SHUHEI MATSUO
Assistant Sports Editor
If you turn on TV-26, you see Michael French reporting on Pepperdine sports. If you go down to the Fieldhouse, you see him reporting play-by-play for basketball and volleyball games. Someday, when you turn on ESPN, you might see French reporting like his personal favorite sportscaster, Stuart Scott.
French, a junior telecommunication/economics double major, has been part of the Pepperdine’s sports broadcasting program since the first semester of his freshman year.
“I love sports,” he says. “It’s one of my biggest passions. I would probably say it’s Passion No. 4.”
God, family and education round up his top three passions, he says.
French’s passion of sports did not just come from nowhere. As a young child he played all types of sports and was part of three sports teams in high school: football, track and basketball.
“I gained some weight since then, but I used to do track,” he says. His best time in 100M was 11’2, which is .8 seconds behind the New Orleans Saints’ Reggie Bush, who recorded 10’4 and won the California state championship when French was a sophomore.
“In track and field, .8 seconds is like, he’ll be taking a nap by the time I finish,” French said.
Of all sports he played, French picks basketball as his favorite sport. Even though Pepperdine’s basketball teams are not having a solid season this year, French still enjoys what he does.
“The thing I like the most about it is it’s what you do anyway,” he says. “If you are sports fan, say you are watching a Chargers’ game, you yell at the TV like ‘Oh, LT is at the 40, he is at 20,’ you know.”
The only difference, he says, is whether you are wearing a shirt and a tie and talking on a microphone. But you still get to be a fan and share with all the other fans, he adds.
French is part of a duo with junior Tiff Wells and covers all men’s and women’s basketball and volleyball home games. If you see two professional-looking announcers with microphones, sitting right next to each other in the middle of the Pepperdine side of the court at the Fieldhouse, they are probably French and Wells.
After graduation, French seeks to continue play-by-play reporting at a major network. Some of his favorite sportscasters include Marv Albert, Bob Costas and Bryant Gumbel.
“They are head and shoulders above everyone else and are just so articulate,” French says. “The way they interpret the game, it can make a boring game interesting and it can make an interesting game spectacular.”
But before French graduates and starts moving toward his career goal, he wants to make some improvements to Pepperdine’s broadcast program.
“I would love to have graphs and scoreboards during live games on TV-26,” he says. “I would love to take our announcing tide to a higher level. It will be a semi-professional challenge.”
Having a busy life style and being a double major, French also worries about graduating on time. Sometimes, he misses a normal life.
“Sometimes, I wish I could go to a game with jeans and a t-shirt and sit in the stands,” he says. “Sometimes, I just want to see the game, not the camera angle.”
02-15-2007
