Men’s Lacrosse: BU vs UMass Lowell

Women’s Lacrosse: BU vs BC

On Friday afternoon I was able to call two lacrosse games from Nickerson Field in Boston. The first was the Boston University men’s team facing UMass Lowell, and the second was BU’s women’s team’s season opener against Boston College.

Both of the games were supposed to take place on the weekend, and they were both supposed to be separate days. I was slated to be the color commentator for both games, but then incredibly low temperatures were in the forecast throughout New England.

The pair of games were moved to Friday afternoon for a lacrosse doubleheader, and the regular play by play announcer couldn’t make either of them, so I was the next person in line for the opportunity.

Broadcasting color and play by play are extremely different, as I learned a couple of weeks ago when I called a BU hockey game against Merrimack. The week before, when BU lacrosse had played Providence, I just chimed in whenever I had an observation about the game here and there.

The difference is with play by play is you’re talking about the action as it happens, which means you can’t really miss a beat. It’s not like radio, where you have to say literally everything, but missing an important play is bad. Memorizing the rosters and numbers and pronunciations is key, and that research was my biggest focus going into these two games.

The next time I will get to do pxp again will be when the MIT lacrosse season starts, and until then I’ll stay on the color call for BU. Either way, it was an amazing experience to learn I could broadcast play by play for a sport as fast as lacrosse.