Sophomore Dominic D’Angelo is NDA’s new livestream play-by-play broadcaster, the leading announcer after previous experience doing color.

D’Angelo’s interest in sports broadcasting began at a young age.

“I’ve really wanted to get into broadcasting since I was seven,” he told the journalism class.

He studied acclaimed broadcasters like Bob Costas to develop the skills needed to become a successful sports broadcaster.

D’Angelo described himself as a sports nut. In fact, he used to play sports himself. Growing up he was a star basketball player.

“From fourth grade I played basketball for the Future Tritons program,” he said..

Sadly, in 8th grade he received major neck surgery that halted all playing aspirations.

“I was on the shelf for a year.”

While D’Angelo may not have been able to play sports himself, broadcasting gave him the ability to stay involved with the realm of it all. Last year he got in touch with previous lead broadcaster Joey Bonadonna, now at UW-Madison, and asked if he could do a game with him.

Bonadonna agreed, and the first game D’Angelo worked was a basketball playoff game against Pulaski. 

He said the biggest advice Bonadonna gave him was to pretend you are talking to your dad or yourself. Hundreds of people are tuned into the livestreams, and to perform your best work it is essential to forget the number of people that are listening to you.

After some experience with broadcasting, D’Angelo became more serious with the possibility of doing it as a career. Last summer he attended a camp in Chicago called Play-by-Play to further develop his skills behind the microphone.

While things were looking good for D’Angelo’s broadcasting career at NDA, there was a point towards the end of the football season that he thought it was all going to blow up. They had many issues with the audio and cameras not working.

“I was really concerned that things were not going to start back up again,” said D’Angelo.

Thankfully, once basketball season started, D’Angelo got together with Matthew Koenig and became the lead broadcaster.

D’Angelo’s favorite sport to broadcast currently is basketball, but he also enjoys broadcasting football.

While D’Angelo said he likes his position, he also described some of the difficulties he has to account for when he is live on the air.

“You want to be able to describe the game so everyone can understand it,” he said.

He also added that you always want to have enough stuff to talk about to create engagement from the audience. To do this, he needs to know both teams inside and out.

“I think you have to be objective because you have to attract all audiences.”

D’Angelo sees broadcasting as a very plausible future career path for himself, but he remains adamant that he is still open to all possibilities.

Because sports broadcasting is year round, D’Angelo could cover a wide variety of sports, but he said he would most likely want to stick with just one.

“If I had to pick one sport, I would pick basketball because it is my favorite sport,” he said. 

He also mentioned because of the timing of the basketball season, he would be able to have his summers off.

D’Angelo found his passion and thinks he will make a career out of it. His story is inspiring to all those that want to follow their dreams.

“If you love what you are doing, you will never work a day in your life,” said the play-by-play sophomore.

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Another Journalism student’s version of the D’Angelo interview–Alex Thomas–appears below.  Enjoy!

Dominic D’Angelo, a sophomore at NDA, is a multitalented sports commentator and pep band musician.

D’Angelo has had a love for sports broadcasting and speaking from a young age. 

 “I have been interested in sports broadcasting since I was 7. It is something I have always wanted to do,” said D’Angelo.

D’Angelo played sports his whole life, but that came to an end when he received major neck surgery in September 2020. 

This surgery prohibited him from playing sports, but it didn’t stop him from broadcasting and speaking about them.

He also has a strong passion for music. D’Angelo wanted to implement both of these hobbies into something he could take part in at school.

Since Joey Bonadonna had graduated, the sports broadcasting role was open for him. 

D’Angelo realized he could take the role of NDA’s sports broadcaster and play in the pep band. It was the perfect fit for him.

His game nights are very action-filled and tiring, but it is all worth it for him. He says, “If you are loving what you are doing, you’ll never work a day in your life.” 

“Last week Thursday, I got to school at 6 and got everything set up with Mr. Koenig, I played with the band in Pregame, and then I left with 5 minutes left to get up to the booth to start broadcasting. I went down to play in the band for halftime,” said D’Angelo.

When D’Angelo broadcasts and commentates the games, he makes sure not to be biased toward one side. 

“You need to know each side of things,” said D’Angelo.

D’Angelo also did broadcasting for some football games this year. 

“There was a point towards the end of football season when we thought that this was all gonna blow up. We had a ton of issues in the press box with the camera and audio. I was really concerned that this was going to be done,” said the sophomore.

This was one tough night for him, but ultimately the technology piece fell into place and the live streaming of basketball began–with D’Angelo calling the games.

 Gabriela Gallardo’s version of the story. . . 

“If you love what you’re doing, you’ll never work a day in your life,” said sophomore Dominic D’Angelo, NDA’s lead broadcaster.

D’Angelo’s passion for sports broadcasting began when he was a kid.

“I remember watching sports with my dad. I loved the broadcaster’s energy and the whole aspect of it,” he said. “I thought I could do that for a living and it’d be the coolest thing in the world.” 

Apart from sports broadcasting, D’Angelo also used to play sports. “I was a really good basketball player from fourth to eighth grade,” he said. 

Unfortunately, that stopped when he had neck surgery in 2020. “I was on the shelf for a year.” 

D’Angelo started getting involved in broadcasting last year. He worked with previous lead broadcaster Joey Bonadonna, now at UW-Madison. 

The most important piece of advice Bonadonna gave him was to pretend he was talking to his dad or himself. 

“We both really enjoyed working with each other,” he said. “I’m definitely blessed to have him in my life.”

D’Angelo was able to take on the role of NDA’s lead broadcaster after Bonadonna graduated.

Last summer, he attended a Play-by-Play camp in Chicago and “learned a lot from it.”

“You need to describe what’s happening so the listeners can understand it without actually having to see it,” he said.

He also stated that another important thing is to talk about both sides of the game. “You have to be objective because you have to attract all audiences.”

“There was a point towards the end of football season when we thought this was all gonna blow up,” he said. “We had a lot of issues with the camera and the audio, but we managed to fix it.”

“A lot of people don’t realize that a lot can go wrong with the tech side of things,” said D’Angelo. 

Despite the obstacles, D’Angelo would like to pursue a career in broadcasting, although he tries “to keep opinions open.”