Faces of Long Island celebrates the uniqueness of everyday Long Islanders. In their own words, they tell us about their life experiences, challenges and triumphs. Newsday launched this social media journey into the human experience to shine a light on the diverse people of this wonderful place we call home.

‘When I’m on the mic, it’s just me being myself. I just talk and go with the flow.’

North Bellmore

“It started when I was 3, 4 years old. I used to go around my house interviewing my family, just asking random questions. But when I was 5, I went to the Long Island Children’s Museum. It has a little News 12 booth [a play studio with a green screen] that used to show Islanders and Knicks clips. I would just commentate over them, and that’s really what inspired me to do play-by-play. I was also inspired by the Islanders broadcasting team of Butch Goring and Howie Rose, then Brendan Burke, and I also grew up hearing Gary [Cohen], Keith [Hernandez] and Ron [Darling] calling Mets [TV] games. They all inspired me, and when I heard that people get paid to commentate sports, that was just awesome to hear I could one day get to do that as a job.

Bottom of the ninth, calling a walk-off home run, that would be awesome. And I’m going to try and reach that goal.

“Almost every night at home, I turn on clips of home runs, no-hitters, overtime goals, Stanley Cup finals, and I commentate over them. I also started going to [broadcast journalism] camp at Hofstra and started doing other sports, including live games. And even though I didn’t go live on the air with them, I got to go in the booth with Butch and Brendan. That meant so much because I grew up rooting for the Mets and Islanders.

“In August, I got to go on [the live broadcast] with Gary, Keith and Ron [after winning the 2022 SNY Kidcaster Contest] during a Mets-Rockies game, and when it came to kids in school, everybody watched. I even got Yankees fans to watch. I have friends who were in Cooperstown [New York] for a baseball tournament at the time, and they watched it there in a restaurant. They told people there, ‘Oh, we know him!’

“I’m in seventh grade now, and currently doing the morning announcements for my school. The high school has great broadcasting classes, and I’m looking forward to that. You have to admit, school can be boring sometimes, but these things make it exciting for me to go every day. When I’m on the mic, it’s just me being myself. I just talk and go with the flow. I have also played baseball, but would I rather be at bat with the bases loaded or calling a game with the bases loaded? I think that’s a no-brainer. Bottom of the ninth, calling a walk-off home run, that would be awesome. And I’m going to try and reach that goal.”

Interviewed by Ian J. Stark

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