8 July, 2004

Calling It As They See It

Play-by-play announcers also dream about the big leagues

     Forget ESPN’s “Dream Job.” The sports announcers of the future are right here on Cape Cod. 

     The Cape League’s motto is “the stars of tomorrow today,” and the league’s young announcers are proving that is true not only in the field but in the press box. Each of the 10 Cape League teams has announcers providing play-by-play game coverage on the Internet via streaming audio and over the phones via an 800 number.

     Two of the more interesting duos are in Brewster and Chatham where longtime friends are on the microphones.

A summer to remember

     Sitting high above the Cape Cod Regional Tech field on the roof of the Whitecaps press box are UMass Amherst juniors Derek Volner and Mike Marzelli. To get to their perch they must first take the stairs to the press box, then make the climb up a rickety ladder. For these junior communications majors, the climb is well worth it to hold the best summer job they could have imagined. 
Marzelli is from Lakeville and his parents have a summer home in Brewster. He has been a Whitecaps fan for years. When it came time to look for summer internships, he and college buddy Volner (East Bridgewater) decided to send resumes to all the Cape League teams. Both were looking for any job with the league and when Brewster said it needed a steady announcing team, they jumped at the chance.

     “We both work in media at the school radio station and Mike writes for the paper,” said Volner

     “I want to be a sportswriter, but when they offered us the broadcasting job, that really sold it for us and we love doing it,” said Marzelli.

     During March both came to the Cape and made the rounds looking for job possibilities. The Whitecaps were impressed with Volner and offered him the job, but they had yet to find him a broadcast partner. Since another UMass student had applied, Brewster thought it would make a good fit.

     “Brewster talked to him and suggested me as a broadcast partner but they didn’t know we knew each other,” said Marzelli.
With the job in hand the 20-year-old broadcasters began preparation for the season.

Picking up where they left off

     As familiar as the college buddies are with each other, that’s nothing compared to Chatham’s talkative twosome.

     Dan D’Uva and Guy Benson are in their second year as the voices of the Chatham A’s and they can be seen preparing for that night’s game two hours before the opening pitch. The Ridgewood, N.J., natives go over statistics, set up promo lead-ins, and do pre-game interview segments.

     They are both still teenagers (19) and are entering their sophomore years of college, but they have more experience than most. Since eighth grade they have worked together as a broadcasting team.

     “We sought each other out because we both wanted to be sportscasters. The first day of high school we got a 200-signature petition to try and get a radio station,” said Benson.

     A radio station wasn’t possible but their principal steered them toward the school’s fledgling television station. They covered football, hockey and lacrosse for all four years of high school. Their first game broadcast was also first in the history of their school and was shown on cable in 13 surrounding towns.

     “By the time we reached our senior year, we were on in 48 towns in northern New Jersey and an estimated 280,000 homes,” said D’Uva.

     Benson’s parents have rented a home in Chatham as long as he can remember and he often watched the A’s from the third base bleachers. At 14, he approached the A’s about helping out as a public address announcer. When he found out coverage was expanding to radio, he approached D’Uva, and they put together a presentation for the team.

Just two of the guys

     Volner and Marzelli started preparing for their job even before leaving school. They wrote the players’ biographies for the team’s ?? and compiled all the information they needed to be prepared for the season.

     “We were very well informed and we recognized and knew about the guys the first days we saw them,” said Marzelli.
Volner sees many similarities in the players’ situation and the rest of the college interns who work for the team.
“We came down two weeks before the season, and we were just like the players,” he said. “We didn’t know any people and we are all about the same age.”

     They spent their first weeks on Cape helping out with the little things like raking the bullpen and setting up for the season. They also spent time watching the College World Series and seeing the players they would be working with this summer. 

     “The players have been great,” said Volner. “We are a lot like them because we are trying to build up a resume and make it.”
Marzelli agreed and is enjoying every minute of the experience.

     “Coming to the field and being involved is the best part; it is a resume builder but it is more fun than anything and I’m having a blast,” he said.

     They are unpaid interns and both have second jobs, Volner at a day camp and Marzelli at a hotel, but it is clear that announcing the games is their passion.

Going the extra mile

     For D’Uva and Benson, the announcing is basically a full-time job, as the A’s are the only team in the league that does home and away games.

     “We do all 44 games and it is like a full-time job. At the end of the day I’m exhausted and ready to go to bed,” said Benson, who also works at the Squire two days a week for pocket money.

     The duo is allowed to go on the road through the sponsorship of Monster.com and the Chatham Bars Inn. They both agreed that they have received a lot of support from the other announcing teams and ball clubs. 

     Going on the road is nothing new for them as both travel to do college games. Benson goes to Northwestern and is a journalism major and D’Uva is undecided at Syracuse. Their freshman year was their first time not working together since eighth grade but they are happy to be reunited for the Cape League.

     “This year was different, we did a Thanksgiving football game, but that was it. Now we have picked up where we left off,” said D’Uva.

     Both have worked other high profile internships, Benson at Fox News and D’Uva at the YES Network. Those internships have allowed both to make important connections, which allowed them to make an impressive promo spot featuring announcing greats including Ian Eagle, Joe Buck, Charlie Steiner and Jim Nantz. It is professionally done and sounds identical to spots heard on WFAN and WEEI sports radio. 

     For all four of these young announcers this has been a big opportunity to continue to further their careers and do what they love to do.

     “I cannot thank the A’s organization and the A’s fans enough for all they have done for us. I have made contacts and logged so many hours of valuable on-air tine, it has been the best opportunity,” said Benson.

     For those who want to hear what they’ve been missing, all of the teams have links on their websites to access the webcasts at Capecodbaseball.org.