The “Voice of the Whippets” Breck Riley will hit a milestone Thursday when he goes on air to broadcast the team’s regular season finale: it will be his 100th Kosciusko football broadcast.
“Has that all it’s been?” jokes Riley. “At times it definitely feels like it has been more. I guess it’s all the long Fridays. Getting up early for morning radio and not getting in until after 11 or later makes for a long day.”
Riley joined the Kosciusko Whippets radio broadcast in 2013 as color commentator. His first game was Aug. 26 on the road at Winona.
“Two things I remember about that game: it was insanely hot and I found out just how difficult broadcasting is. Everything moves so fast when your first start out. I was trying to keep stats and talk and it did not go that well. It was a huge learning curve.”
Riley would continue to serve as color commentator for one more season before taking over play-by-play duties in 2015.
“Back when I was in school at Kosciusko, I never would’ve imagined taking over and broadcasting the games on the radio. I liked sports in high school, but I was a band kid. If anything, I would’ve guessed I’d come back as the Big Red Band’s drum instructor rather than radio broadcaster.”
Since that day in 2013, Riley has only missed one Kosciusko Whippets football broadcast: the Oct. 18, 2019 game at Leake Central.
“I had my cousin’s wedding in Starkville that weekend and I was torn on what to do. I didn’t want to miss the broadcast, but I also didn’t want to miss all of the wedding party activities on Friday night. I’d say it wasn’t until Wednesday of that week that I decided I was going to miss the game.”
In addition to his radio broadcasts, Riley was instrumental in helping Boswell Media Sports add video streaming to select games. He developed the current system used by Kosciusko football/baseball and Leake Academy football and basketball.
“I’ll be honest, I was not thrilled about video streaming when we first started talking about it. I strictly wanted to do radio. But you have to change with the times. Also, it’s a nice way for parents and fans to follow the games. So if I have to hook up an extra cable or two so a grandmother can watch her son catch a touchdown, I’m more than happy to do so.”
So does the “Voice of the Whippets” have plans to make it to 200 broadcasts?
“I mean, never say never. But what I really need to do is find out how many games Lolly Dude called and then do one more than him, just to mess with him.”
This week’s Kosciusko vs Louisville game will be played Thursday, Oct. 28 due to a statewide shortage of officials. The school will hold Senior Night festivities prior to the game.
Game time is set for 7:00 pm. Riley and the Boswell Media Sports crew will go on-air at 6:20 pm.
The game can be heard on Breezy 101, BreezyNews.com, the Breezy 101 app. The video stream will be available on the Boswell Media YouTube channel.
