Maryland Junior College Athletic Conference

CCBC ESSEX FINDS PUBLIC ADDRESS ANNOUNCER THROUGH NATIONAL ASSOCIATION

1/7/2010

This fall, CCBC Essex hired Rocco Geppi as their permanent public address announcer.Geppi obtained the job with the assistance of the National Association of Sports Public Address Announcers (NASPAA).

Before the 2009-2010 school year, CCBC Administrator of Athletics and Maryland Junior College Athletic Conference President Marc Ershler was looking for a full-time announcer.

“Richard Keller, the Announcer for CCBC, had announced many of our events in the past, but he was not available for all of our events,” Ershler said. “Through Richard’s connection with NASPAA, we sent out a request for an announcer. We quickly received several resumes, and were able to hire Rocco Geppi, a certified public address announcer.” NASPAA has been certifying announcers through its on-line course since 2005.

Geppi has already announced men’s and women’s soccer and volleyball this past fall and is currently announcing men’s basketball. In the spring, he will announce baseball and men’s and women’s lacrosse.

Geppi also coordinates all of the music for the events. Ershler said, “He’s doing a nice job for us.”

In addition to his work for CCBC Essex, Geppi is also the announcer for Kenwood High School’s boy’s and girl’s basketball, boy’s and girl’s lacrosse and track and field. He also announces college ice hockey for Loyola College of Maryland.

Geppi learned some of his announcing skills from Bill Roth, the charismatic former PA announcer for the Baltimore Blast.

Out of all the sports he covers, Geppi likes basketball the best. “Not only is their lots of action in basketball, but the announcer is always busy with scores, violations and fouls,” Geppi said.

Geppi is very interested in helping announcers improve their craft. He makes the following recommendations:

“Always be prepared and organized,” he said. “Get to the event early to work on scripts, lineups and pronunciations. Become familiar not only with the sports you announce, but learn more about the art of announcing.

“I also strongly recommend becoming certified through NASPAA,” Geppi added. “Finally, have passion for the game. Your enthusiasm will show through in your announcing.”

For more information on PA announcing, contact Richard Keller, MD JUCO Sports Information and Marketing Director at 410-812-3155 or sportsinfo@mdjuco.org. Information about the NASPAA may be obtained at www.naspaa.net.