By STEVE KRAH
Just like batters crave their cuts, broadcasters need their reps.
Nathan Ganger started getting his in high school and continues to hone his craft in college.
Once bitten by the sports play-by-play bug, he began talking into a tape recorder during Elkhart (Ind.) Christian Academy basketball games.
The Michigan resident attended ECA all four years of high school.
“I absolutely loved it there,” says Ganger. “It was the perfect size for me.
“You get to know everybody in your class.”
Ganger attended the Elkhart Area Career Center as a junior (2017-18) and senior (2018-19) where Audio/Video Production instructor Warren Seegers taught camera operation and concepts like the “rule of thirds” and helped Ganger build the skills that allowed him to tell sports stories on WVPE HD3 88.1 FM and conduct interviews on Facebook Live.
“Mr. Seegers is awesome,” says Ganger. “Everything I learned over my two years I’m using now.”
Ganger got to interview South Bend (Ind.) Cubs President Joe Hart and Notre Dame men’s basketball associate head coach Rod Balanis.
He counts his Q&A with ND women’s basketball coach Muffet McGraw after the 2018 national championship as a career highlight.
Before the interview began, McGraw was kind of standoffish and giving one-word answers. Then she began to respond to Ganger’s thoughtful questions.
“She realized I did my research,” says Ganger.
In two seasons working with the South Bend Cubs, Ganger was supervised by Chris Hagerstrom-Jones, who is now Assistant General Manager for Marketing and Media.
“I started as camera operator then I told my boss I wanted to get into broadcasting and learn everything,” says Ganger, who got to host the on-field pregame show, work with replay on TV broadcasts and occasionally operate the Four Winds Field video board.
“It was fun getting to learn all different sides of the industry,” says Ganger. “I want to be not just a broadcaster, but be as well-rounded as I possibly can.
“You can’t always rely on other people. You need to know how to do everything yourself.”
Ganger is now a second-year Telecommunications major at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind. He’s on a path to graduate in the Spring of 2023.
In 2020-21, Ganger has done play-by-play or color commentary for Cardinals baseball, football, basketball and volleyball while also helping to create social media video content for Ball State Sports Link.
For his first Ball State Sports Link broadcast, Ganger was on the call for BSU’s football opener at Miami in Oxford, Ohio. With COVID-19 restrictions, it was a remote production. A monitor showed him the action which he conveyed to his audience.
“It was definitely different,” says Ganger. “Numbers on the screen is different than being at the game.
“I can’t be picky. Any opportunity I have to go for it.”
Ganger can’t say enough good things about Sports Link.
“It’s the best of the best for sports media anywhere,” says Ganger. “(Senior Director of Sports Production and Lecturer) Chris Taylor does literally anything he can to get us this opportunity.”
Ganger teamed in the booth with Ryan Klimcak (who shared Northwoods League TV Announcer of the Year honors in 2020 while working for the Bismarck Larks) on last weekend’s baseball Mid-American Conference homestand and got to call a walk-off win against Western Michigan.
According to Ganger, keys for a good broadcast include knowing the players’ names.
“Memorize those the best you can,” says Ganger. “In basketball — when they’re running up and down the court — you have time to look down at your score chart.”
For a radio game, Ganger is sure to give time and score every 90 seconds.
“You have to be the listeners’ eyes,” says Ganger. “You want to have descriptive words for everything.”
It’s important to pinpoint the ball and it’s trajectory. The broadcaster tells his audience where it was hit and if it’s a line drive or a slow roller.
“We also build story lines,” says Ganger. “Why is this game important? What’s at stake? Throughout the game we recap what’s happened.”
The voice is to be used as an instrument.
“Be creative with ways to say things with voice inflection,” says Ganger. “You need a balance between sounding excited and not yelling all the time.
“I’m still learning. You can never be too good at broadcasting. It’s very competitive. You have to find ways to set yourself apart.”
Ganger used COVID quarantine time last summer to get in the reps that would help prepare for Sports Link broadcasts and to land an internship for the summer of 2021.
“I didn’t want to sit around,” says Ganger, who took old tapes of football, basketball and baseball games which he described by himself or with a friend and posted on YouTube. “I wanted to get better and be ready for games at Ball State and I wanted to get that internship.”
Ganger got it.
During the process of searching and interviewing, he encountered the Expedition League. It’s a 12-team summer collegiate circuit that plays a 64-game schedule beginning in late May.
It came down to choosing between the Mining City Tommyknockers (Butte, Mont.) and Sioux Falls (S.D.) Sunfish. Ganger chose the expansion Tommyknockers.
“I felt comfortable with (Mining City GM/Co-Owner) Dane Wagner,” says Ganger. “He showed a lot of interest in me from the day he contacted me.
“He felt me feel wanted. The Expedition League makes a point of taking care of their interns.”
Southern Illinois University student Tyler King will be Ganger’s broadcast partner and the the two have been corresponding to get to know one another.
“It’s been cool for Tyler and I to be he first-ever voices of the team,” says Ganger.
Not only will the duo get to enjoy the first with a team playing at 3 Legends Stadium (a facility that debuted in 2017 which has gone from a capacity of 470 to 1,300), Ganger and King will get to know a wide swath of territory.
Besides Mining City, the Lewis Division features the Badlands Big Sticks (Dickinson, N.D.), Canyon County (Idaho) Spuds, Casper (Wyoming) Horseheads, Souris Valley Sabre Dogs (Minot, N.D.) and Wheat City Whiskey Jacks (Brandon, Manitoba, Canada) with the Clark Division sporting the Fremont (Neb.) Moo, Hastings (Neb.) Sodbusters, Pierre (S.D.) Trappers, Sioux Falls Sunfish, Spearfish (S.D.) Sasquatch and Western Nebraska Pioneers (Gering, Neb.).
www.IndianaRBI.com 