A few more items from the Reporter’s Notebook.

I’m sure you’ve all been holding your breath for this update, but I finally saw the girls team that struggles every time I show up win a game last Friday. They won by 35. I think it’s safe to say their opponent was not of the highest quality. It was hard not to ask the coach and players, after the game, self-centered questions like “How does it feel to finally win a game that I cover from start-to-finish.*

(Astute readers will recall I was assigned to a game they won last month, but was not informed of the earlier-than-normal tip time. Thus I walked in as time was winding down in the fourth quarter.)

Tuesday, for the first time, I got to cover a game at my local high school. The biggest team in the county I work in is a conference rival of our local CHS. I was hoping for a good game, but the hosts went crazy in the third quarter, hitting their first six shots, and then 11-17 shots, for the quarter, and cruised to an easy 25-point win.

The local high school has both a radio station and a TV station. So it was fun to drive to the game and listen to students broadcasting the JV game. I’ll listen to or watch a few minutes of their broadcasts here and there, and it’s always funny to hear the students and dream about the possibilities had my high school had broadcasting options. I’m sure I would have been signed up for those classes!

As I listened to the JV game, though, I realized that announcing your school’s games, especially games involving the opposite sex, could pose some problems for aspiring broadcasters. Might you embellish the play of a point guard you thought was cute? If you dated the small forward over the summer but she dumped you for the quarterback, might you be less enthusiastic about her play than she deserved? Not that I would have done any of these things, of course. But we are talking about teenagers and the temptation is there.

It was the final home game for CHS. When their only senior checked out of the game late in the fourth quarter, she received a standing ovation from the crowd. I had to laugh when I glanced over and saw the student broadcasters, in their dress shirts and ties, standing and applauding, too, while they continued to set the scene for their listeners. I wanted to let them know that Dick Vitale has only done that twice in 30 years of broadcasting.* But it’s not like they’re professionals. They aspire to be pros and there’s nothing wrong with being a homer when you’re a teenager and wearing your dad’s tie.

(Unless he’s done it again since the Nick Collison game in 2003.)

The regular season for girls ends this week. I’ll probably do a couple sectional games, which is the most important part, traditionally, of the state playoffs in Indiana. Hopefully I’ll see some good hoops.

❖