By Ashley Rodriguez, Journalism junior

The moment University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications (UFCJC) Journalism junior Ethan Eibe enters any sporting arena, it becomes his playground. But instead of sporting an orange and blue helmet preparing to take the field, he puts on his standard black headset and looks out from the press box, ready to tell a captivating story in real-time.

The intensive storytelling and context-building of play-by-play broadcasts have been an immense passion for Eibe, even before he stepped foot on the University of Florida campus. Eibe, who is specializing in Sports and Media, has years of broadcast experience to reflect on.

Before attending UF, Eibe was an announcer for various sporting events at Deerfield Beach High School, located in Deerfield Beach, Florida. From sophomore to senior year, the Coral Springs, Florida, native covered baseball, basketball and football, among other sports.

Eibe’s ongoing commitment didn’t go unrecognized. His baseball coach at the time came to him with a unique opportunity — to intern for the Alpine Cowboys, a professional baseball team based in Alpine, Texas. Eibe thought it was a longshot up until the Cowboys’ Assistant General Manager Derek Pollacchi contacted him. Continued communication led to Eibe securing his very first summer internship.

Eibe remembers attending his high school graduation on June 9, 2021, and, one day later, catching a flight to start working with the team.

“I got thrown into the fire,” Eibe says. “At first, I thought, okay maybe I’ll do some stats or other work for them, but they said, ‘You could do play-by-play from the get-go.’”

Eibe has since been able to work his way up over the last three summers gaining responsibilities and even receiving the assistant general manager position at just 20 years old.

These skills prepared Eibe once he began attending UF and started to find his footing at the school. The College’s sports immersion opportunities was one of the first ways Eibe started enhancing his broadcasting skills.

He was able to practice different facets of sports broadcast journalism, which included some play-by-play pieces. Eibe describes play-by-play as storytelling that brings the action to the viewers, provides context, and fleshes out athletes and their careers, all with very careful and vivid word choice.

Although Eibe enjoyed doing play-by-play for the Live Gator Sports Play-by-Play immersion program, he was disappointed that the student broadcasts were not publicized because there was no place for them in current UF sports networks, such as ESPN Gainesville or WRUF.

Eibe began thinking that he could create something that might help fill it.  And that’s where the story of the Orange and Blue Sports Network begins.

In April 2023, Eibe went to Journalism Department Chair Ted Spiker with his idea of creating a new sports network that would include live play-by-play streams and archives of Gator sports.

“It all went down the food chain from there,” Eibe says.

In September, Eibe worked closely with Geoff Thompson, associate director of the UFCJC Sports and Communication program, and WRUF Operations Coordinator Seth Harp to build the Orange and Blue Sports Network on WRUF. The site includes live streams, play-by-play archives, and podcasts.

Eibe spent his time building a social media presence, creating accounts on YouTube, Instagram and X. He created graphics to promote the network, and he spruced up the logo that he originally created in April.

In addition to archives of play-by-play coverage, the network would also have podcast episodes hosted on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Now all that was left to do was get on the air and see where Orange and Blue Sports Network would take him and other students in the sports immersion program.

The Florida Gators v. McNeese State Cowboys football game was the first event covered by Orange and Blue Sports Network in early September. However, its greatest success was a livestream that was hosted on YouTube a month later.

Florida Gators v. South Carolina Gamecocks was the network’s first play-by-play livestream, which debuted on Oct. 14, 2023. The video reached 13,000 views the day it aired, according to Eibe.

Followers began to grow on almost all platforms for the network. The YouTube page, as of January 2024, had 331 subscribers, the Instagram page had 176 followers and the X page had 93 followers. Additionally, the podcast received a combined 453 plays on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

“It’s definitely cool to see all facets of this grow,” Eibe says. “Whether it’s the podcasting side, the YouTube livestream, or the social media as well, people are starting to notice and appreciate the brand.”

If pioneering an entire sports network wasn’t enough for the ambitious student, Eibe was preparing to take on a new opportunity, this time, taking his broadcasting skills overseas.

Over winter break 2023, Eibe interned for Maccabi Media where he was alongside nine other students covering the 2023 Pan American Maccabi Games, an event for Jewish athletes. He initially received training in New York on Dec. 23 and flew to Buenos Aires, Argentina, on the night of Dec. 25.

Eibe covered U.S. soccer, softball, field hockey, swimming, gymnastics and basketball teams during his time there. His media coverage included play-by-play commentary, sideline reporting, writing packages and articles, as well as producing social media content.

As for the future, Eibe says it’s all about being flexible, but his dream career would be to work for the Miami Marlins, his favorite baseball team.

But he also wants to know that he left a legacy at UF with the Orange and Blue Sports Network.

“The Orange and Blue Sports Network has to outlive my time at UF,” Eibe says. “I want to be able to look ten years down the line and see that people are broadcasting for the Orange and Blue Sports Network and that the YouTube channel has grown with thousands of subscribers. That would be a pretty cool thing to see and say, ‘Hey, I created that.’”

Posted: January 12, 2024
Category: College News, Profiles, Sports
Tagged as: Ethan Eibe, Orange and Blue Sports Network, Play-by-play