Veteran Sportscaster Lends Student On-Air Expertise

Just minutes before the first broadcast of the winter season went live, Jackson Van Dekker wrestled with mixed emotions.

“I am definitely going to be a little nervous at first,” the sophomore said, “but I am also just really excited to see what this is like.”

Van Dekker became the first of several Hendrick Hudson High School students who will earn experience this winter participating in a live sports broadcast. The athletic department purchased the equipment last spring and will now provide announcers for home varsity boys and girls basketball games, which are streamed on LocalLive.

The activity has been organized by a security officer at the school, Pete Ruf, who worked for 21 years as a sports anchor and reporter and has experience broadcasting games. So far, Ruf has served as the play-by-play announcer — starting with two varsity football games at the end of the fall season — and has recruited students to work as color analysts.

He gave Van Dekker a rave review midway through his first broadcast.

“Jackson’s been great,” Ruf said. “He’s a natural.”

Ruf has discussed with students how they can best prepare for a broadcast, from securing team rosters to researching stats and records and familiarizing themselves with the players and programs.

Van Dekker, for example, communicated to listeners that Walter Panas’ girls basketball team was a 2023 state champion and 2024 state runner-up.

“It’s pretty cool to be able to learn from Pete,” sophomore John Jackson said of the guidance he and his fellow students have received. “I know that I’ll have someone to look up to who really knows how to do this.”

Ruf began to gauge the interest of students — some of whom were familiar with his career — during lunch periods. He has already received interest from a total of 11 boys and girls and is in search of more participants.

“We hope to grow it so we can have as many students participating as possible,” Ruf said. “Eventually, this will be theirs. They’ll do the play-by-play, they’ll be the analysts and they’ll produce the games.”

Ruf and the students will broadcast the games from the top of the bleachers in the gymnasium. They will only require two headsets and a broadcast mixer, an audio device that plugs into the school’s LocalLive camera. Hendrick Hudson has LocalLive cameras in both the gym and at the stadium field, and the cameras provide live, remotely-produced streams of events held in those locations.

To this point, the broadcasts had been video-only, but Hendrick Hudson is following some schools in the region, which provide announcers for a select number of games as well. Sailor teams will now have that added benefit, in addition to a learning tool for students who are interested in broadcasting and can learn from a resident expert.

“I’m excited for these kids,” Ruf said. “I hope they enjoy it and that they’ll embrace it. If it’s something they really enjoy, maybe they’ll pursue it in college. For some of them, this could be their niche.”