Tyler Dudley: 2,100 Miles From Home
Story and Photo by Tasha Babers
SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Some have a dream but settle for less due to fear of risk. Tyler Dudley is not one of those people.
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| Tyler Dudley, 22, Syracuse BDJ Masters Student |
Texas native Tyler Dudley has always known she wanted to be
a sports broadcaster. After gaining acceptance into the masters broadcast
program at Syracuse University, Dudley made the bold move to Upstate, New York.
“Coming to Syracuse was a big deal,” Dudley said, “I’m from
Texas, I’m 2,100 miles away from home, it’s the top school in the country.”
Dudley’s love of sports began in kindergarten and continued
throughout high school where she played soccer and volleyball. It was there,
her transition from player to reporter began. As a St. Mary’s undergraduate,
Dudley began working for an ABC affiliate in San Antonio in the sports
department covering high school football. She also did play-by-play and color
commentary for home basketball and volleyball games. This was not Dudley’s
greatest feat.
Dudley was approached by ESPN’s Sportscenter "Top 10" after
doing play-by-play for St. Mary's home basketball game. Sportscenter asked St.
Mary’s athletic department to use the final buzzer play in which Dudley was
commentating as one of their top tens.
“I don’t think I could describe how it felt,” Dudley said, smiling. “I think that really reassured me, like okay, like I’m good at what I
want to do.”
Some people travel 2,100 miles from home to chase their dreams. Dudley, is one of
those people.
An Audio Version of the Interview Can Be Found Here.
Full Transcript of the Interview Follows:
Q: How
did you first start, with your full life and your of love sports, how did that
start for you?
A: Starting in Kindergarten
I played soccer, I swam, I did track, cross country, volleyball, all of that. I
was always very involved with sports, I was always an athlete from middle
school until I graduated high school I was always in a sport. The only thing I
didn’t play was collegiate sports, I went to focus more on school.
Q: Did you have a
favorite sport you played when you were growing up?
A: To play, I would say soccer and volleyball would be my favorite.
Q: What made
those two your favorite?
A: I played volleyball for like six years, and it was just, it was just really fun. The people I played with, I loved my coaches, and I also played soccer for about fifteen or sixteen years. It was the first sport I played so I kinda like gave it my all when I first started being an athlete.
Q: Were your
family involved in sports that got you interested in it at first?
A: Not so much my parents, but more so my god parents. My godmother who is my mom’s sister, she would take me to all my soccer games, all my soccer practices, they were always there on the sideline cheering for me so that kinda was a really big motivation.
Q: Did your god
mother play sports growing up?
A: My godmother didn’t, but my godfather did, he played football.
Q: Cool, so how
did it transition from you playing the sport to you wanting to write about
sports?
A: So, once I stopped playing sports after high school, I knew that I wanted to stay involved with sports just because I love the whole atmosphere about it. I love that it brings people together. I would say what really got me into sports broadcasting was my sophomore year of my undergrad. I worked for, my sophomore and junior year actually, I worked for the ABC affiliate in San Antonio. I worked for the ABC affiliate in San Antonia and I worked in the sports department and I helped cover their high school football. And then from there at St. Mary’s in my undergrad I worked in the athletics department and I did play-by-play and color commentary for all of our home games, mostly volleyball and basketball.
Q: Did you have a
favorite between color and play-by-play?
A: Play-by-play for volleyball was my favorite, and color
commentary for basketball was my favorite, just because I know more about
volleyball than I do basketball.
Q: So, after you
did that in high school, was there a moment that you knew I wanted to do this
as a career or did you start your major as something else at first?
A: I always knew that I wanted, I’ve known since like middle
school that I wanted to be a sports broadcaster. I would say my junior year of
my undergrad I did play-by-play commentary, I was doing play-by-play commentary
with one of my friends for a home basketball game, and we won the game and it
was a crazy overtime game. And one of my friends took the game winning shot
into overtime, and that play, we would stream our home games live on the
internet, and that play got noticed by Sportscenter. And Sportscenter Top 10
reached out to the athletic department, and reached out to us asking if they
could use that play as one of their top ten plays. And I think
that really reassured me like okay like I’m good at what I want to do, like I
feel a lot more confident.
Q: So besides
giving you confidence was there anything else when that play was played on
Sportscenter, that like gave you any other emotion?
A: I think the
recognition, and the fact that I had like friends texting me and saying, “Hey,
like that play last night were you working the game?” And I was like yeah, I
was working the game! And they were like, “Oh my God, that’s so cool, like how
did it happen, and like blah, blah, blah.” Kind of like asking like how it felt
and like I don’t think I could describe how it felt. I just remember my boss
texting everyone in the athletic department like in a group message like with
the link and was like, “Hey guys look what I just got. An email from one of the
guys at Sportscenter and like they asked like if they had their permission.”
And he like had to ask us, cause it was our voices, and he was like if you guys
aren’t comfortable, and I was like Oh I am more than comfortable. I’m not gonna
argue that, like of course I’ll do it. That’s fine, go ahead use it. And it was
really cool like just to see, St. Mary’s is a small D2 school like nobody
really knows about it. So, it’s kinda cool to see our school put on the map
even if it was just for that one night.
Q: So, what made
you decide to get more training at Syracuse with the master’s program?
A: I knew that
with my undergrad my classes, I was an English communications major, but at St.
Mary’s it didn’t really offer a lot of communication classes. It was more like
writing based, and I knew I wanted to get more practice with the reporting and
the broadcasting and I knew that going to grad school would be the only way
that I would really be able to get that training rather than hands on and going
straight into the field I didn’t feel prepared at all. And coming to Syracuse
was a big deal, I’m from Texas, I’m 2100 miles away from home, it’s the top
school in the country and I had a few people from undergrad who were also alums
from St. Mary’s and from Syracuse and they spoke nothing but good things about
Syracuse. And so, I knew that like I made the right decision coming here.
Q: Thanks Tyler.
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