One shining moment: calling a championship game

One of the things I love most about being a sportscaster/sportswriter is doing live events. There's nothing like calling a great game in front of a raucous crowd with a lot at stake. And my station did just that a couple of nights ago, as I did color commentary for the Guam high school boys basketball championship.

Being able to tell people the contexual significance of a game and detail how normal people are playing out of their minds and as a team becoming something larger than themselves is a real treat. That's the thing about sports, yuo never know when something legendary is going to happen. Plus, the game was awesome!

The defending champions were down to a very tough challenger by 15 points at halftime, but then came storming back to send the game into overtime. Unfortunately, they couldn't hang on and lost by 8.

After congratulating the victors, I cast journalistic objectivity aside and felt compelled to have a word with the losing team, which was devastated after putting up such a valiant effort to mount a monster comeback. I told them that despite coming up short and having to face the pain of not winning, they earned something more valuable - respect - from the hundreds in the venue, and tens of thousands more who watched our live broadcast. I told them to remember that moment, because they'd carry that achievement with them the rest of their lives.

Watch it here on Google Video.

Al Michael's seminal "Do you believe in miracles?" call at the '80 winter games from Lake Placid it's certainly not, but I had a lot of fun and it came out great.