As announcers, sports DJs, emcees, game operations, etc., you know that you need to prepare for your games.  While some can do a good job “showing and going”, they could’ve done a great job had they been properly prepared.

Preparation is important in our business and doesn’t always begin when we sit down to study rosters or gather music, it goes much more beyond that.  We’ll take a look at short-term and long-term preparations to get you ready for your game.

Short-term Prep

• Obtain rosters of both teams.  Seems fairly straight-forward doesn’t it?  Look the teams up on their websites, email coaches or administrators, call the school/team, tweet them, find them on Instagram, etc.  You have many options available to contact teams ahead of time.  Contact ALL teams at the start of the season.
• The day or week of your game, go back over previous stories about your opponents and highlight any problem names.
• Make contact with the announcers for each opponent and form good communication so you can go over pronunciations.
• Write the rosters in your scorebook.  This is fine for most sports and will help you remember the players when it comes game time.  If you use a computerized roster tracking program or something you created, you can do this long before you get to the game, but try to set time the day of to get it done.  If you’re announcing a tournament, try to do it as far ahead as possible so you have all of your game sheets ready to go.  Most sports, with the exception of baseball, would you write everything in ahead of time as the line-ups are generally the same, or you note starters by circling numbers or highlighting players.
• Think about what you’re going to wear and have it ready.  Make one last check of the weather if you’re going to be outside and prepare accordingly.
• Make sure your announcing bag has everything you need such as pencils, pens, notebooks, paper, extra wires, laptop, tablet, etc.
• Go over your announcing scripts.  Read everything out loud and make sure it sounds right.  If there are other elements to your announcements, go over those for visual and vocal cues.
• Once you’ve gone over the itinerary for the game, prepare your music if you are responsible for that as well.  Edit music, put into your software, etc.

Long-term Prep

• Prepare your voice by not overusing it, but testing it.  Allow yourself to talk more than you normally would leading up to your first game or you’re going to be struggling the day after.
• See your doctor and make sure you’re in good health.  Good health can go a long way, especially if you can expand your lungs.  Short-windedness can cause you to trail out when you don’t want to.  Ask your doctor how best to expand your lungs and exercises you can do to help.
• Following stories of your opponents online and on TV.  Set-up a Google Alert so you have news of the teams you will be announcing for going to your inbox.  Watch TV shows that may cover your opponents’ games.  This will give you an idea of who the top players are and who you might have to watch for.
• Go to the store and purchase the items that will help your voice recover.  Water (kept at room temperature), cough drops, throat spray, cream cheese, or anything else you need, purchase and keep in the same place so you can find it when needed.
• Follow the weather report.  A cold snap could really cause issues if you’re going to be outside announcing soccer in the fall and you’re stuck with shorts and a T-shirt.

What are some things you do in the short and the long term to prepare for announcing?  Leave them in the comments below.