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Hoping to get drafted
Published: 2010-05-09
Hoping to get drafted
Wannabe announcers line up to audition for a job at sports channel The Score
By BILL SPURR Features Writer
Paul Brothers, who won last year’s competition, has interviewed baseball great Johnny Bench and skated with Mat Sundins. (Ingrid Bulmer / Staff)
Andrew Graham of Dartmouth auditions during tryouts for Gillette Drafted 2, The Score’s reality show in search of Canada’s next sportscaster at Mic Mac Mall in Dartmouth on Saturday. (INGRID BULMER / Staff)
SCOTT ALLISON didn’t mind getting up early on a Saturday morning, shaving and putting on a nice shirt, if it gave him a chance to chase his dream.
Allison was the first in line at the Mic Mac Mall for Gillette Drafted 2, a contest that has sports channel The Score seeking its newest announcer.
"It was three minutes, but it felt like 30 seconds," the 31-year old Newport man said after his audition.
"It’s pretty much what I expected. I came here to try and be a sportscaster. It’s been a dream of mine. I’ve always loved sports and I just came here to try my best and see if I could take the next step."
Hopefuls watched highlight packages from five games, one hockey, two soccer and two basketball. Then they chose which one they wanted to voice over, standing in front of a camera and under bright lights.
"You get your choice of those five and they play a similar clip up on the screen. The hockey one was from Game 7 between Montreal and Washington," Allison said. "I came in thinking hockey, but I also thought if I picked soccer there’d be less people picking that and I could stand out by doing something different.
"In the end I went with hockey just because of familiarity. It went OK, I don’t think it went great, but it’s the first time I’ve ever done something like that. I had a great time."
Last year, 3,000 people from across Canada tried out, with two of the top five coming out of the Halifax audition, which was held at the Red Stag tavern. The winner, and now the newest announcer on The Score, was Paul Brothers, who at the time was unemployed.
"It was a series of eliminations," Brothers said Saturday. "They went from 60 down to eight, then down to two, then they told the two of us we’d have to wait until June to find out if we made the final five for all of Canada. So I went through that process and managed to pull it out."
On the day he auditioned, Brothers, who has a journalism degree and a little broadcasting experience, had been out of work for a year.
"Then on Mother’s Day, one year ago . . . I was at my girlfriend’s mother’s place in Liverpool and the commercial came on TV. I said ‘This is it,’ because I had wanted to be a sportscaster since I was 12," said Brothers, who’s 29 but looks about 17.
"I’ve been on the job for three months, but I’ve already experienced some things that are totally amazing. Three days ago I got to play hockey with Mats Sundin, Curtis Joseph, Claude Lemieux, Marcel Dionne and all kinds of legends.
"We went to this pro fantasy hockey camp in Niagara Falls, where people pay a ton of money to go play with hockey legends. We got invited to go cover it, so not only did I interview all the guys but I got to play hockey with them, take a breakaway on Cujo, then go on the bench between shifts and interview Mats Sundin right on the bench.
"I interviewed Johnny Bench . . . the most legendary catcher in baseball, got to go to Pittsburgh for MLB opening day, covered the Pirates against the L.A. Dodgers. And day-to-day at The Score, I do studio updates and this thing on the internet called Take a Number."
Brothers was on hand Saturday to interview some of the people auditioning, for a show The Score is doing on the contest, and to offer advice for anyone that wanted it.
"We’re looking for a personality, someone who likes to have fun, loves sports and doesn’t take themselves too seriously," he said. "Try and throw something in there different, that other people aren’t going to do, like if you read a script, maybe don’t read it word for word; put your own personality into the script. I mean, 3,000 people are going to audition — you’ve got to be able to do something to make yourself stand out."
Andrew Graham’s red hair and interesting haircut distinguished him from some of his competitors. He hoped his choice of clips would stand out, too.
"I chose basketball, Atlanta Hawks and Milwaukee Bucks, figuring everyone would choose Habs-Caps. I felt pretty comfortable with it, it was pretty easy to do," the 24-year old Dartmouth man said. "It went really well. It was pretty nerve wracking at the very start but once the clip gets going you get used to it. I watch The Score every morning and basically talk my self through it every day anyway, so it’s just another day."
