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Before the Chicago White Sox spring training came to a close in the final week of March, Jason Benetti — the team’s announcer and a Syracuse alumnus — had a very special day. The day began with a highly anticipated moment: Benetti received the COVID-19 vaccine.

On its own, this would’ve made his day fantastic, Benetti said, but not even two hours following the shot, Benetti received a call from NBC offering him the position of baseball play-by-play announcer at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

“The day was basically a bonanza. I got vaccinated and I got an offer to call the Olympics,” Benetti said. “You’re not going to have a whole lot of better days.”

The novelty of watching the Games had always fascinated Benetti, he said. As a Syracuse student during the 2002 Winter Olympics, Benetti and his friends visited the Utica Curling Club to learn more about the sport after it sparked their interest on TV. For Benetti, calling games at the Olympics — regardless of the event — always seemed like a dream.

At the Games, Benetti will call baseball — the sport he’s been calling for 11 years. Benetti will broadcast this year’s Olympic baseball games with former major league first baseman Eduardo Perez. The two previously worked together in the booth on ESPN for “Sunday Night Baseball: Statcast Edition” with MLB.com’s Mike Petriello.

Chris Lewis (’13) will broadcast table tennis for the 2020 Olympic Summer Games. Courtesy of Chris Lewis

On June 3, NBC revealed the group of announcers that will broadcast various events at the Tokyo Olympics. The list featured several SU alumni including Beth Mowins (G‘90), Noah Eagle (‘19) and Chris Lewis (‘13). Newhouse alumnus Mike Tirico (‘88) will make his debut as the primetime host of the Summer Games, filling the shoes of Bob Costas, another former SU student.

Aspiring broadcasters who come to Newhouse with dreams of announcing major sporting events go through a long and arduous process of improving their storytelling abilities and finding their own voice. Not only do they develop these skills through the curriculum but also through student organizations including WAER, Citrus TV and Z89 Radio.

Benetti said he appreciates people who are driven and constantly working toward improving themselves. He found those people at WAER during his freshman year at SU.

“I don’t know that I’ve ever been in that large of a group after college who really cares that much about the details,” Benetti said. “I have a lot of crews that I have been on who are really good at ESPN and with the White Sox … but (WAER) has a whole group driving toward the same goal.”

Mowins, who is no stranger to the national spotlight, will call the Tokyo Olympic softball games for NBC. She displayed her attention to detail as the first woman to call a nationally televised NFL game and as the first-ever female play-by-play announcer for the Chicago Cubs. Olivia Stomski, the director of the Newhouse Sports Media Center, worked with Mowins during the NCAA Women’s College World Series.

“It’s not just about what she’s getting from SIDs or reading it online, it’s making those connections with those players,” Stomski said. “She’s curious to ask the second, third and fourth questions to find out what the interesting side of everything is.”

Finding the details and the storylines has been crucial during the pandemic, as sports announcers have been calling games while not being present in the stadium. The Olympics will be no different. Every Olympic broadcaster will be calling their respective event from the confines of NBC’s broadcast production facility located in Stamford, Connecticut. While unusual, some broadcasters said that remote broadcasts present a challenge to the art of announcing.

“I think that the biggest thing — and this is true for any broadcaster — is you don’t feel the energy there,” said Eagle, who will call 3-on-3 basketball at the Olympics. “And so you have to produce that yourself, which can be challenging at times when you’re … in an environment where you can’t get the feel for how everybody else is reacting.”

Although the difficulties of remote broadcasting were tough on many broadcasters, some of these SU alumni said that their time at Syracuse helped them improve their craft and got them to the point where they could overcome the challenges of the pandemic.

Benetti recalled waking up at 4 a.m. to record a sportscast at WAER’s headquarters in Syracuse. He said the early morning grind was the foundation of his radio preparation. Lewis, who will announce table tennis at the Games, recalled a similar drive.

“You learn what it takes to push yourself to a level to where you get to call a game for Syracuse on WAER and Z89,” Lewis said. “And that same kind of work ethic, that same kind of process is what you need after you graduate too.”

Lewis had no prior experience announcing table tennis before accepting the job. He had to learn the rules, the players and the storylines to fully understand Olympic table tennis.

I’m hyped and thankful to be a part of this group and excited to work with an awesome team with @NBCSports. I’ll be doing play-by-play for @NBCOlympics coverage of Table Tennis this summer. 50 days until the Olympics begin! https://t.co/SmJXGstz12

— Chris Lewis (@ChrisLewisTweet) June 3, 2021

“They’re the ones who have been on this stage. They know what it’s like to be down two games to nothing and how to regroup,” Lewis said. “And it’s my job to bring that out from the analyst, to give them space and the platform to dive into the strategy elements.”

Eagle, who is used to calling 5-on-5 basketball for the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers, will adjust to calling 3-on-3 basketball at the Games. While an NBA game lasts four quarters, the 3-on-3 game will either be 10 minutes or the first team to 21 points.

Before coming to Syracuse, Eagle had no experience announcing. But anytime he would make an error writing or voicing a sportscast while working at WAER, Eagle was impelled to not make those same mistakes again. It was from this experience that he learned to become an announcer.

“When you’re in the moment, you’ve got to make sure you’re capturing the most important moments of the game and you don’t want to miss anything,” Eagle said. “It’s like Ferris Bueller said, ‘If you don’t take a minute to stop and look around, you might miss something.’”

Stomski said that the broadcasters’ college journeys and the focus on improvement laid the foundation for these Olympic broadcasters.

“Olympians work their whole lives for this moment,” Stomski said, “and these announcers are more than aware of the responsibility that they have in calling these games and having their own part of these amazing moments that athletes have taken years to train for.”

Published on July 22, 2021 at 9:29 pm

Contact Henry: [email protected]