested in doing sports broadcasting. She told me that there was a possibility that I could do play-by-play or color commentary for the spring 2022 semester.
A few weeks into the semester she told me some news that I couldn’t believe. I was going to call my first ever broadcast for the Saddleback Bobcats baseball team.
I was shocked when I got the news. I was also super excited since I wasn’t expecting to be calling a game that quickly.
I called my first game on March 17, 2022 with one of my friends that I had met the day before, Dylan Luden.
Luden and I called three games for Saddleback. For the first and last games I did play-by-play and he did color commentary. For the second game vice versa. It was a really amazing experience and I enjoyed it a lot.
I love sports, but at times due to my poor eyesight and being legally blind as it would be hard for me to see when broadcasting games. Despite my disability, I was still able to overcome the odds and pursue my passion.
Later on in the fall semester, Dylan and I were able to call women’s soccer as well. I provided the color commentary. I felt like color commentary was better for me since I am good with analyzing plays. For calling soccer, I had a monitor next to me in the booth that allowed me to see the action on the field.
We even got the opportunity to call our first ever playoff game as a broadcasting tandem. Saddleback ended up advancing to the state finals and winning the championship.
After Saddleback won the championship, I transferred to Long Beach State and continued calling games for their sports programs.
These experiences have allowed me to grow in broadcasting games. Despite the challenges I have with my eyesight, it showed that I was still able to accomplish my goals of broadcasting sports. Even though I have these challenges in life with my eyesight, I’m grateful for the experience of being able to do broadcasting.
This experience was something I felt like was too good to be true yet here we are.
