PirateCrew: Seton Hall Pirates Football & Basketball Recruiting
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By Zack Cziryak
Dave, thanks so much for taking time to speak with the Trove. You’re in route to Scranton to call Minor League baseball, can talk about that part of your professional life?
"Yes, the [Toronto Blue Jays Triple-A affiliate] Buffalo Bisons. I think this is my 10th year as a fill-in announcer for them. I do about 20 to 25 games a year, on the road generally, and it's a good way for me to stay sharp with baseball. That was really my first love and the sport that I played the longest; played it all the way through high school, and then called the games at the University of Miami [his alma mater]. And I never really stopped my love affair with the game. I did seasons with several teams before doing any part-time schedules like the last 15 or 20 years just to stay sharp. I mean, I think it's one of the things that I do best, so I want to just keep that door open."
Baseball as a first sports love, is that rooted in your childhood?
"I used to watch the Yankee games with my great uncle who lived next door and another family member took me to see the Yankees when I was about ten and I was hooked. The announcers were great back then. They had Bill White, who I still count as a major influence, Phil Rizzuto and Frank Messer. That was the main crew when I was growing up and they were tremendous. And I think that helped mold my style. And then a lot of the Yankee announcers, through the years, just hearing Mel Allen and John Sterling and others have helped really inform the way that I broadcast I think. I don't mean to sound like the old man that says, 'Get off that lawn, kids,' but we would play all day. We didn't play a lot of video games and stuff like that. We went outside and would play baseball all day until it got pitch black. And then basketball as well. I played basketball for a long time and got basketball announcing opportunities very young, also. The first game I ever did on the radio was Miami versus Hartford basketball when I was eighteen years old at UM and I kind of knew right away that it was something that I'd be good at, and I pursued it strongly."
How much did the potential radio experience factor into your decision to attend the University of Miami or was that a happy coincidence?
"I went on visits to a lot of different colleges my senior year, and I kind of determined once I got to Miami and saw the facilities there and the football team playing for national championship every year and baseball was going to the College World Series annually. And I saw Brent Musburger walk out of Jimmy Johnson's office when I was touring the athletic complex. I said, 'Well, I think this is probably the place I should be if I want to do this,' because he was basically the biggest sportscaster in the game at that time.”
"I thought I was going to be the manager for the basketball team and it didn't work out. The recruit that I was going to be supposedly babysitting there from my home high school ended up not going to Miami so they pulled the offer and I just walked across campus to the radio station and it was the best thing that ever happened because, with no offense to anybody, that would have led to coaching, and I don't want to do that. That's a really, really hard job, and the broadcasting has taken me around the world. And I met a lot of great broadcasters at Miami that I learned from; guys that were a couple years older than me who ended up being very successful in the business. So, that was a good proving ground for me. And by my junior year I was the sports director and making out the schedule and going on all the big trips and traveling with all the teams. And I was ready to go and take a job, certainly by the time I graduated."
How much time was there in between graduation and landing Seton Hall games with Gary Cohen? What were you doing in the interim?
"I graduated UM in 93'. So it was about ten years. I did Monmouth games for a couple of years on TV and radio, same thing for LIU. Did a couple of years filling in for Atlantic 10 TV. And then I got the Northeast Conference basketball TV job, and all of those things kind of helped pave the way to landing at Seton Hall. I had actually been doing marketing work for Seton Hall through Positive Impact, an agency that I was working for at the time, and that's how I met everybody and that certainly helped. I was involved in the process and it's turned out to be a fantastic opportunity in my life.”
You just completed 20 seasons on air for Seton Hall with Gary, what are your most prominent takeaways from two decades in the role and your experiences with him and the university?
"The university has always been great to me. From travel accommodations to everything; really generous to me over the years. In terms of the team, it's obviously been a roller coaster ride over the last 20 years. A bunch of NCAA tournament teams with Kevin Willard and Louis Orr and then some lean years as well. I've met some great friends on and off the court at Seton Hall, and I wouldn't change any of it.”
“In terms of working with Gary; it's like a master class. The best at TV, and oh, by the way, he's the best local team college play-by-play announcer on the radio. Being a part of a top-notch broadcast has certainly helped my broadcast development and I got an opportunity this year to do more games than ever on the play-by-play side because of Gary's surgery and some other commitments. And I hope that there wasn't much slippage for the fans when that happened. I think that all my various play-by-play experiences and kind of doing color for him made be ready for that experience and I was happy with the year that I had on the air.”
“I just think that [Gary] is the perfect blend because he gets really excited for Seton Hall but he's not a super homer or anything. He's very professional and he gets excited when the other team does something too, which is in my mind the right way to do it. If you listen to some other broadcasts across the country, you just kind of scratch your head a little bit. But it's been a good opportunity for me. We've gotten closer every year, and I certainly always look forward to doing the season with him."
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