The Art of the Swimming PA Announcer

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

By Andrew Ross, Swimming World College Intern

The public address announcer can be the most important person at a swim meet. He or she is in charge and controls the pace of the meet and is the one who can make a swim meet exciting or boring. But after watching and attending many swim meets in my time, I have noticed that a lot of PA Announcers fall on the boring side.

Too many times I hear people say swimming is “a boring sport,” that “nobody cares” and “it’s not exciting to watch.” I am an aspiring PA announcer myself and over the last few years, part of my motivation as an announcer is to show people that swimming can be exciting. PA announcing is an art and it can be hard to master it, but there are people who have mastered that art. Below are some of my favorite announcers.

Brian Gordon

He doesn’t call a lot of meets outside of the SEC Championships anymore but Brian was the voice of the NCAA meets for a long time and he was one of the main announcers when I decided to get in the business about ten years ago. He has a very professional demeanor when he is talking and he is easy to understand. He also is very knowledgeable about the sport, which is a key factor in being a good announcer.

Brian does one of my favorite things when introducing swimmers– he always says, “Lane four is a senior from (hometown).” It is always so interesting to me to listen to all the places that people are from, especially in college swimming.

http://tv.swimmingworldmagazine.com/events/2009-ncaa-division-i-mens-championships/races/436

The overall feel of the NCAA meet was different when Brian was in charge. He was in charge when I first started watching NCAAs, so maybe I am being nostalgic. But the way the crowd reacts to him is a lot different than it is today.

Michael Poropat

Michael is similar to Brian as they both have a very professional demeanor. Michael is very articulate and enunciates better than almost any announcer out there. He has been a mainstay among the swimming announcing core the last few years as he was one of the voices of the recent summer nationals in San Antonio.

Chris Hindmarch-Watson

The Canadian is also another very recognizable voice for USA Swimming, maybe because of his exciting voice pitch or his Canadian accent. He has called some of swimming’s biggest moments over the last decade. I admire Chris for his ability to get the crowd into races and his energy during a race. Like I said above, some people think swimming is a boring spectator sport but when you listen to a guy like Chris, it can be pretty exciting.

Sam Kendricks

He has perhaps the most recognizable voice in swimming. Kendricks brings lots of energy to the pool deck and always has a lot of good input during a race. He does the NCAA meets every year and they are always a good show. He also has teamed up with Hindmarch-Watson for the US Olympic Trials in the past and together they get the crowd going and keep them engaged. He also has teamed up with Poropat at the National and Junior National meets in the past making those meets a must-watch.

Kendricks is known for his “Boom! Shockalocka!” that I believe was conceived after Kevin Cordes’ 1:49 at the 2013 NCAAs (but I could be wrong). He is also known for his pleas to the crowd to cheer. He proves that even in a 1650 or a quiet prelim swim, it is okay to cheer for the eight swimmers in the water.

There are other great announcers out there, but I don’t have time to name them all.

In summation, the keys to being a good announcer are:

Voice Quality: This can really be a death sentence for some PA announcers. Some pools have bad speaker systems that make the quality bad right off the bat. But if a spectator cannot understand you, then you need to get off the microphone. If no one can understand you, how will people know what is going on?

Excitement/Engagement: One thing that can kill a swim meet is lack of excitement or enthusiasm. I have gone to plenty of meets where the announcer is not involved at all or just has no idea what is going on. In order to have a successful meet, the announcer needs to be knowledgeable in swimming and be engaged with the meet so it can run at a smooth and exciting pace. One big test to see if an announcer is engaged is to watch them during an event longer than a 400. This is where the crowd can start to lose interest and it is up to the PA announcer to keep them in the meet.

Music: I honestly would write a whole separate article on swim meet music, but that will have to be delayed for another day. Sometimes warm-up playlists are too slow, too quiet, or are non-existent. A good warm up playlist is loud (or at least gets the swimmers excited for the meet). It also needs to wake up the early risers for the prelim session and let them know what kind of meet they are in store for.

If a swim meet starts off on Friday night with a good playlist, you know the meet is going to be good. I spend more time preparing playlists for swim meets than I do preparing for names and race calls. Playlists are extremely important. My number one rule is: if you can’t clearly hear the music in every square inch of the pool deck, the music is too quiet.

Intros: Finals introductions are pretty important as well. It really shows if the announcer knows what they are doing. One of my biggest pet peeves is when the swimmers are still walking out and the announcer starts the intros. What is the rush? Slow the meet down a little bit. The perfect length for walkout and intros is about two minutes. When you announce the swimmer’s name, wait about three seconds for the cheers to die down to move on to the next lane. This keeps a good pace and keeps the crowd and swimmers in it without giving them awkward pauses.

I don’t mean to hate on any announcing techniques out there. PA announcing is an art and it takes lots of practice to master it.

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Harold Epps

8 years ago

Love me that Sam Kendricks!!!!

Bob Staab

8 years ago

Thanks

Sandy Pickering Drake

8 years ago

Sam Kendricks makes it fun for everyone. Here on Maui, we have another fabulous announcer in Dain Kane. He has now been announcing for 3 Western Zone championships and will be doing zones in 2016!

Mike Miles

8 years ago

Great article. I especially agree with the section highlighting the importance of meet music. When announcing a meet I put a lot of conscious effort into considering the specific audience… College, Senior, Age Group, or gender specific like certain high school championship meets. Keeping in mind that it always needs to be ‘family friendly’, the pacing of playlist selection helps to impact the ebb and flow of an event from the time the venue doors open, through general warm-up, pace and sprint, once the pool is cleared, stinger music after the National Anthem, and having stall music cued up and ready to go in circumstances when there is a technical delay. Of course there is an art to working with swimmers to pick appropriate parade walk-in music and setting cue points to maximize the impact of the selected songs depending on whether it’s a short or long parade march. The end result hopefully enhances the environment for fast swims, and keeping energy levels up for swimmers, coaches, officials, the supportive parents and other fans in the stands. Thanks to people like Bob, Gordan, Sam, and Michael for setting the benchmark high for other meet announcers around the country to emulate.

Bob Staab

8 years ago

Your name should be on the list Mike Miles

Mike Stromberg

8 years ago

Another very good announcer is Kevin Polansky, he does a lot of DI and DII conference meets and does DII Nationals every year.

Jennifer Hooker Brinegar

8 years ago

Sam, Mike, and John Wendt are my favorite big meet announcers!! The announcer and the music can really help to make a meet much more exciting and entertaining!

John Wendt

8 years ago

Reply to Jennifer Hooker Brinegar

Jennifer, you are always too kind….. The focus is always on the kids in the pool not on the announcer….

John Wendt

8 years ago

Reply to Jennifer Hooker Brinegar

Jennifer, you are always too kind….. The focus is always on the kids in the pool not on the announcer….

Franke Marsden

8 years ago

Sam and Bob are about as good as it gets. I’ve had the pleasure of working with them and they add so much to a meet.

Angela Laughlin-Monty

8 years ago

Donald P. Spellman- pretty sure they missed your name.

Donald P. Spellman

8 years ago

Reply to Angela Laughlin-Monty

They need to stop by an ISI 12 & Under Champs or an Iowa City Eels run meet sometime.

Angela Laughlin-Monty

8 years ago

Donald P. Spellman- pretty sure they missed your name.

Joel Rollings

8 years ago

Bob Staab you’re famous

Bob Staab

8 years ago

Reply to Joel Rollings

I’m just Sam’s sidekick

Justin Karpinos

8 years ago

Timothy Baker Shutt is incomparable.

Timothy Baker Shutt

8 years ago

Reply to Justin Karpinos

Thank you Justin. Most kind.

Gary Downey II

8 years ago

Bob Staab

Donald P. Spellman

8 years ago

My Top 10 artists for playlists at large swim meets:
1. The Ramones
2. Me First & The Gimme Gimmies
3. AC / DC
4. James Brown
5. Depeche Mode (especially the remixes)
6. INXS
7. The Go-Go’s
8. Public Enemy
9. Daft Punk
10. Beastie Boys

Feel free to expand!

Neil Stapley

8 years ago

All to often the PA likes the sound of their own voice and kills the atmosphere. Worst Gwinnett Aquatics head coach in Georgia. Please someone ban him from ever picking up a mic. Best is a guy called Michael Robinson who PA’s for SCAT and a number of SwimAtlanta meets there is always a buzz.

Neil Stapley

8 years ago

Keysha Reese Stapley Kimberly Oakes Cesario Gabriela Mateo Steffanie Thompson

Andrea Davis Kelley

8 years ago

Hugs Sam!!! Whoop!!

Donald P. Spellman

8 years ago

Sam & Micheal both do an awesome job.

Anonymous

8 years ago

Peter Ferguson

8 years ago

Reply to Anonymous

Surprised Mel and I didn’t get a mention…must try harder!! (But no-one will ever beat my playlist…) haha ??

Ruth McQuillan

8 years ago

Reply to Anonymous

at least you and Mel looked like you were enjoying announcing !!!

Peter Ferguson

8 years ago

Reply to Anonymous

Absolutely, if we don’t enjoy ourselves there’s no chance anyone else will! #pumpitup

Gary Stoops

8 years ago

Reply to Anonymous

Looking forward to working as part of the slick team SU/SI. Bring on the 2015/16 season

Petri Jokiranta

8 years ago

If I remember correctly, You were also a great PA announcer at U of M swimming.

Gerald Macedo

8 years ago

Sam is outstanding!

Tom Middaugh

8 years ago

Reply to Gerald Macedo

How’s the patient?

Michael Poropat

8 years ago

Thanks for the shout-out. Every single time, it is an honor to be on deck with these amazing athletes.

Jarrod Wronski

8 years ago

As someone who also has announced swim meets at the college and high school level, and also serves as the DJ for the events, it’s a tough job and honestly if I can’t make it fun for the people watching, I shouldn’t be there. My first meet was only a couple of years ago (I’ve been announcing sports for 24 years at all levels), and I did it the way I thought it should be done. They jump in the pool, I announce who they are, and then it’s play-by-play. The response I got was amazing. The swimmers, the fans, administrators, and officials all were raving about me and how I made it so much more. In my life, I’ve announced two high school meets and one Division-III college meet. I did the same at all three and people loved it.

When it came to playlists, the themes would morph depending on the time. Early in the morning, it would start out with some like Top 40 and hip hop, eventually finding it’s way over to classic rock/80’s/70’s, before coming back to rock (think Enter Sandman and Welcome to the Jungle) just prior to the competition. If we had an intermission, that’s when I had the chance to really break out some fun stuff. We’d do line dances, sometimes getting entire teams on the deck. It became one big party until it was time to swim again.

Before championship finals, I’d play a walk-up song picked by the top seed out of the preliminaries. They loved it, and if I had a swimmer that was the top seed out of more than one, there may be a really off-the-wall selection in there.

I would really like to reprint this entire piece on http://www.SportsAnnouncing.com where it would help some swimming announcers, and if there are any P. A. announcers viewing these comments, please feel free to visit the site and join “The Network”. We’d love to have you along with us.