Today we’d like to introduce you to Brian Sweeney.
Hi Brian, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
After coaching middle school soccer for 6 seasons, I did not want to miss my son playing at the high school level so I looked for another way to be involved with local sports. I offered in the fall of 2014 to start announcing the high school hockey games. This led to announcing soccer, lacrosse, and football as well at the school occasionally doing dance, volleyball, basketball, and baseball as well.
After a season developing my announcing, I sent demo reels to all colleges within 90 miles of my home and landed a full-time division 3 men’s hockey program where I would also fill in for the women’s team and also soccer and volleyball. During this time I was also approached by Concordia St Paul, a Division 2 program to do lacrosse and soccer. Later they would add me to football and volleyball as well.
In 2018, I was asked to start filling in for the Minnesota Gophers Men’s hockey program and that led to the head coach of the women’s program asking me to join the staff full-time in the summer of 2021. This opened up more opportunities as the school would also have me fill in for volleyball, soccer, baseball, softball, and basketball.
Back in 2015, I also took a chance with a local women’s professional football team, The Minnesota Vixen, that would lead to the Women’s Football Alliance in 2018 asking me to be the main broadcaster of their championship game each year on ESPN2.
Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There are always challenges in the field as the higher the level is the fewer roles that are available and once an announcer is in a position there is very little turnover. Every opportunity I get to fill in is a blessing including the times that I fill in for the Lynx of the WNBA
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Being an announcer you need to be factual and honest. You have to be creative and think on the fly. Bring a level of excitement to a game for the players and fans.
What do you think about happiness?
I love to share my excitement for the players with the listener.
Contact Info:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/mr_announcerguy
