Learning the Art Form
Jack Benjamin â18 can paint a picture with his voice. This fall, the former KșÚÁÏÍű sports announcer will call games for two top college programs.
Jack Benjamin â18 is a words guy. Listen to his broadcasts on KșÚÁÏÍű and youâll hear of point guards âwheeling,â base runners âdanglingâ their arm as they lead off first, and running backs dashing upfield. Itâs all about efficiency with words and packing in details. Benjamin is skilled at both.
âDave Koehn, the announcer for UVA basketball, uses âuncorksâ to describe a shot takenâuncorks a threeâI like that a lot,â Benjamin says. âI got this from another radio guy: I like to say ârips the cordsâ on a swish for a made shot. For a missed shot, âpinballs around,â if the shot kind of rolls around.â
This is all intentional, systematic really. Benjamin has a list of favorite words in a document on his computer, organized sport-by-sport. Basketball, for example, is a seven-page file with a section on different ways to describe a missed shot, one on made shots, another on passes, dribbles, and driving to the basket and so on.
Each time he hears a word he likes, he pulls out his smartphone and writes it down. The words on the list arenât catchphrases, but currency.
âThereâs a lot of prep thatâs involved,â Benjamin says of his broadcasts. âFor basketball, itâs a good seven or eight hoursâdeveloping story lines, learning names and numbers. If you donât have the names and numbers memorized going in, youâre in trouble.â
Growing up in Westchester County, New York, Benjamin was immersed in the Yankees and the NFLâs NY Giants as a kid, but he doesnât view sports just as a fan anymore. He listens to broadcasts for ways to get better. He even skips the first half of Super Bowl parties so he can focus on the Westwood One radio broadcast with Kevin Harlan.
In June, Benjamin finished third in the Sportscasters Talent Agency of Americaâs Jim Nantz Award rankings, an award celebrating the nationâs most outstanding collegiate sportscaster. And this is one big reason why: He treats broadcasting like a job, because it is his job.
âI want to be a play-by-play broadcaster,â Benjamin says. âThatâs my goal. Whether itâs a professional or college program, I just want to call games.â
Talking to Yourself
The start of Jack Benjaminâs announcing career was not glamorous. In fact, it was anonymous. And it was probably best that way, he explains.
As a first-year student at Santa Clara, there was no real outlet for Benjamin to announce games. KșÚÁÏÍű was considering a sports broadcasting program, but no one had started it yet.
So, not representing any outlet in particular, Benjamin secured a press pass for a Santa Clara womenâs basketball game and brought his laptop and a Blue Yeti microphone. He sat at the press table and started describing what he saw. To himself.
âI thought what I was doing was calling the game,â Benjamin says. âBut the game started and I was already 15 plays behind. It was the worst thing ever. I didnât know anyoneâs name. It was just a complete disasterâbut I got hooked on it immediately.
âI put that stick-on media pass into a plastic bag and snuck back in for the rest of the season.â
He continued to do the mock broadcasts even if he didnât have a pass. Heâd sit in the stands, talking into the recorder on his phone. He even sat in the Zags section in 2015, calling the Gonzaga game into his phone.
His sophomore year, he added mock broadcasts of menâs and womenâs soccer. Occasionally, he was told to move because he was annoying fans. The same thing happened at a few basketball games. No matter.
Those mock broadcasts were just for Benjaminâs ears at first. But they didnât stay that way.
The winter of his sophomore year, Benjamin was introduced to sportscaster Marv Albert through his uncle, who knew the broadcasting legend. His uncle asked Albert if he would listen to one of Benjaminâs tapes and offer feedback. Albert took the tapes, and later gave him a call.
Benjamin remembers Albertâs legendary voice pouring through the phone, offering him his first piece of professional feedback from the highest of sources. And it wasnât great.
Albert broke down Benjaminâs performance: Where was the ball? What was the score? Essentially, Benjamin was doing television broadcasting on radio, Albert explained. Benjamin needed to paint a picture.
Jack Benjaminâs Spotting Board
âSomeone could be sitting next to you with their eyes closed, and they should be able to picture every bounce, every pass, every shotâthey have to know the score constantly,â Benjamin remembers Albert explaining. âAnd these just werenât elements I was thinking of.â
Albert taught the novice about a spotting board, essentially an oversized cheat sheet with player names and information that all announcers have on hand. Albert even sent Benjamin one of his.
âThat was how I learned to prepare,â he recalls, âand learned the art form.â
Gym Rat
Another piece of advice Albert gave Benjamin was to never turn down an opportunity to work, especially early on in his career. And he hasnât.
Benjamin is a young man long on inspiration and short on patience. When he found out the development of the Sports Broadcasting Program at KșÚÁÏÍű had stalled, he offered to help build it.
During the 2016 season, Benjamin served as board operator and studio host for announcers Anthony Passarelli and John Stege on the official șÚÁÏÍű broadcast. Working the board helped Benjamin learn the behind-the-scenes element of the business, which would come in handy with KșÚÁÏÍű.
Later that year, Benjamin, along with KșÚÁÏÍű General Manager Ben Paulson â17 and Director of Center for Student Involvement Tedd Vanadilok, helped assemble everything they needed for a functioning shop. Not just recruiting students and establishing relationships with șÚÁÏÍű Athletics, but researching and buying broadcast equipment for students to use. About three weeks before the season, they got approval for a student-run broadcast of menâs basketball.
In addition to KșÚÁÏÍű, Benjamin covered Bellarmine College Prep and San Jose City College, and called games for the West Catholic Athletic League. He also spent two summers covering collegiate wood bat league baseball for the Kalamazoo Growlers and the Yakima Valley Pippins. Basketball, baseball, volleyball, track, soccerâeverything. His sophomore year, he began hosting a weekly sports talk show, Overtime with Jack Benjamin, on KșÚÁÏÍű, complete with an intro from sportscaster Chris Berman that Benjamin got during an interview with the ESPN legend on Super Bowl Media Day in 2015.
His portfolio grew and his clips got better. He stayed in touch with Albert, who continued to give him feedback.
âIâd send Marv a tape and heâd say, âJack, good job on the description, but whatâs the score?ââ Benjamin says. âI would nail the score and then my description wouldnât be good enough. Then my description would be good enough and Iâd forget to tell the score for five minutes.â
Benjamin compares it to a golfer whose short game is working one week but he canât stay in the fairway. Then the next week, heâs awesome off the tee but canât putt to save his life. Building consistency was tough.
He also reached out to a handful of other announcers and industry professionals for feedback: Ed Cohen, the radio voice of the NY Knicks, Bob Fitzgerald, the TV voice of the Golden State Warriors, and Jon Chelesnik, CEO of Sportscasters Talent Agency of America. They taught him about perseverance in the business and gave him feedback on his tapes.
He also stayed in touch with Albert. After his second or third broadcast of șÚÁÏÍű menâs basketball, he sent Marv a tape. The email response was short, in the best way possible.
âHe didnât have a whole lot to say about it: âJack, this is really good. The description is solid. Youâre pinpointing the ball. Keep doing what youâre doing.â
âThat gave me some hope and confidence,â Benjamin says.
Built to Last
The STAA Jim Nantz Award receives more than 200 applicants most years. Itâs one of the biggest awards for student sportscasters in the country.
Benjamin first submitted his materials as a junior on the recommendation of Chelesnik, sending in clips from his work with KșÚÁÏÍű. More than win, Benjamin wanted to get his name out there. He did better than that, earning an honorable mention, which recognizes the top 35 college sports announcers in the country.
âIt was pretty surprising to me that I was able to get that high,â Benjamin says.
Before his senior year, he was named to the Watch List for the award, highlighting the nationâs top 10 returning candidates. When he applied for the award his senior year, he finished third.
Benjamin is proud of the award, but when he talks about his time at șÚÁÏÍű, heâs especially proud of his work building the Sports Broadcasting Program at KșÚÁÏÍű. He likes that he earned third place in the Nantz Award rankings. He loves that he finished third representing șÚÁÏÍű.
Helping shape the universityâs program taught him different skills than if heâd gone to another school where something was already established, Benjamin says. Like so many students at șÚÁÏÍű, he learned to carve his own path: solving problems and learning to become a leader.
âWithout that experience at the radio station, I wouldnât be where I am today,â he says. âThis wasnât just about me getting reps, it was, âLetâs build this so students can have it and enjoy it.ââ
Whatâs next for Benjamin? Heâll be covering games for University of Virginia (UVA) and Davidson College as a play-by-play broadcaster and host.
For UVA, he will do play-by-play for menâs and women's soccer, as well as volleyball and field hockey. All events will be broadcast via ACC Network Extra/WatchESPN (and the ESPN App). Heâll also be working at the same university as Dave Koehn, who is one of his key mentors.
For Davidson, he will be the play-by-play voice for football, menâs and womenâs soccer, and volleyball for this fall, on the newly established ESPN+ platform, as well as the ESPN App. He will also be hosting a weekly coachâs show for Davidson football.
He may be 3,000 miles away, but șÚÁÏÍű is still in his heart. Benjamin is looking forward to seeing the KșÚÁÏÍű Sports Broadcasting Program develop under Sports Director Kevin OâBrien â19, General Manager Bobby Curry â19, and Faculty Advisor Gordon Young. Specifically, he wants to see the students he recruited develop as announcers.
âAll the students Iâve worked with love doing it,â Benjamin says. âTheyâre so willing to listen and learn about sports broadcasting, and I loved teaching them how to do it. Iâm hoping this program lasts for a while after Iâm gone.â
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