About 300 prospects attend a local tryout for a one-year contract as a SportsCenter anchor.
By JOHN C. COTEY
Published October 5, 2003
TAMPA - Will Gray came to Tampa on Saturday from Gainesville with the hopes of becoming the next ESPN SportsCenter anchor, so just to play it safe, he made sure to arrive at the St. Pete Times Forum early. As in 2:45 a.m., dressed in a suit.
That made Gray first in line by two hours. His friend, Jeff Bailey, helped Gray kill time as they played their guitars and some poker. Bailey was there for moral support, and gratefully, breakfast, which he picked up at the nearby Marriott at 6 a.m.
Just over six hours after he arrived, Gray got to begin living his dream, auditioning for the new ESPN reality series Dream Job.
The plan was to get in and out, back to Gainesville in time for the Gators' 12:30 kickoff. Turns out, Gray, a 19-year-old sophomore, was a little better than he figured, and was asked to come back at 4 p.m. for a chance to advance to a region competition. Icing on the cake: He missed the Gators loss.
"I made the right decision," Gray said.
* * *
Halfway through a 29-city tour, the faces tend to blend together for Ron Wechsler. The director of programming and operations for ESPN Original Entertainment moderated many of Saturday's roundtable discussions, which made or broke the 300 or so hopefuls.
To stand out, Wechsler requires the SportsCenter wannabes to know their sports, actively engage in the debate and flash a little personality. He rated Tampa a thumbs up for the quality of aspirants, as approximately 30 were called back for another round later. And ESPN, which gives a 30-question written trivia test as Step 1 in the process, was treated to the first perfect score.
But it took more than sports knowledge. Only a perfect score kept perfect-score guy in the game, though producers admitted he probably wouldn't make it much farther, as he lacked those other qualities they desired.
The toughest part for those trying out was the play-by-play of their favorite sports moment. While Buc highlights ruled the day, other folks were just plain stumped. One contestant did play-by-play of her breakfast. Jasmine Lopez of Tampa play-by-played her calling her friend, Jamia Grayson, to ask her to come along as moral support. After that, Lopez was silent, engaging in none of the sports debate.
"I guess I thought we'd be reading off a teleprompter," Lopez said. "I mean, I don't know anything about sports."
Others were more prepared.
Largo's Jean Grohe doesn't fit the sports broadcaster stereotype. One, she is a woman. Two, she's 49.
Neither of those facts kept Grohe from trying to make the cut. She is, after all, called the Sports Diva by her co-workers. Grohe was among the few women who did not bring a tight-fitting low-cut top, snug jeans and high heels. In the spirit of Leslie Visser and Grohe's hero, Suzy Kolber, she wasn't going that route.
"Don't even get me started," Grohe said.
Bright and well-spoken, Grohe moved on.
Not poor Jonathan Cook. The 39-year-old nurse from Tampa was asked a question during the roundtable. He tried to answer but nothing came out.
"Sorry, I'm ... tongue-tied,"Cook blurted.
He rebounded nicely, though, when the question was posed: Who is the greatest athlete ever, regardless of era?
In between Michael Jordan and Jim Thorpe, Cook came up with former FSU lineman Ron Simmons.
"That would be," Wechsler said, "the most obscure answer we got."
* * *
Some, such as Bradenton's Nate Neri, had a plan. He figured that at the discussion, he would contradict everyone else. That way, he'd get to talk more and stand out from the crowd.
"I wanted to stir it up," Neri said.
The mix wasn't a good one.
Dunedin's Shannon Ratigan had a plan - wear an ugly sportscoat. It looked like he raided Chris Berman's closet, but it actually was Salvation Army.
"If I was going to stand out in the sun all day, I didn't want to ruin my good sportscoat," Ratigan said.
So he will not only not be appearing on Dream Job, he's a dollar poorer for the experience. Still, he always will be remembered for uttering the classic ESPN catch phrase to punctuate his play-by-play: "You're a cheesegrater, babeeeee!"
