Dan D'Uva Strives for Greatness

By Robert Magobet

Dan D'Uva

AHL  hockey broadcaster seeks to become a great professional broadcaster.

Syracuse Crunch broadcaster Dan D'Uva wants to be like Mike Emrick. Emrick is a longtime NHL on NBC broadcaster. D’Uva was mentored, critiqued, and given feedback from Mike Emrick, D’Uva says. Emrick is admired by D’Uva because he is a talented broadcaster, he is humble, he is hard working and he is a smart man, DU’va says.

“And I learned a lot about how to carry myself on and off the air based on what he does,” D’Uva says.

He wants someone to look back on his career to say positive things about him. D’Uva says that he wants someone to look back on his career and say that he is someone who “worked hard and got it.”

D'Uva has gained significant experience in broadcasting. According to D'Uva anybody who gets a job in the NHL without working in the minor leagues is “done an injustice,’’ D’Uva says.

“Puts me in a great position of perspective so that when I am able to get to the NHL I’ll be able to have more of an insightful perspective, and to share the anecdotes of what minor league sports is all about,” D’Uva says.

The work that D’Uva has done in minor league hockey may help him get into the NHL. More repetition and more experience contribute to a more polish broadcast, D’Uva says. He does his best every night helping him get to a level very few have reached D'Uva says.

“And there are so few people that have reached the level that I am at that it’s a little hard not to get noticed,”D’Uva says.

Being a broadcaster for the Syracuse Crunch has helped make D’Uva aquire experience. The work that D’Uva has done in the AHL has led him to covering the Syracuse Crunch in the Calder Cup Finals last year, helping him garner more of a national exposure D'Uva says.

“And when you see that the NHL, the pinnacle of my profession, being an NHL announcer is the top of the heap,”D’Uva says.  To see that it is so close, you really feel like you have to elevate your game.”

Transcript:

1. How is the job that you have now made you a better professional?

Answer: Well I think with each step that you take, just like any athlete who wants to work from amateur status up to the minor league school. With every level that you take up, the American Hockey league is one step below the NHL, so as I’ve moved up the American Hockey league is part of a national scene.  The Crunch were in the Calder Cup Finals last year. We had national exposure.  A lot of the things that we do go in a national exposure. So that I think, at some point hit me; I’ve covered a lot of teams before in college and broadcasting hockey professionally for 5 years. This will be my six coming up. I think that what I’ve learned from this opportunity is that there really is a substantial audience for the work that I’m doing now. And you can really see that it connects with a lot of people. And when you see that the NHL, the pinnacle of my profession, being an NHL announcer is the top of the heap. To see  that it is so close, you really feel like you have to elevate your game. You want to make sure that you are at your best every night because you never know who is listening. Every broadcast is an important one.

2.You mentioned that eventually you would like to get into the NHL, do you feel as though that all this national exposure, and all the work experience that you’re getting at your current job is helping you out in landing an NHL job?

Answer: Yea I think that with more repetition and more experience comes as a more polished broadcast. So with every game  that I do I feel that I get better. And there are so few people that have reached the level that I am at that it’s a little hard not to get noticed. Just like an all-star in AAA baseball is doing really well, people in the major leagues are going to notice. It’s along the same lines if you’re doing your work. And I don’t go on the air with the thought of “this could be the broadcast that calls me up.” That’s not how I think. I just try to do my best every night. And if I’m doing my best then people will notice.

3. You mentioned that you are at a level that very few people are at, what are the benefits of staying where you are at and really establishing yourself as the best in your field right now as opposed to going to the NHL and essentially working from the bottom up?

Answer: Anybody who gets a job in the NHL without working in the minor leagues is done an injustice. Every once in a while you might a star athlete who jumps over the minor league system. That’s because he is so talented that it wouldn’t make sense to have him in the minor leagues. However as a broadcaster the experience of being at the minor league level to understand that a large majority of the athletes in the NHL have worked up through junior hockey, college hockey, minor league hockey before they reached the NHL so to experience all that with the athletes puts me in a great position of perspective so that when I am able to get to the NHL ill be able to have more of an insightful perspective, and to share the anecdotes of what minor league sports is all about. And I think that it’s just a journalistic responsibility to know the background of so many players. So that is an important element to be a minor league broadcaster is you kind of soak in all the stories because it is apart of your experience that you bring to the broadcast every night so that you can relate to the audience and relate the stories who are going through it every night

4. With everything that you have said it certainly sounds like it is important to establish your own personality, with that being said, I was just wondering if there is somebody in the NHL right now that you would like to be like?

Answer: There is one person who is the gold standard of hockey broadcasting. He is the number one announcer for NBC. He is Mike Emrick. And Mike Emrick was the New Jersey Devil telivsion broadcaster when I was growing up in New Jersey. And it’s because of his support, mentorship and critique and feedback and everything else he has been very influential in my life In my career. And the reason why I admire him so greatly not only because he is so talented as a broadcaster but he is just a humble man, he’s a hardworking man and he is a smart man. And I learned a lot about how to carry myself on and off the air based on what he does. I’ve been able to witness it as a fan as a colleague.

5. So when it is all said and done, when the future is here, if you could describe yourself in one sentence 20 years from now, what would you want that sentence  to be.

Answer: 20 years from now I would like someone to say about Dan DUva that he worked hard and that he got it. And when I say that he got it I don’t mean he got the job. He understands the sport he understands broadcasting, he understands what it takes to get there. But I would want as you said in one sentence id say he is someone who worked hard, was humble and he just got it.

SoundCloud:
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