"The Voice" Gains More Fame

The man, the myth, the legend, and good friend. Greg Merrigan who does a lions share of the announcing at USD also works many track meets throughout the area. This weekend we are working the South Dakota High School State Track Meet in Sioux Falls. A news dude from KELO TV came around and took some action shots and interviewed the voice. It's a cool clip as many probably have no idea how much goes on behind the scene at a track meet.

Greg clips out all the results from the newspaper, keeps a list of the major runners and what they have done throughout the year so that he can continue to give them plugs at the various meets. He will announce things like "Little Mary Jo ran a season best 59.8 at the Bear Butte Classic in April" and I don't think people give it a second thought, but many hours of preparation go into his announcing.

For the state meet, after the first day is finished, they put together "books" which are binders of information for the finals in each class. Then we go through and put notes next to each athlete we can back at the hotel. An entry might be, "won the 200m earlier in the meet, was the MVP of the Dan Lennon meet and has the best time in the state this year". It's cool for the fans, but I always feel they have no idea how much goes into the work he does.

As modest as he is in the following clip, he is very deserving of some recognition. Listen close and you might catch another name you know as well.

There is an ad ahead of the clip. Be patient...they have to pay the bills.