The Bakersfield College Men's Basketball Team is ranked 19th in California, and 10th in Southern California, but for Veteran Broadcaster Ronnie Wald, they are arguably #1. He'll be streaming his classic radio-style call of their game against Fullerton College at 1pm from Antelope Valley College on his waldcast.com website.
"I'm dedicating my broadcast season to Coach Rex Hughes," Wald said in an interview Thursday night in reference to BC Head Coach Rich Hughes' late father who passed away earlier this year after a courageous battle with cancer, "His Dad was his mentor, his Dad was his friend, and as good of a coach as Rich is, well, he'd be the first to tell you how he owed that to his father."
Wald is entering his 36th year of broadcasting, and has grown fond of the Hughes Family over the years.
"It's about the student athletes first with the Hughes family, and that started with Coach Rex long before he made it to the NBA, and he passed those values on to Jeff (Hughes, former BC basketball coach), and of course Coach Rich," Wald said.
"The Dean of JC Broadcasting" earned his nickname the hard way, starting out in 1982 with community colleges and slowly built a regional empire promoting a level of athletics he says is critical to community-buidling.
"The community college is really a quintessentially American institution; it gives a student athlete who might not have been ready for college out of high school because of academics, economics, or any of the usual culprits that make life tough on us," Wald said, "And the community college gives them a second chance. If they are willing to work and buy into a system like the one Coach Hughes has set up, then they may well end up getting a bachelor's degree paid for via their basketball efforts. And that's the American Way. Starting over. That ability to transform and turn it all around if you get a second chance."
Wald says he plans on covering twenty games this season, along with his other athletics enterprises, including a popular "restaurant takeover" promotion in Southern California.
"What happens is, I host a Coach's Interview at a restaurant, and I basically bring the crowd. The interview is usually just fifteen minutes or so long, but it gets good folks together who are fans of the hosting team, they buy food, have great conversations, and everyone is happy at the end," Wald said.
But his affection for Renegade basketball isn't anchored in commerce; it's being a part of a larger tradition.
"Look, I keep a bag next to my door so I can be ready to go anywhere in the country on short notice. Techonology has allowed me to pack light and still be able to bring the game directly to the fans, whether that's an out-of-state kid's family, or Coach Rich's mother...I try to paint a picture and stick to the facts of the game," he explained, "But I choose to cover the Renegades because of the man that Coach Rich is...he's just like his Dad. He doesn't get too high or too low. He's a person you can depend on...like John Wooden. He won't get extremely elated or totally low, and that's a blessing for BC."
The biggest blessing for Wald might be that he doesn't have to schlep telephone cables all across the state anymore.
"The greatest thing is that wireless technology. You can ask any of the Sports Information folks who have been around. I used to carry hundreds of feet of old-style telephone cable with me and I became very creative at snaking those phone lines through gyms, out windows, and into coach's offices so we could get the games on the air. Now, I have an app that does almost everything but talk for me!"
Ronnie Wald will broadcast today's Round One game free of charge to fans at his site "waldcast.com" at 1pm today.