Byline: Judd Zulgad; Staff Writer
Dennis Silva will arrive at the Metrodome sometime before 6 this morning and not leave until sometime early on Saturday morning. And he couldn't be happier about it. 'I love high school football,' Silva said. 'I played back home in New Mexico, and I thought I'd be an offensive coordinator and a history teacher at a college.'
Instead, Silva went into television. That decision, at least for today, will provide him with a big-time fix of high school football as Silva will produce all six games of the Prep Bowl for KSTC (Ch. 45). This will mark the first Prep Bowl for the Hubbard-owned station, which began its 10 1/2-year television deal with the Minnesota State High School League last March when it carried the boys' and girls' hockey and basketball tournaments. Silva said preparations for today's event began about two weeks after KSTC signed off from its boys' basketball coverage. 'It's kind of strange in the sense this is only one day, but it seems like there is a lot more preparation for it because you only get one chance and it's six games back-to-back,' he said.
KSTC's coverage will include eight on-the-field cameras and two overhead. There also will be a field-level studio set for host Rod Simons and analyst Jim Fahnhorst. Lea B. Olsen will be on all-day duty as the sideline reporter.
Unlike the boys' hockey tournament, at which KSTC had Dan Terhaar work all the games, the station will use several announcing teams. Twins announcer Dick Bremer and former Gophers football star Darrell Thompson will work together on the Class 5A and 4A games. Dave Lee of WCCO Radio and ex-Viking Corbin Lacina will be paired for the 3A and 2A games - Lacina also will be a studio analyst for the 5A game - and Clay Matvick will call the 1A and Nine-Man championships. Matvick will be joined by ex-Gopher Justin Conzemius on the opening telecast at 8 a.m. (coffee with your football, anyone?) and then former Viking Chuck Foreman on the 1A game.
While the announcers and many crew members will change throughout the day, Silva, director Pat O'Connor, technical director Bob Rossborough and Steve Johnson, who is in charge of features and already has completed much of his work, will be at the Dome from start to finish. Johnson said 13 pieces are ready to go, including one on the potential introduction of instant replay for the high school tournaments. Another will focus on former Vikings offensive lineman David Dixon, who served as a volunteer assistant at Burnsville High School this season.
The features will be among few things during KSTC's coverage that won't be live during this marathon day. 'I think the biggest thing is keep everybody fresh and excited about what we're doing,' Silva said. 'Six games is a lot to ask, but when we come here at 6 a.m. we have to make sure they're ready to go. It's a long day, and everybody wants to get it right.'
Fine-tuning
- Former Vikings quarterback Rich Gannon, who will be the analyst for CBS' coverage of the Vikings-Cleveland game Sunday, appears to be quickly ascending the network ladder. Gannon, in his first season in the television business, spent the past two weeks working with Dick Enberg on CBS' No. 2 NFL announcing team while regular analyst Dan Dierdorf recovered from kidney stones. On Sunday, Gannon will be paired with play-by-play man Bill Macatee.
- Jeff Dubay and former Gophers hockey players Nate Miller and Pat Micheletti will be part of a hockey show that will air from 10 a.m. to noon each Saturday on KFAN Radio (1130 AM). It will debut Jan. 7.
- Doug Westerman, the operations manager of sports-talkers KFAN and KFXN (690 AM) and the executive producer of the Vikings Radio Network, will serve as the program director of the FM-talk station KTLK (100.3 FM), which will launch around the first of the year.
- Joe Anderson, who serves as Dan Barreiro's sidekick on KFAN's weekday afternoon drive-time show, has agreed to a two-year contract.
- Although it was reported in this space last week that Sam Ryan might work as a sideline reporter with Michele Tafoya on ABC's Super Bowl coverage, it's expected that assignment actually will go to ESPN's Suzy Kolber.
