Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Off Season of Waiting (Zach Bigley: Broadcaster)

              The off season for baseball always feels like an off season for me, even if more busy. I go through my daily life with work and school, but everyday I want baseball to be back.
             
              After the Sweets’ season ended, I went back home to Eugene, OR and got ready for the different sports seasons. Oregon football is very important to the radio station that I am the assistant sports director for at the U of O, but fall also presented volleyball, soccer and high school football as well as daily talk shows.
           
            It was a fun year for the station as we pushed boundaries and called Oregon football for the first time in our history. I got the chance to travel on the road to Washington, Washington State and Stanford for football games and it was an experience I will never forget.

            One of the highlights was completing a “Weekend in Washington”, where we called Oregon versus Washington volleyball and football on Friday and Saturday respectively and then drove across the state for Oregon versus Washington State volleyball the next day in Pullman. We got about three hours of sleep that night and drove a collective twelve hours that day, but it was a great experience as well.

            The fall sports schedule kept me busy and school did as well. This brought on the stress that all college students face, and there were many long nights of studying all year. As a journalism student, things do not come easily, but the challenge is what drives the student, right?

            After a fun high school basketball season for the station, the time that I have been waiting for all year is almost here: diamond sports time.

            Our station does not have the rights to call the Oregon baseball games on our airwaves, but we call Oregon softball. The softball team has had a lot of success over the past few seasons. They have made it to the Women’s College World Series three out of the last four seasons and have won three straight PAC-12 titles. This is where the fun begins for me as I will be calling my first game for them (since last season) down in Stockton, CA on March 11th. I will be calling 30 games for them this season.

            I cannot express how excited I am for the season to start and to get up to Walla Walla for the summer. It is going to be a great year and baseball season is the only season for me.

            If you want to follow along with me in the Oregon softball season, you can find me @zachbigs on twitter, my station @KWVASports and the broadcasts on kwvaradio.org/listen-live.

            I’ll be talking to you before you know it, but if you have any questions or just want to talk, feel free to email me at zach@wallawallasweets.com.

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