Play-By-Play Broadcaster & Sports Anchor/Reporter
About
Ben was born in Boston but raised in Portland, Oregon and has strived to acheive his dream of being a sports broadcaster. When he was little, Ben would wake up early on Saturday and Sunday mornings to not only watch football but also hear the "NFL on FOX" or "ABC College Football" theme and impersonate Keith Jackson with the TV on mute. As a teenager, Ben got his first exposure in broadcasting when he served as the Public Address Announcer for his high school baseball team when he was sidelined with a back injury during his junior year. During that time, Ben also served as a sports writer for Sunset High School's newspaper The Scroll, where he won the Erik Eckholm Scholarship Award. He was also a scholar athlete, playing both basketball and baseball.
Ben officially began his broadcasting journey at Washington State University (Go Cougs!) where he became involved with KUGR Radio, serving as a play-by-play broadcaster for Cougar volleyball, basketball and baseball. There he broadcasted known athletes such as Kelly Olynyk, Nikola Vucevic, Terrence Ross, and of course, Klay Thompson (again, Go Cougs!). However, his career (and confidence) took off when he was chosen out of many candidates during his sophomore year to help call both the Men's and Women's Pac-12 Basketball Tournaments in Los Angeles. While at WSU, Ben was also a proud member of Phi Kappa Tau fraternity where he served as Intramural Chair (of course it's sports related). He would also receive the Washington State Association of Broadcasters Scholarship Award as well as the Richard Ross Memorial Scholarship Award.
Later that summer, Ben became an intern at 710 ESPN Seattle where he helped create content for "The Bob and Groz Show," recorded hourly updates and learned from many personalities such as TV Play-By-Play Broadcaster Kevin Calabro.
At the beginning of his junior year, Ben became Sports Director at KUGR Radio where he not only continued calling Cougar Athletics, but also served as the station's play-by-play voice for the Cougs during the 2013 Men's Basketball Tournament in Las Vegas and helped mentor younger KUGR members on their play-by-play broadcasting. The following summer, he became a Production Intern at Turner Sports in Atlanta, Georgia where he helped create content for the MLB on TBS and the NBA Draft, ran the NBA TV ticker, as well as learned from on-air personalities such as NBA TV Gametime Host Jared Greenberg (see Recommendation).
Beginning his senior year, along with play-by-play, Ben would begin working on his sports reporting and anchoring craft when he was a part of Murrow News 8, Washington State's campus TV station. There, Ben learned the ways of sports anchoring and reporting, producing and writing for a news show. After one year of reporting experience at Murrow News 8 and four years of play-by-play broadcasting at KUGR, Ben graduated in May of 2014.
A few months following graduation, Ben's first part-time opportunity involved being the TV Play-By-Play voice for the University of Portland Pilots men's basketball team on the Portland Sports Network. During his time with the Pilots, he called all home non-conference games as well as one West Coast Conference match-up on TheW.Tv (West Coast Conference Network). Ben also filled in for the team's official radio play-by-play voice during the Showdown In Music City Thanksgiving Tournament when the Pilots faced off against Murray State, Drake and Valparaiso in Nashville, Tennessee.
Then, his first official opportunity in the business came calling. Just 12 hours after broadcasting his final game of the season for the Pilots, Ben became a Sports Anchor/Reporter at KEZI 9, the ABC affilaite in Eugene, Oregon. In Eugene, Ben was the Oregon State Beaver Beat Reporter and also covered minor league baseball, track and field events (it is TrackTown USA after all) and several other big sporting events in Western Oregon. He also created an online series entitled "Beaver Breakdown" where he gave daily reports on Oregon State Football practices that air on KEZI's website. Ben has also hosted KEZI's weekly "Sunday Sports Extra" shows as well as "College Gameday" where he looked at Pac-12 games with analysts. He had also gotten back into the play-by-play booth from time to time calling high school and local college basketball games for KEZI. Ben also covered big time events such as Oregon State Women's Basketball winning the Pac-12 Tournament and making it to the Final Four in Indianapolis plus Oregon State Men making it to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 26 years.
After a little under a year-and-a-half, Ben was on the move as he made his way to the Natural State to become the Weekend Sports Anchor/Reporter at the Fox affiliate in Little Rock, Arkansas. There Ben covered sports from all over Arkansas including the Razorbacks, Arkansas State, Central Arkansas, and a lot more! Ben was able to cover big events such as the Razorbacks trip to the NCAA Tournament in 2016, Arkansas' appearance in the Phil Knight Invitational in Portland, Oregon, Jerry Jones' induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and, most notably, Arkansas Baseball's run to the College World Series where they were one out (specifically one caught foul ball) away from winning their first national title. He was also the lead reporter on the station's "Fearless Friday" high school football shows where he reported live from the biggest game of the week. He also was a studio host for several Arkansas Razorback and Dallas Cowboy Football shows with analysts. Working in Little Rock had also provided Ben the opportunity to produce big feature stories, such as on former Razorback Basketball player Darious Hall overcoming his father's murder, as well as producing a documentary mini-series called "Patriot Games" that goes behind-the-scenes of Parkview Football's rebuild. Ben was very proud to call a place, that his late grandfather cared for tremendously, his home. He was also able to get back into the play-by-play booth calling several high school basketball and football state championship games on TV as well as being named the first ever TV Play-By-Play voice of Little Rock Trojans Basketball on ESPN+.
In July of 2019, after the sudden tragic loss of a friend, Ben then decided to make the most difficult decision up to this point of his life by choosing to walk away from his Sports Anchor job in Little Rock to go chase after his dream of one day doing play-by-play for a team or a network. A few months later in November, Ben signed off from Fox16 for the final time and shifted his focus to continuing to call basketball for the Little Rock Trojans which featured the program winning the Sun Belt Conference title during the 2019-2020 season. Following the conclusion of the season, Ben was preparing to start calling baseball for Little Rock until the season was canceled due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. With sports coming to a grinding halt, Ben packed his things and moved back home to Portland where he currently resides.
Eventually things started turning around when he was picked up by Pac-12 Network to begin calling games for them. After having multiple women's basketball broadcasts canceled due to COVID issues in early 2021, Ben began calling volleyball and lacrosse which quickly lead to bigger assignments, calling Top 25 baseball and volleyball games while also getting more opportunities in men's and women's basketball. He also has landed freelance gigs calling basketball for the Portland State Vikings, Idaho Vandals and Seattle U Redhawks.
Then in the summer of 2022, Ben was presented with an amazing opportunity to serve as the TV Play-By-Play voice of Montana State Football, who were coming off a trip to the FCS National Championship game. Creighton called almost every home and away Big Sky Conference game, which included the famous "Brawl of the Wild", one of the most intense rivalries in college football, against Montana when College GameDay set up in Bozeman that weekend.
When Ben isn't behind the desk or behind the mic, you can find him playing basketball, baseball, football...any sport really...going hiking, enjoying time with friends and family as well as enjoying his hobby of being a rail enthusiast.