STAA clients and CEO, snag D-I fill-in play-by-play

Nov. 22, 2010 - PRLog -- The Thanksgiving season has brought a cornucopia of NCAA Division I play-by-play opportunities to STAA clients, and even one to the company CEO. The opportunities have come through national syndicators and individual universities.

Georgia Southern University has provided four games to STAA clients. On Tuesday, November 23rd, STAA client Dan Hawkins will be broadcasting the Eagles basketball game at Texas Tech.

““Thanks [to STAA] for putting me in the right place at the right time and helping me get noticed,” Hawkins says. “Getting the opportunity to do play by play for men's college basketball at the D-I level is a dream come true and being a part of STAA made me available when Georgia Southern needed a fill-in broadcaster,” Hawkins says.

On the 26th and 27th, STAA client Alex Del Barrio will have the call when the Eagles play in the South Padre Invitational, one of college basketball’s elite Thanksgiving Tournaments. Their first game in the Texas resort community is against Chicago State. A day later, they’ll take on Mississippi Valley State or Liberty.

A fifth Georgia Southern basketball broadcast was offered to STAA on Sunday, November 21st at the University of South Florida. “We contacted several clients but couldn’t get a fit,” says STAA CEO Jon Chelesnik. “We still wanted to help the university staff the broadcast so we called a friend of STAA, Joel Godett. He is a former broadcaster at USF and was a logical choice.”

Chelesnik himself even broadcast play-by-play this past weekend. Learfield Sports called STAA seeking a broadcaster for Boise State University’s basketball game at the University of San Diego. “I asked [Learfield Broadcast Manager] Tom Boman, ‘How about me,’” Chelesnik says. “I had a blast.”

Earlier this month, Learfield called STAA with a basketball play-by-play opportunity at Marshall University. They ended up using Bobby Iddings, a senior at Marshall. “Bobby wasn’t a client then, but he joined a couple days later,” Chelesnik grins.

In addition to the basketball opportunities, STAA client Nick Anastos was kept on-call as an emergency fill-in for the University of Virginia Football Network at Boston College. “CBS Collegiate Sports Properties, the rights-holder for UVA football, called STAA to lineup a backup just in case Cavaliers voice Dave Koehn couldn’t get to Chestnut Hill in time from the basketball team’s late night game at Stanford two days earlier,” Chelesnik says. “Fortunately for Dave, he made it back without incident.

“I’m pleased for our clients that STAA’s relationships with syndicators and universities across the country annually provide so many of these invaluable opportunities. With the college football bowl season coming up, more scheduling conflicts and more opportunities for our clients to audition for influential employers are the way.”

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Sportscasters Talent Agency is devoted to helping radio and TV sports broadcasters advance their careers and land their next sports broadcasting job. Owned and operated by former ESPN Radio Network sports talk show host Jon Chelesnik.