BIG RAPIDS — As the summer begins to wind down in smalls towns across Michigan, the thought of a brand new football season is enough to excite a whole community.
Players, coaches, parents, administration and alumni each play a role in getting the town ready for when teams hit the field for the first Friday night of the season.
With all of the on-field pageantry, sights, sounds and emotion taking place week in, week out, it prevents some fans from taking a step back and looking up to the press box.
There, one will find Jeffrey Scarpelli — the voice of Big Rapids football.
Scarpelli calls Cardinal football games on Big Country 100.9 FM WWBR, bringing coverage of each game to many folks throughout the region who could not make it out to the stadium.
Scarpelli is also an assistant coach for the Big Rapids varsity baseball squad, which features many student-athletes who take the gridiron for the Cardinals each fall.
He said it’s fun being able to call games featuring some of the same players he helps coach during the baseball season, while also providing the listening audience with fun, anecdotal information about various student-athletes.
“It’s just fun to relay those stories, because they’re all good kids. They work hard for any win,” Scarpelli said. “I just want people to know about it, I guess.”
There is a great deal of work to be done prior to kickoff every Friday night, like setting up equipment and testing audio levels.
Still, much of the prep work done by Scarpelli and his team is obsolete by game time, but that doesn’t him from always doing homework prior to going live.
“There’s instances where 90% of all that work you put in to prepare for that game, you don’t even use,” Scarpelli said. “Something else comes up right before, but you always just have to look through the history of the teams and try some kind of matchup with them. There’s a lot of content you have to build.”
Scarpelli said he enjoys speaking with Cardinal coach Mike Selzer prior to each week’s game, but especially enjoys getting thoughts from the players themselves as the season goes on.
Being able to relay to the fans the excitement and enthusiasm shared by Big Rapids student-athletes is part of what he said makes calling games so enjoyable.
While he said he enjoys the camaraderie associated with covering conference games with familiar opponents, the non-conference games against relatively unknown opponents provide him with a fun challenge as well.
“You get into the press box and you just have to start asking as many questions as possible,” Scarpelli said. “The nice thing is, I’ve literally never done a game where they’re unwilling (to help). It’s usually the stadium announcer. You ask them one question and they’ll answer everything else on their own — they just want to tell you about everything.”
A PROUD CARDINAL, THROUGH AND THROUGH
Scarpelli attended Big Rapids High School and said he is very happy for the football team to finally have a home field advantage at the new Cardinal Stadium, after years of sharing Top Taggart field with the Ferris State football team.
The fact he attended high school in Big Rapids is part of what he said will make the first football game at the new field such a momentous occasion, among many other things.
“Every game, even rocket football, had to be played at Ferris State, which is cool in its own way,” Scarpelli said. “But, when you see maroon and gold and bulldogs on everything, it’s not the same. You feel like it’s an away game, regardless.”
Scarpelli described Big Rapids' new facility as “the ultimate home-field advantage,” which was something that wasn’t always a possibility at Top Taggart.
“Now, you’re going to start getting that electric atmosphere that you get at Reed City, where it’s all right there,” Scarpelli said.
Scarpelli also calls Big Rapids basketball games for Big Country 100.9 FM.
The Cardinals open their season on the road Friday against Fremont. The first game in Cardinal Stadium is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 10, when Big Rapids takes on Newaygo.
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'Touchdown!': Voice of the Cardinals ready for new season - The Pioneer
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