My story on becoming the full-time, play-by-play announcer for the Abington High Boys Basketball team and the camera man/color announcer for the Abington High Girls Basketball all started when I met Justin Shannahan [former Executive Director of the Abington CAM]. He brought me in as a volunteer to help with recording concerts and the play in fall of 2017. Justin taught me how to use the cameras and lots of different equipment in the studio. I volunteered again in March with the musical and in June with more music concerts.

That next year, he [Justin] brought me in to help with the play again, but this time he offered me a job with the brand-new internship program with the Abington CAM. I was very excited to start a new chapter in my life with learning more about television, but I had no clue how much I would learn from this program.

That late fall and winter, seven fellow interns (including my friends Bobby Molloy and Drew Wilson) and I participated in the Video Workshop [with Dan Brielmann]. We learned for the first time how to edit. This helped me learn even more about how videos are made. During this time in late 2018, the incredible camera man and voice of many Abington sports teams Billy Davis retired from doing sports games for the Abington CAM after 25 years of unpaid, volunteer work. This gave me the opportunity to start broadcasting games for the first time.

I recruited [fellow senior] John Mueller to help me with the games as an unpaid volunteer. John and I did several games here and there throughout the 2018-2019 basketball season, but not full time yet. Both teams did well and made the playoffs, but John and I did not cover those games and handed over the responsibilities to the great Shawn Reilly. We had a great time watching the games, but it was not the same as being behind the camera.

Again, that spring I worked the concerts for both the High and Middle Schools, but I also recorded the graduation ceremony. I had fun recording those events, but none of those compare to recording Grease. Being able to record something for my friends who were in the show meant a lot to me and that made me think why I was working for the Abington CAM–to record big events for people in the town of Abington so they can watch it for years to come with family members. This became the driving force for me to commit to recording all home games for the basketball teams that next season and for all playoff games.

Everything was going great for the Abington CAM and I was very glad to be a part of it, until the program hit a rough patch. Justin Shannahan, a great mentor up to this point, was released after 19 years of great service to the town. The town rallied behind Justin by starting “#justiceforjustin” and many people attended a meeting to attempt to get him back. But it did not work.

Thankfully, the transition from Justin to the new director Kevin Tocci  was very smooth. Kevin gave John and I a platform to start our own sports show, Late Night Sports.

Right off the jump John and I loved it and went to work recording at least one episode a week for five months straight. We have had many AHS students on the show to share their opinions and to participate in trivia games. As of May 8, John and I have produced over 35 episodes and are still pumping out shows weekly during this pandemic.

During our time recording sports shows, John and I were invited by Kevin to join him live on his radio show on 95.9 WATD “Monday Night Chat” to talk about current sports topics. It was great to meet people who are in the community of sports and I was able to learn very valuable information about radio talk shows during this experience.

Another great experience that I had while working the internship was doing sideline recording for the State Championship game at Gillette Stadium. This was my first experience working sideline for a sporting event and I learned a lot about positioning the camera while running up and down the sidelines. It was a great experience to try, but that type of recording was not my favorite type. I prefer basketball games.

John and I had full responsibility to record all home basketball games for the varsity and JV teams, along with some freshman games. I covered play by play for the Boys’ games and John covered the Girls’. Throughout the season we have added a scoreboard camera (with some help from Kevin) and added announced stats throughout the game. The biggest addition has been interviews after most games, including multiple interviews on the TD Garden floor.

On Friday, February 14, 2020 for the first time ever in Abington CAM history two basketball games were recorded live. John and I commentated. It was one of my most exciting moments working for Abington CAM. During the playoffs, we went to pregame workouts to make our commentary the best it could be for the biggest games. We did this so when people look back and watch the games we did, they will see that John and I took those games very seriously and loved every moment of doing them.

Unfortunately, the Boys’ team never got to play their State championship game [due to covid-19 cancellations], but our last game recording for Abington CAM was incredible, winning a great game at the TD Garden.

I will miss being able to provide these games to the community and the experiences I had while recording. I am very thankful for the opportunity to participate in a great program which really brought out the best in me and I would love to continue to do Late Night Sports for a long time.