When the ACC Network – a new, full-time venture backed by ESPN – rolls out in August, it is expected to deliver SEC Network-esque coverage of the Atlantic Coast Conference’s sports, including softball. The 2020 season will be the network’s first with softball coverage and, as an ESPN property, could easily staff the league’s biggest games with some of the top broadcasting talent already on the network’s talent roster.
With expanded coverage also comes expanded opportunities for broadcast talent to shine, both on the new network’s airwaves and filling roles in other games across the spectrum of ESPN’s softball coverage, which seems to grow with leaps and bounds annually. Here, we take a look at some broadcasters who could benefit from the ACC Network’s start.
Jenny Dalton-Hill
The ACC Network will need some top talent, a headliner that softball fans are familiar with and used to seeing on the airwaves. Dalton-Hill could fill this role, as she has been in the ESPN fold for several years; has worked the NCAA tournament, including in roles all the way to the Women’s College World Series; and is conveniently located within easy traveling distance of many of the ACC’s member schools. Dalton-Hill’s own playing credentials are undeniable and her abilities as a broadcaster have appropriately elevated her to the network’s upper echelon of softball analysts since her start at the Worldwide Leader.
Angela Tincher O’Brien
One of the biggest names to come out of the ACC – though often unheralded despite her stellar resume – O’Brien has broadcasting experience from her time with the USSSA Pride’s media team. She knows the Virginia Tech program like the back of her hand, including from a multi-year coaching stint that ended after the 2018 season. If the ACC Network adopts the SEC Network’s practice of pulling in “homer” commentators for online streaming home broadcasts for the league’s teams, it could be a perfect opportunity for O’Brien’s return to the broadcast booth, where she impressed many and showed promise in the field during her stint at the professional level.
Madison Shipman
Since joining ESPN, Shipman has worked in both studio and broadcast booth roles, analyzing games as well as providing commentary on a variety of games from a desk. The former Tennessee star has proved quite adept at both, providing quality game analysis and showing an ability to rely on her own experiences when necessary, but not to an overabundance, creating a positive experience for the viewer. One of the brightest rising stars in ESPN’s softball coffers, Shipman has already earned a spot in the broadcasting booth for the Super Regional round.
Kenzie Fowler
Fowler is the next Amanda Scarborough, a terrific analyst who inexplicably has yet to receive her due for her skills. Scarborough spent several years in the middle of ESPN’s crop of analysts before ascending to the top, and Fowler’s time will eventually come. She’s a stellar color commentator and analyst, but has also served in a unique position of calling play-by-play and providing analysis as a single-person broadcast team at times during her career. Fowler is an impressive analyst, able to pull out many of the game’s nuances as easily as describe the on-field happenings. She has been inexplicably underutilized at the PAC-12 Network, and even at ESPN in minimal regular season and limited postseason work. Fowler’s versatility in the booth and rising-star quality speak highly in her favor.
Francesca Enea
One of the Sunshine State’s top former players and budding broadcasters, Enea is seen every postseason on ESPN’s NCAA tournament coverage, but is often lost amongst the fray and overlooked for her own skill set. She could be in one of the best positions to move up after the ACC Network’s unveiling, with a prime geographical location that could be ideal both for the new channel’s offerings, as well as to fill some booths made available by ESPN’s expanding coverage. She has postseason experience on the field, as well as in the booth, and is a terrific game analyst, all of which should be high marks in her favor.
Megan Turk
The former Baylor Bear has an extensive broadcasting resume, though it is one that has not gathered her much national love to-date. Turk has called postseason games for ESPN, including a regional two years ago, as well as the Division III national championship tournament and the Arkansas Razorbacks’ home games for the SEC Network+. A member of the JWOS postseason team for the 2019 season, Turk was left off of the list of ESPN analysts for the 2018 and ’19 postseasons, but an extended softball offering across the ESPN family of networks could see Turk get some extra work with more opportunities to show off her broadcasting “chops.”
Robin Ahrberg
A member of Florida State’s support staff for several years, Ahrberg worked on the Seminoles’ broadcast team for home games up until this season, when the games are no longer bring broadcast. Ahrberg has an intricate knowledge of the Seminoles’ program and roster, as well as many of the team’s frequent opponents after a lengthy association with the squad. If the ACC Network takes on the mold of the SEC Network, with a dedication to airing a significant number of conference softball games, Ahrberg should once again don a headset, which is good news for Seminole fans from afar.
Kayla Braud
Quickly becoming one of the veteran members of the ESPN softball bullpen, Braud has worked in both studio and booth work over her time at the Worldwide Leader, calling regular season and postseason play, while also spending time as a desk analyst both on-site and in the studio. ESPN has moved Braud into a more advanced full-time color commentator’s role this season, with some studio work during the SEC tournament thrown in, She has also quickly become part of the core team of softball analysts, including an on-site role at the Women’s College World Series in 2018 and as a regular on the network’s 7 Innings podcast.
Megan Buning
Buning, who traditionally calls South Carolina home games for the team’s SEC Network+ broadcasts, was one of two analysts who were selected to call their “home” team’s hosted regional during the 2018 NCAA tournament. The assignment was Buning’s first postseason work as an analyst, and she got to call some big matchups, including South Carolina’s comeback through the loser’s bracket to take home the regional crown. Buning has blossomed as an analyst over the last few years, and seems quite happy in her current role (she is a college professor as her ‘day job’), but with a number of ACC teams within a reasonable geographical distance, if a big matchup needs an experienced analyst, Buning definitely could be on the list to receive a call.
Having a quality analyst is imperative, but a solid color commentator makes up only one part of a broadcast team. Finding a refined play-by-play broadcaster to call the action is also an important piece of the puzzle.
PxP: Courtney Lyle, Dean Linke, Eric Lopez
This trio of highlighted game-callers are all experienced play-by-play broadcasters that could get some extra work with an expanded softball slate in ACC country. Lyle calls a variety of sports for ESPN, including the network’s weekly high school football featured game in the fall, as well as basketball and softball, among others. She has spent the 2019 season as the network’s “B” play-by-play analyst for softball, paired with Scarborough, and may soon find herself calling games at the Women’s College World Series… Linke is a freelance broadcaster who has worked both regular season and postseason for ESPN’s softball coverage in the past. Another veteran of the broadcast booth in a number of sports, also including soccer and lacrosse, he boasts a convenient geographical location and has called games on the Big Ten Network, as well… Lopez has freelanced for a variety of organizations, including calling play-by-play for the USSSA Pride and has called Central Florida and other college games on a regular basis. He can work with a color commentator or carry a broadcast solo, an important trait.
