Broadcast news: Love of sports leads Irwin into the booth
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If you're from Hollidaysburg, you may not have heard of Jake Irwin, but there's a good chance you've heard Jake Irwin. You just didn't know it. Until now.
Family and friends who have attended Little League games in Hollidaysburg, or youth football games (Hollidaysburg Area Youth Football Association), or listened to high school ice hockey or football on the internet, will have heard of Irwin, a senior at Hollidaysburg who aspires to a career in sports broadcasting someday.
"When I played Little League in Hollidaysburg, I saw there was an opportunity to announce their games, so I started watching sports at the time and I thought it would be cool to announce their games," says Irwin, who will major in Communications at Penn State this fall.
It wasn't just an opportunity for Irwin, a long-time member of the Tigers' tennis program, but it was for the love of the game -- all games -- according to his tennis coach, Brian Denis, at Hollidaysburg, that lured him toward broadcasting.
"He will show up one day wearing an Aaron Rodgers jersey and on another day he has a Ravens T-shirt or a Penguins jersey on. You can tell he is infatuated with all sports," says Denis, who started coaching Irwin in elementary school through a summer program. "He did Tiger TV all through junior high. You know, in elementary school, a kid may read the announcements, but I think it was in seventh grade that he realized he loved sports"
Irwin has announced Little League for the last six years, HAYFA (Hollidaysburg's youth football league) for four years, as well as baseball in the Altoona Teener League at Seitz Field. Then, there's Hollidaysburg High School football and ice hockey.
"The previous guy was Preston Shoemaker. He came up to me since he was graduating and asked if I would like to take the position (calling football on the internet)," recalls Irwin, who says he can't believe he gets paid to watch and talk about sports.
"The biggest thing for me was making the kids' day. Just broadcasting their name and playing their favorite music and seeing how it makes their day, that is a big reason why I like to do it," adds Irwin, who credits his dad, Patrick, with his love for sports.
Irwin's high school football games were found on a streaming service called Periscope.
"Jake did a great job with our Friday night game broadcast the last three seasons," says Hollidaysburg football coach and athletic director, Homer DeLattre. "You could tell as the years went on, he got much more comfortable and he had a great background knowledge of the game, which really heped him. He has a great future and obviously a great voice for it."
That distinctive voice, for those who know Irwin, sounds like it is coming out of a much more older person than a high school senior.
"Someone I look up to would be Al Michaels and Mike Lange of the Penguins," says Irwin, who plans to start off by doing high school sports someday before maybe getting a shot at the NFL, along with voice-over work.
And coud he do tennis, something he has played for 12 years?
"I think I could pick it up if I worked at it," he says. "I think playing the sport, you really get a lot of knowledge from it. It gives you advantages."
Advantages that he also got from doing Tiger TV in the junior high.
"It helped me tremendously. It helped me get projects done on time. It helped me learn different camera techniques," said Irwin, who also got to job shadow at radio station FROGGY-98 as part of his high school curriculum. "(Tiger TV) uses the same program that Penn State uses so I feel I will have a leg up on people."