35 | SPORTS
wood’s word
Senior Ray Wood has changed sporting events with his bold personality. MICHAEL BERNARD | EDITOR IN CHIEF
I
’ve probably made a little bit over $1000 this season and probably a little bit over $1000 last season,” CHS senior Ray Wood said, as he added up his earnings from his unique job at the high school. Wood is the current boys soccer and lacrosse announcer, former football announcer and is in charge of the scoreboard for field hockey and other JV sports. Wood receives $30 per junior varsity game and $40 per varsity game from the CHS athletic department. “I actually started off doing lacrosse my freshman year because they needed somebody to do it and I thought why not me because I wasn’t really doing anything else. I did that for my freshman [and] sophomore year,” Wood said. He was hesitant at first, but after his friends encouraged him to give it a shot, Wood found his new passion. However, his skills did come with some practice. “Before every game I have to do the starting lineups. And for the first couple games I didn’t really know what to say. And I had to have a script with me and read off of it. And it was like, I was [messing] up a lot with my words,” Wood said.” “It was kind of hard to talk smoothly with it. But as I got more confidence and more comfortable with it, I could do it on the fly, and I don’t have to read off a script at all.” After football announcer and CHS physics
Ray Wood in the Centene Stadium press box. Photo by Madalyn Schroeder. teacher Rex Rice retired in 2017, the school was in need of a new announcer. Athletic Director Bob Bone had heard Wood announce at the lacrosse games and gave him the opportunity to expand to football and soccer. Wood accepted the position. Wood began announcing his junior year for the Greyhounds football team. The team finished with a record of 1-5 at home. As a result, Wood mostly announced for the opposing teams. However, the Greyhounds began their 2018 season with four wins and zero losses. Wood, who announced only at the beginning of the season as he was willingly replaced by CHS graduate Nate Gatter, had a completely different experience. “It was a lot more exciting to do it because we would actually be winning games and scoring a lot of touchdown. So [there was] more enthusiasm in it. Because like last year when I was doing it, it was a lot of the other team scoring and announcing for them,” he said. “It was pretty fun to announce touchdowns for our team more than other teams and kind of like get the crowd hyped up.” CHS senior and co-captain of the football team Jeremiah Austin has noticed Wood’s enthusiasm from the field. “It was great knowing that one of my friends I grew up with was representing us we we were on the field. [He] made everyone go wild,” Austin said. “His energy [was] great.”
Wood has been able to showcase his personality more with varsity soccer too, as they have also performed better this year. They are currently ranked 9th in the state, and 136 in the country with a record a 19-2-1. CHS senior and varsity soccer player Kilian Zindell has appreciated Wood’s announcing. “If you score and there’s no announcer to announce it, it’s just not the same,” Zindell said. “You don’t feel satisfied with your goal unless Ray is there to announce it.” Wood does not plan to pursue announcing as a career. However, he does not want to give it up completely. “I would definitely like to do it in college,” Wood said. “If I could do like, for fun on the side.” Since Wood is a senior, he is currently searching for a replacement. “We might need to find somebody for next year,” Wood said. “So if anybody was interested, please contact me.” Although Wood is concluding his final season with the varsity soccer team, he will continue to announce in the spring for the Varsity lacrosse team. “Ray Wood is a very motivational announcer,” Zindell said. “He really gets up hyped up for all our games, and he hypes up the crowd.”