FEATURE STORY by Joe Kennedy

Joe Kennedy, currently a public address announcer located in Maine, periodically contributes articles of insight to the website for publication.   

CHEERLEADING ANNOUNCING? REALLY. CHEERLEADING?

There are very few sports that I have announced that I have felt self-conscious about. I remember the old days when sitting in a small shack on wheels at the University of Maine announcing soccer in a driving rain. Pulling out the microphone and equipment for a youth hockey game. But the one I currently announce always sits a bit funny with me.

Championship cheerleading is a sport that makes me feel like I need to explain myself. Justify why that of all sports. Then I finally realized it...I was so extremely satisfied with the PA announcing experience with cheerleading that I had to share my excitement and why.

First and foremost, there is no sound system like a sound system used for cheerleading. When the championships come around, amps upon amps, speakers upon speakers are pulled out. Everyone in the venue can hear every nuance in my voice. Secondly, the crowds that attend a competition like this rival most rabid football stadium attendees. They know how to feed off my energy. And the format forces them to await my announcements of winners. It is wonderful being able to hear a pin drop as the thousands wait anxiously for my announcement.

Sure I would never trade my decades of college football, basketball, hockey, and baseball announcing. But there is something to be said of spending a day in an auditorium filled with energy. It just takes a bit of getting used to because teenage girls can be pretty loud.

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