2017 Season - National Perspective

[irapthor]

Mr.Right -
When your alma mater, Westfield State, lets you commentate a game, please give us all a heads-up.  We'll let you know what we think.  In the meantime, taking cheap potshots at the NCAA D3 Soccer Final Four commentators is unbecoming...even for you.  IMO they did a fine job.  Thank you gentlemen for your work that weekend...well done.

Hey he asked for my opinion and I gave it. If the other poster was not so supercilious to begin with I would have kept my opinion to myself. Figures it would be you to start the NFL style Blitz that will come my way. I know sometimes you Fundamentalist Christians have a problem with facts so for the record I never went to Westfield State. It is a fine school with beautiful facilities but it is not my alma mater. Just remember my fluff is always better than your stuff

Boy, you're a real peach, I bet you're popular at parties...

how typical... someone tells you explain how someone messed up than you get destroyed for saying it. it is starting to become more noticeable on here every year. I was given a whole bunch of sass few years back for saying how I really felt. get over it. we all have our fair knowledge and experience ma in D3 Soccer. but you must do back it up.

and I would love to attend a party with both of you LOL

It's also possible to have opinions without being an a-hole about it too. That's the issue.

both are guilty in this scenario for doing that. but i'm just saying don't ask for someone's opinion
then get angry about it. you would rather him lie to you ??

I have a degree in broadcasting from a program that has produced a lot of talent, have done games for 25 years as both PBP and color in six different sports, do PA for three professional teams and have broadcast games with some pretty famous people in the broadcasting world. And I actually coach the sport of soccer. So I'm not going to defend my knowledge, my effort or my preparedness for the championship as an analysis. I also didn't find out I was doing the games officially until the Sunday before so I had 6 days to prepare.

Whether I agree with him or not, he made a comment and I just wanted to see where his head was at. That's why I asked what his criticism was.

[Mr.Right]

I apologize to the PBP and Color Analyst as I kind of went off the rails a bit in my response to your question. I do understand we are all just trying are best in life and in what we do. I do appreciate your efforts for the games and I really have no leg to stand on for criticizing announcers since I have never attempted or have any experience in announcing. It was just a bad day and I kind exaggerated my critiques because of the tone the PBP guy took with me a page or 2 back about rankings. My bad.

[blooter442]

I apologize to the PBP and Color Analyst as I kind of went off the rails a bit in my response to your question. I do understand we are all just trying are best in life and in what we do. I do appreciate your efforts for the games and I really have no leg to stand on for criticizing announcers since I have never attempted or have any experience in announcing. It was just a bad day and I kind exaggerated my critiques because of the tone the PBP guy took with me a page or 2 back about rankings. My bad.

Just want to point out that I appreciate when people can take responsibility, and I think this is a good example. This isn't to minimize the earlier dialogue, but rather to second that we are all doing our best and that, hopefully, when we do go off the rails, we can own up to it as done here. +K

[Jim Matson]

Good stuff!

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

While I appreciate the apology, I do want to state a couple of things:

- I am not a basketball guy they hired to wing-it at soccer. If you listened to the broadcasts, you would have heard Ira and I talking about our playing careers. I played soccer nearly my entire young life, through college. I played all positions including in college though I was primarily a keeper. I know soccer pretty well. I just happen to focus in public on basketball a lot, but that doesn't mean I am not focused on soccer. I have been a past voter for D3soccer.com, I am a coach of my kids, I have coached in the past, and like I said... extensively playing career.

- Not knowing numbers and names off the top of my head is a hard thing to criticize. You should see what traditional, network especially, broadcasters have around them to assist - like a spotter for that information - which makes a huge difference. We didn't have that.

I glazed over the rest because I spotted the apology first.

We did our best. I am not proud of my performance by any stretch of the imagination, but then as I have said I would be critical of something you might not have even noticed and thus would not be happy.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Let me also add, broadcasters of this event in the past were far less knowledgeable. I got involved more in soccer because the games were not being done well especially understanding how to say even a school name or mascot (like Amherst, for example).

[Gregory Sager]

Good stuff!

Hey! A Hiker sighting! Our benevolent overlord is watching, after all!

While I appreciate the apology, I do want to state a couple of things:

- I am not a basketball guy they hired to wing-it at soccer. If you listened to the broadcasts, you would have heard Ira and I talking about our playing careers. I played soccer nearly my entire young life, through college. I played all positions including in college though I was primarily a keeper. I know soccer pretty well. I just happen to focus in public on basketball a lot, but that doesn't mean I am not focused on soccer. I have been a past voter for D3soccer.com, I am a coach of my kids, I have coached in the past, and like I said... extensively playing career.

- Not knowing numbers and names off the top of my head is a hard thing to criticize. You should see what traditional, network especially, broadcasters have around them to assist - like a spotter for that information - which makes a huge difference. We didn't have that.

I glazed over the rest because I spotted the apology first.

We did our best. I am not proud of my performance by any stretch of the imagination, but then as I have said I would be critical of something you might not have even noticed and thus would not be happy.

Without getting into detail, as the broadcaster for (and a hardcore fan of) the team whose fans had the biggest bone to pick with Dave in particular vis-a-vis Final Four names and numbers, I will say that, on balance, I thought that Dave and Ira did a really solid job. That's especially true if they didn't have a spotter in the booth in Greensboro, which is something of which I wasn't aware. Having a spotter, if not multiple spotters, makes a huge difference in a broadcaster's ability to call a game in an outdoor stadium. It does help a little when you have an on-air partner, but even in a two-man operation you can't get into a situation in which you correct each other on the air too much. That creates bad chemistry, and it's a distraction to the viewer. Helping a PBP guy negotiate uniform numbers and who has done what on the field is the task of a spotter, and a good one is worth his weight in gold to you if you're the person who is calling the game.

I'm not saying that in an "all of us broadcasters need to stick together" spirit, either. Anyone who reads the CCIW basketball room knows that I can be pretty hard on broadcasters at times, especially student broadcasters of the too-much-exuberance-not-enough-homework ilk. And I can be hard on myself, too. But those who have never sat behind a mic for ninety minutes don't realize just how hard it is -- especially when you have to slog your way through a four-match marathon the way that Dave and Ira did on the first night in Greensboro, and especially when you don't have a spotter.

[blue_jays]

In other news, great to see D3soccer recognize Max Lopez as Forward of the Year, well deserved. He was a dominant player this year who commanded the defense's full attention at all times. His in-the-air skills are unmatched in D3, as at least half his goals this year were headers from all kinds of angles and distances.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

I have never had the opportunity in all my years of broadcasting many, many sports (basketball, baseball, soccer, lacrosse, football, and more) to have a spotter. Never. And a lot of solo broadcasts to boot.

Sometime I will enjoy that luxury.

[irapthor]

Heck, I announced a DI men's volleyball match solo last week...forget a spotter, I didn't even have a partner. For 2 hours.

You should have seen the NCAA soccer championship broadcasts 2 years ago vs. today. It's night and day. Just glad to be a part of it.

[Gregory Sager]

Heck, I announced a DI men's volleyball match solo last week...forget a spotter, I didn't even have a partner. For 2 hours.

I've never had either a spotter or a partner for volleyball. I don't know about you, Ira, but volleyball is by far the hardest sport for me to call -- and I'm sure that D1 men play the game at a much faster pace than do D3 women. But as hard as PBP announcers have it for volleyball, live stats operators have it even worse.

[blooter442]

Bryan Waggoner has been named head coach at Wheaton (MA). He guided a nascent Randolph program (created 2007) to a surprise Sweet 16 appearance in 2011, and saw Corey Sindle, who was an assistant at Wheaton this past year, earn All-American honors twice. Good for the Lyons!

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Heck, I announced a DI men's volleyball match solo last week...forget a spotter, I didn't even have a partner. For 2 hours.

I've never had either a spotter or a partner for volleyball. I don't know about you, Ira, but volleyball is by far the hardest sport for me to call -- and I'm sure that D1 men play the game at a much faster pace than do D3 women. But as hard as PBP announcers have it for volleyball, live stats operators have it even worse.

In my volleyball experience (calling for Navy on occasion).. I've just treated it like tennis. Let the point play out and discuss how it ended or what happened. Maybe interject if the point is getting crazy. Just can't keep up with the real-time play.

Not sure that's the right way to do it or not.

[Gregory Sager]

That's how I mostly do it as well, Dave, with drop-in comments to note a particularly strong attack or a great save or a diving pancake on a point in progress. And even with that abbreviated PBP, I still end up doing more talking on a per-minute basis than I do in any other sport.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

That's how I mostly do it as well, Dave, with drop-in comments to note a particularly strong attack or a great save or a diving pancake on a point in progress. And even with that abbreviated PBP, I still end up doing more talking on a per-minute basis than I do in any other sport.

Yep - same deal. Slide into more chat than most. Really crazy how that happens.

Same happens with me in soccer. I try and let the game breathe, but man sometimes it just feels you don't want to go on for ever not talking. I remind myself that while we are video, not everyone is watching it like it is on their TVs... that an audio-hybrid call is appropriate... but it gets tough.