September 2, 2003 was the first day of school for my Senior year of high school!!!!!! And this day would forever change me!!!! For the first day of school was my first time doing the morning announcements over the loud speakers!!!!!! And let's just say I had the most fun EVER!!!!! Started off every morning with GOOOOOOOOOOOD MORNING SHAKOPEE SENIOR HIGH!!!!!!!!!!! One of my teachers told me that I had a great radio voice and should look into radio sometime!!!! I told them OH I will one day try and be on radio!!!!! It is a dream I have!!!!!!
Wednesday, April 17th 2013 will be a day I will remember forever!!!! It was the day I went live for radio!!!! A month ago I e-mailed some of the ICT and AV crew staff at school asking if it was possible to do a live radio broadcast, since last year we tried the video streaming and failed horribly!!! 2 weeks before Win Mumby Mike Pesavento (which I'll get to him later) said he has found this site and it looks like it will be possible to do a live stream!!! At that time Mulan (our 7-9th grade Spring drama) was in full force so I didn't want to overload Mike and cause him a mental breakdown so we would work with this after Mulan was over!! Well Mulan finished and sure enough he had Spreaker, the same link on the bottom of this post, up and ready to try out!!! Only problem is we had NO games to try it out on before Win Mumby!!! So our first LIVE broadcast would be WIN MUMBY!!!!!
Wednesday night!!!!!! Woodstock Girls vs. Lawrence School, my first live broadcast and a game I would never forget!!!!!!! I was SO freakin nervous!!! Not sure how I would sound, if I would talk to loud, fast, mumbley, etc.!!!!!! The great thing about Spreaker is you not only get to go live BUT it gives you the option to record all of your broadcasts as well!!!! So I knew, okay let's get through tonight and I could go back and listen to them and analyze and change things if I needed to!! And man were there things to change!!!! However, first night went AWESOME!!!!!!! It was SO much fun!!!!!! The games seems a THOUSAND times faster when you try and call out every single play!!! I'll get to that part at the end!!!!!;) During the first 3 games that night we were also unsure if anyone would even listen or comment!!! But sure enough we saw listener after listener log on live, AND we even had comments!!!!! One of the girl basketball player's moms was AWESOME over the 3 1/2 days!!! She would be the first one to comment and would comment multiple times with such inspiring and positive words!!!!!!!:):):) So I did 3 games on Wednesday night, that was the easy part of the entire tourney looking back!!!!!!!:):):):)
Thursday!!!!!!!!! And I do mean THURSDAY!!!!!!! 7:30am Mike and I set up for a LONG day of basketball!!!!!!!!:):):) Listening the night before I talk with Mike about the things I heard, and both he and I were up until 1am listening, editing, taking notes, etc.!!!! I'll talk about Mike later as well!!:):) So 8am the first of 10 games for the day!!! Games 1-4 in the morning and 5-10 in the afternoon/evening!!!:):) And between the morning and afternoon there was about a 2 hour break!!!! So really Mike and I were sitting on that freakin wooden bleacher from 7:30am to 9:30pm with a 2 hour break, broadcasting BASKETBALL!!!:):):) You REALLY have to enjoy what you do to do that!!! Which we did!!!!!!!!:):):):)
Friday!!!!!!!!!!! And again I do mean FRIDAY!!!!!!! Same thing, 7:30am Mike and I were there, and 9:30pm we were done!!!!!!:):):) We had 11 games that day 5 before lunch and 6 after lunch, so break that day was only an hour or so!!!! And this is where I could tell, okay you best start being smart about your voice, because it was fading a little bit!!!!:):) Of course though, the BIGGEST games of the tournament were that night!!! Both Woodstock teams were undefeated (2-0) at this point and Friday's games would decide if they were #1 or 2 seed in the Saturday fixtures!! So I knew it would be a full house and energy would be high!! No boring broadcasts coming up that night!!!!!!!:):):) Woodstock ladies played Modern School (future Win Mumby champs) and lost, followed by a great victory by the Woodstock boys team over Doon School!!!!!!!!:):):):) After the games my voice was in trouble!!!!:) It wasn't gone, BUT it wasn't strong either!!! I knew Saturday was going to be 50/50 getting through it!!!!!!!
Saturday!!!!!!!!!! Again got to school at 7:30am ready to go with Mike!!!!!!:):):) Voice took a while to warm-up, but once it did it was decent!!! Not great, but not bad either!!!:):) Decided after the first 5 minutes of the first semi-final game that this was going to be a blow out so would save the voice for the next two games, which happened to be back-to-back Woodstock games!!!!! And being bias towards Woodstock, those two games were FAR more important!!!!!!!!!!! Ladies played Welham Girls, and let's just say you need to listen to that one to see what the crap happened there!!!! The most bizaar and childish event ever by a visiting coach!!!!! And sadly that coach was the Chief Official of the entire tournament!!!! So Woodstock unfortunately lost that game vs. Welhams! But then Woodstock Boys played Modern School and THAT to me personally WAS the Championship game!!!! Back and forth all game, winning score was 83-79!!! Only in the last 1 1/2 minutes was the lead more than 2!!!!!!!!:):):):) And got some EXCITING comments from listeners!!!!!!:):):):) However then we had a break after 1:30pm and that is when the voice went sour!!! And when I mean sour, I mean like NON-EXISTENT!!!!!!!! I drank some hot tea, an entire liter of water, sat down for the girls game, practiced talking a little bit and thought it might work out!!! Mike gave me the thumbs up and BAM...................... nothing was coming out except some squeaks!! Instantly I knew that the 2 Championships game would not happen!!!! I saw David (another Woodstock staff member) sitting in the far bleachers and we had talked a couple days before how he used to sit at home and commentate during basketball games to his wife!!! So I immediately stood up, tried to wave him down, mimed with my hands to get over here ASAP, and take over!!! My heart sunk!!!! The entire tournament lead up to these two games, the most important games that people want to listen to, annnnnnnnnnnnd I can't even say a simple sentence at this point!!! I wanted to struggle and try it, but didn't want to do that because the listeners would have a tough time!!! So David took over for me and I just filled out my stat sheet for him!!!! Woodstock won the Championship and all was well with Woodstock!!!!:):):):)
Now back to the things I said I would get to!!! Listening to the growth from Wednesday night to Saturday morning was so much fun!!!! From a frozen deer in the headlights with everything moving so fast on Wednesday night, to the feeling of the Matrix when they slow everything down was awesome!!!! I went from saying the visiting teams players numbers only on Wednesday to saying both numbers and names, while writing down the stats of the game!!!:):) It got to a point I could watch a part of the game, memorize that part, replay the part via radio while writing down the stats!!! It was truly an awesome feeling!!!:):):) And during Win Mumby and my breaks I would listen to different play-by-play broadcasts and memorize their descriptive terminology and use that to paint a better picture on the court!!!:):):) Oh it was the BEST time ever and would not have changed a single moment!!! And holy crap the experience within 3 days was MIND BLOWING!!!!!!:):):):)
Now back to Mike!!!!!!!!!! I don't even know where to begin!!!! The silent hero of it all you could say!!! Even before Win Mumby started Mike was working on this and trying to get EVERYTHING ready to go so once we went "On Air" it would be perfect!! WHICH IT WAS!!!!!!!:):):):) And the fact that Mike sat with me at my side for EVERY SINGLE SECOND OF EVERY SINGLE GAME was a blessing!!!!!:):):):) Without Mike, my dream of doing this was impossible!!! I didn't even know where to start and without his equipment I could have never done it!!!!! Also, the fact that we got so comfortable as the games went on was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!! I still remember the first couple of games where we were both trying to communicate what was going on, how we had to quickly cut off air to fix things or pause something!! And by the end it was a simple gesture of a thumbs up, or a single finger in the air (without a single word mentioned) and Mike knew EXACTLY what that meant!!! And I could give him cues over the air and he knew what to do right at that moment!!! I would say things and now we have a 1 minute time-up and we'll be back in 45 seconds, which he knew and took that cue as play a song for 45 seconds!!! Then once the timeout would be up I would give a thumbs and I knew he knew what that meant!! He would lower the volume of the song and within 2 seconds I would be in broadcasting again!!! Like I said we were a well oiled machine!!!! And cannot wait for next year!!!!!!!!!:):):):) I would have had no one else except Mike sitting next to me!!!!:):):):)
And of course Shubhra!!!!!!!!!!:):):):) Who when I got home finally on Saturday said, watching you doing the broadcasts and interacting with the crowd like you do makes me think how much I would have regretted not marrying you if something were to go wrong before!!!! Love is as simple as that!!! I responded by saying "............................................" :):):) Yeah I had no voice to respond!! Just kissed her!! But again without her at my side through all of this, there is no way I could have made it!! Just like when I run my marathons!! Without her, family and friends there, what is the point!!!:):) She is my rock!!!!!:):)
This was such a dream come true that the moment this entire weekend and tournament was over I just burst into tears!!!!!! It was the same feeling as finishing a marathon within my goal time it was THAT amazing!!!! Reasons for bursting into tears, exhaustion!!! Emotions ALWAYS run higher when exhausted!! The boys winning Win Mumby and coming over to me and giving me a big group hug saying thank you!!! Seeing the girls emotionally shattered after there game hit hard as well!!! And then being so thankful for everything, Mike, the broadcast, my wife, just added as well!!!!!!:):):):) Which again I have to say to always go after your dreams no matter how hard or easy that will be!!!!:):)
If you would like to check out the broadcasts please check out this link, I did every game except #'s 29 and 30!!!:):)
http://www.spreaker.com/user/kwsm
That is all for now!!!! HAPPY SMILING AND TALKING!!!!!!!!!:):):):):):):):)
Wednesday, April 17th 2013 will be a day I will remember forever!!!! It was the day I went live for radio!!!! A month ago I e-mailed some of the ICT and AV crew staff at school asking if it was possible to do a live radio broadcast, since last year we tried the video streaming and failed horribly!!! 2 weeks before Win Mumby Mike Pesavento (which I'll get to him later) said he has found this site and it looks like it will be possible to do a live stream!!! At that time Mulan (our 7-9th grade Spring drama) was in full force so I didn't want to overload Mike and cause him a mental breakdown so we would work with this after Mulan was over!! Well Mulan finished and sure enough he had Spreaker, the same link on the bottom of this post, up and ready to try out!!! Only problem is we had NO games to try it out on before Win Mumby!!! So our first LIVE broadcast would be WIN MUMBY!!!!!
Wednesday night!!!!!! Woodstock Girls vs. Lawrence School, my first live broadcast and a game I would never forget!!!!!!! I was SO freakin nervous!!! Not sure how I would sound, if I would talk to loud, fast, mumbley, etc.!!!!!! The great thing about Spreaker is you not only get to go live BUT it gives you the option to record all of your broadcasts as well!!!! So I knew, okay let's get through tonight and I could go back and listen to them and analyze and change things if I needed to!! And man were there things to change!!!! However, first night went AWESOME!!!!!!! It was SO much fun!!!!!! The games seems a THOUSAND times faster when you try and call out every single play!!! I'll get to that part at the end!!!!!;) During the first 3 games that night we were also unsure if anyone would even listen or comment!!! But sure enough we saw listener after listener log on live, AND we even had comments!!!!! One of the girl basketball player's moms was AWESOME over the 3 1/2 days!!! She would be the first one to comment and would comment multiple times with such inspiring and positive words!!!!!!!:):):) So I did 3 games on Wednesday night, that was the easy part of the entire tourney looking back!!!!!!!:):):):)
Thursday!!!!!!!!! And I do mean THURSDAY!!!!!!! 7:30am Mike and I set up for a LONG day of basketball!!!!!!!!:):):) Listening the night before I talk with Mike about the things I heard, and both he and I were up until 1am listening, editing, taking notes, etc.!!!! I'll talk about Mike later as well!!:):) So 8am the first of 10 games for the day!!! Games 1-4 in the morning and 5-10 in the afternoon/evening!!!:):) And between the morning and afternoon there was about a 2 hour break!!!! So really Mike and I were sitting on that freakin wooden bleacher from 7:30am to 9:30pm with a 2 hour break, broadcasting BASKETBALL!!!:):):) You REALLY have to enjoy what you do to do that!!! Which we did!!!!!!!!:):):):)
Friday!!!!!!!!!!! And again I do mean FRIDAY!!!!!!! Same thing, 7:30am Mike and I were there, and 9:30pm we were done!!!!!!:):):) We had 11 games that day 5 before lunch and 6 after lunch, so break that day was only an hour or so!!!! And this is where I could tell, okay you best start being smart about your voice, because it was fading a little bit!!!!:):) Of course though, the BIGGEST games of the tournament were that night!!! Both Woodstock teams were undefeated (2-0) at this point and Friday's games would decide if they were #1 or 2 seed in the Saturday fixtures!! So I knew it would be a full house and energy would be high!! No boring broadcasts coming up that night!!!!!!!:):):) Woodstock ladies played Modern School (future Win Mumby champs) and lost, followed by a great victory by the Woodstock boys team over Doon School!!!!!!!!:):):):) After the games my voice was in trouble!!!!:) It wasn't gone, BUT it wasn't strong either!!! I knew Saturday was going to be 50/50 getting through it!!!!!!!
Saturday!!!!!!!!!! Again got to school at 7:30am ready to go with Mike!!!!!!:):):) Voice took a while to warm-up, but once it did it was decent!!! Not great, but not bad either!!!:):) Decided after the first 5 minutes of the first semi-final game that this was going to be a blow out so would save the voice for the next two games, which happened to be back-to-back Woodstock games!!!!! And being bias towards Woodstock, those two games were FAR more important!!!!!!!!!!! Ladies played Welham Girls, and let's just say you need to listen to that one to see what the crap happened there!!!! The most bizaar and childish event ever by a visiting coach!!!!! And sadly that coach was the Chief Official of the entire tournament!!!! So Woodstock unfortunately lost that game vs. Welhams! But then Woodstock Boys played Modern School and THAT to me personally WAS the Championship game!!!! Back and forth all game, winning score was 83-79!!! Only in the last 1 1/2 minutes was the lead more than 2!!!!!!!!:):):):) And got some EXCITING comments from listeners!!!!!!:):):):) However then we had a break after 1:30pm and that is when the voice went sour!!! And when I mean sour, I mean like NON-EXISTENT!!!!!!!! I drank some hot tea, an entire liter of water, sat down for the girls game, practiced talking a little bit and thought it might work out!!! Mike gave me the thumbs up and BAM...................... nothing was coming out except some squeaks!! Instantly I knew that the 2 Championships game would not happen!!!! I saw David (another Woodstock staff member) sitting in the far bleachers and we had talked a couple days before how he used to sit at home and commentate during basketball games to his wife!!! So I immediately stood up, tried to wave him down, mimed with my hands to get over here ASAP, and take over!!! My heart sunk!!!! The entire tournament lead up to these two games, the most important games that people want to listen to, annnnnnnnnnnnd I can't even say a simple sentence at this point!!! I wanted to struggle and try it, but didn't want to do that because the listeners would have a tough time!!! So David took over for me and I just filled out my stat sheet for him!!!! Woodstock won the Championship and all was well with Woodstock!!!!:):):):)
Now back to the things I said I would get to!!! Listening to the growth from Wednesday night to Saturday morning was so much fun!!!! From a frozen deer in the headlights with everything moving so fast on Wednesday night, to the feeling of the Matrix when they slow everything down was awesome!!!! I went from saying the visiting teams players numbers only on Wednesday to saying both numbers and names, while writing down the stats of the game!!!:):) It got to a point I could watch a part of the game, memorize that part, replay the part via radio while writing down the stats!!! It was truly an awesome feeling!!!:):):) And during Win Mumby and my breaks I would listen to different play-by-play broadcasts and memorize their descriptive terminology and use that to paint a better picture on the court!!!:):):) Oh it was the BEST time ever and would not have changed a single moment!!! And holy crap the experience within 3 days was MIND BLOWING!!!!!!:):):):)
Now back to Mike!!!!!!!!!! I don't even know where to begin!!!! The silent hero of it all you could say!!! Even before Win Mumby started Mike was working on this and trying to get EVERYTHING ready to go so once we went "On Air" it would be perfect!! WHICH IT WAS!!!!!!!:):):):) And the fact that Mike sat with me at my side for EVERY SINGLE SECOND OF EVERY SINGLE GAME was a blessing!!!!!:):):):) Without Mike, my dream of doing this was impossible!!! I didn't even know where to start and without his equipment I could have never done it!!!!! Also, the fact that we got so comfortable as the games went on was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!! I still remember the first couple of games where we were both trying to communicate what was going on, how we had to quickly cut off air to fix things or pause something!! And by the end it was a simple gesture of a thumbs up, or a single finger in the air (without a single word mentioned) and Mike knew EXACTLY what that meant!!! And I could give him cues over the air and he knew what to do right at that moment!!! I would say things and now we have a 1 minute time-up and we'll be back in 45 seconds, which he knew and took that cue as play a song for 45 seconds!!! Then once the timeout would be up I would give a thumbs and I knew he knew what that meant!! He would lower the volume of the song and within 2 seconds I would be in broadcasting again!!! Like I said we were a well oiled machine!!!! And cannot wait for next year!!!!!!!!!:):):):) I would have had no one else except Mike sitting next to me!!!!:):):):)
And of course Shubhra!!!!!!!!!!:):):):) Who when I got home finally on Saturday said, watching you doing the broadcasts and interacting with the crowd like you do makes me think how much I would have regretted not marrying you if something were to go wrong before!!!! Love is as simple as that!!! I responded by saying "............................................" :):):) Yeah I had no voice to respond!! Just kissed her!! But again without her at my side through all of this, there is no way I could have made it!! Just like when I run my marathons!! Without her, family and friends there, what is the point!!!:):) She is my rock!!!!!:):)
This was such a dream come true that the moment this entire weekend and tournament was over I just burst into tears!!!!!! It was the same feeling as finishing a marathon within my goal time it was THAT amazing!!!! Reasons for bursting into tears, exhaustion!!! Emotions ALWAYS run higher when exhausted!! The boys winning Win Mumby and coming over to me and giving me a big group hug saying thank you!!! Seeing the girls emotionally shattered after there game hit hard as well!!! And then being so thankful for everything, Mike, the broadcast, my wife, just added as well!!!!!!:):):):) Which again I have to say to always go after your dreams no matter how hard or easy that will be!!!!:):)
If you would like to check out the broadcasts please check out this link, I did every game except #'s 29 and 30!!!:):)
http://www.spreaker.com/user/kwsm
That is all for now!!!! HAPPY SMILING AND TALKING!!!!!!!!!:):):):):):):):)
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