I never knew that I wanted to become a soccer broadcaster and I'm just getting started!!
- Yohn Voker
- Aug 2, 2021
- 2 min read
Updated: Nov 15, 2021
When I first doing my broadcast internship for Oakland County FC, I realized how tough this was going to be for me. Making preparations for the games, know the stats, vocabularies, working on pronunciations and writing down the lineups before game day and everything else in between makes me realize how good and difficult that a soccer play-by-play announcer can be. I called my first soccer game back on May 9th against Fort Wayne FC, a future USL League One team and it was Oakland County FC's first ever game as a member of USL League Two, also it was the first game in over 600 days. When I first called my first game, I mispronounce some of the players names, but I knew how the game was going to go, know the situation goes for both teams and there was a red card on Fort Wayne's side about 25 minutes into the game, but before that, Nash Popovic scored off of a corner to score the first Oakland County's first ever USL League Two goal. My broadcast partner, Mitch Gatzke, call the second half of the game and I knew exactly what I can actually reflect on in order to make it better and improve myself for future broadcasts.
In June, I called two more games (Kalamazoo and Dayton) and I learned from my mistakes and capitalized them and I knew what I had to do for 90 minutes. If you want to check these games that I've called, come check it out:
Back in the days, I listened to some of the best soccer commentators like Jon Champion and Peter Drury, but now there's more soccer commentators that I inspired and listened to them every time, but I will name some: John Strong, Jenn Hildreth, Arlo White, and let's not forget the legend of American Soccer broadcasting, JP Dellacamera. The way I tune in to any soccer broadcast, either in MLS, NWSL, USL Championship/League One, or any kind of tournaments around the world, it's all about the passion of the game, words and sounds tells the story of the game, and always capture the moment, especially the best of them all.
As I get ready for my next journey as a soccer play-by-play announcer, there's always room for improvement and it'll only get better if I have the qualities of every play-by-play announcer should have: Knowledge, Good Voice, Attitude, Energy, and Hitting your key points.
Not only I want to call outdoor soccer matches in the spring and summer months, but also doing indoor soccer in the fall and winter months and doing college soccer in between and in the future, doing tournaments and hopefully becoming the lead voice of a current or future MLS team.
If you want me to call soccer matches in the future, check out my demo reel and as promise, I will do my absolute best to be your voice of your soccer club:
Thank you so much for reading for my first blog and there will be more soon!
Comments