The Syracuse University journalism students were told of a baseball park that sat surrounded by trees, and mountains that tower over you.
They heard about the midnight sun that illuminates the Alaska night, and the fishing trips that were sandwiched between Alaska Baseball League games.
 Photo submitted by the Mat-Su Miners Syracuse University students Jonathon Erwin, left, and Andrew Africk sit in the press box at Hermon Brothers Field. The pair have spent the summer as the voices for the Mat-Su Miners. |
“Both of them still call it the summer of their life,” Erwin said.
So this year, it was their turn to spend a summer in a place many from the Lower 48 only read about. Africk and Erwin, both incoming seniors at Syracuse, have spent the last seven weeks as the voices of the Mat-Su Miners, while creating grand memories of their own.
“It’s definitely a different experience, but I love it,” said Africk, who was raised in the suburbs of Chicago, Ill. “In the Midwest, where I come from, mountains are sort of like something you hear about. But here, they’re everywhere you turn. There’s a phenomenal view everywhere you go.”
That’s even true about the Hermon Brothers Field press box, which has become sort of a second summer home for the aspiring broadcasters. From their vantage point, Africk and Erwin can see the tall trees that run parallel to the outfield wall, and the mighty Pioneer Peak, which can be seen beyond the left field fence.
And that’s in addition to what’s on the field, the teams playing in a league that’s widely recognized as one of the most prestigious if its kind.
From the press box, Africk and Erwin have called 18 home games, broadcasting their work via the team’s Web site, www.matsuminers.org, and over the air, thanks to a generous sponsorship package courtesy of KMBQ 1430 AM.
Africk and Erwin have also made trips to Anchorage, Fairbanks and Kenai this summer.
“It’s great we’re afforded the opportunity to come up here,” Africk said.
The pair work and interact with the Mat-Su Miners — a team made up primarily of Division I coaches and athletes — each day. They call the games for the radio and Web broadcast. They put together a 15-minute pre-game show, that includes interviews with a coach and a player, before each contest. They write a Mat-Su Miners blog for the Web site. And if that’s not enough, Africk and Erwin are also the chief statisticians for the team, and operate a live statistical game cast for fans keeping up with the Miners on the Internet.
A handful of years ago, Mat-Su Miners general manager Pete Christopher began offering college students, such as Africk and Erwin, summer internships to broadcast the Miners games during the ABL season.
“It’s excellent,” Christopher said of the program. “It works out great.”
Christopher said the feedback from fans has been very positive, and his broadcasters become more polished with every game.
“It’s not so easy. They do the live scoreboard too,” Christopher said. “People don’t realize their talking while they’re typing.”
While both Africk and Erwin see themselves more as play-by-play broadcasters, the pair rotates duties on game day.
On one evening, Africk will take charge of the play-by-play duties for the first three and final three innings, and Erwin will supply the color commentary. The broadcasting partners will swap jobs for the fourth, fifth and sixth innings. And the next day, they switch.
Through the Web site, Africk and Erwin have become the voices which connect the college players on the Miners with their friends and family Outside. And this year, for the first time the Wasilla-based radio station KMBQ has signed on to air each of the Miners 48 regular-season games.
Denise Christopher, who handles much of the marketing for the team, said the Miners, a nonprofit organization, simply could not afford to put their games on the radio airwaves in the past, but KMBQ owner John Klapperich was able to work out a deal to have the Miners on Am 1430.
“People love it,” she said.
Napa Auto Parts in Palmer continued as the sponsor of the Internet Web cast this summer.
Although this is their first time broadcasting in the AB L, Africk and Erwin are no strangers to the microphone. Both are accomplished broadcasters at Syracuse, and have taken advantage of about every opportunity given to them to cover Orange athletics.
Africk and Erwin both work at the campus television station, where Erwin is the sports director. Africk works for two different radio stations, and calls games for high school football and a number of Syracuse athletics squads.
A highlight, both said, was their coverage of the Syracuse lacrosse team’s national championship run. The pair traveled with the team to the NCAA lacrosse final four in Boston. Africk called the games and Erwin reported for a postgame talk show.
“We pretty much had the run of the entire Gillette Stadium,” Africk said of the site of the championships, which is also the home of the National Football League’s New England Patriots.
Africk’s spot in the press box during the national title game — a contest won by Syracuse 10-9 in overtime — was right next to the ESPN broadcast booth.
“We were hobnobbing with the best and the brightest of the lacrosse world,” Africk said.
Erwin has also had the chance to cover much of what Syracuse athletics has to offer. As a senior, he said he should have more of a chance to cover the school’s flagship programs, football and men’s basketball.
In the future, Erwin said he hopes to continue to polish his play-by-play skills. He would love to do regional work for ESPN, and could also see himself as a television sports reporter covering local sports.
Africk is not exactly sure where his future will take him,.
“I love radio, I love T.V., I kind of love it all,” Africk said.
Africk is drawn to the play-by-play end of the business, and in a perfect world, he would some day be the voice of his hometown team, the Chicago Cubs.
But in the meantime, Africk and Erwin providing the Valley’s hometown team with the voices of the Miners in their new home away from home.
Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.
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