Moore started broadcasting Shawnee sports online last year, and this year he is doing every football game with plans to do lots of winter and spring sports.
“I just love doing it, I love being the voice for the Braves and being part of the local media,” Moore said.
Moore, with the help of freshman Mikey Zeigler, streams the games live on Mixlr.com. He uses Facebook and Instagram to promote the broadcasts. He has family members listening in Germany, his mom and dad often listen at home and his football listenership has grown to 160.
“It’s indescribable how much fun it is to me,” Moore said. “I never thought that I’d get to sit in a pressbox and call games at such a young age. And people are listening. I love that people walk up to me and say, ‘Hey, I heard the game last night. It was so exciting. You did a good job.’”
Moore used to sit in the stands at high school basketball games and record himself. He also did public address announcing at girls basketball games. That’s when Mike Beedy, who runs the clock for girls games and is the athletics groundskeeper, suggested to Moore that he do games live.
So Moore found Mixlr, which is free, got a Bluetooth headset mic and began livestreaming games through his phone using a wifi hotspot. His dad later set him up with a laptop. Then Shawnee Principal Nathan Dockter got involved and bought a mixer and higher-end head phones.
“First of all, I think he’s got an enormous talent,” Dockter said. “He sounds great on the radio, and he works well with adults. He just has a general knack for it, and so it was easy to support him in that because I really think he does have that talent.”
Moore plans to turn over the broadcasts to Zeigler next year and attend Ohio University and study journalism. He is excited to learn all about journalism and to continue working on his play-by-play skills.
“I love the campus, the journalism school is top-notch,” Moore said. “ESPN3 does a lot of work with them so you have the opportunity to do some work with ESPN.”
Moore has read all he can online to learn about the nuances of broadcasting games. Of course, he watches a lot of sports on TV and pays attention to what the announcers are saying. He also got to work with Jacob Wise of the Champion City Kings baseball team this summer, calling middle innings in 10 road games.
“I’m thinking all the time about what can I do to be better so I can come out of college talented enough, prepared enough to do a game for the NFL,” Moore said. “Now, I’m not going to be able to do that right away. You’ve got to work your way up, but I want to be prepared, and talented and experienced enough if that opportunity ever came along.”
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