It takes a magician to paint an image with just a few words. It takes much more than that to describe a ball game with only a microphone and an imagination. Few, have that skill, but one of our own at County 10, the “Voice of the Wolverines” Jerrad Anderson is one of those magical people.
Anderson, a 2006 graduate of Riverton High School has been a “sports junky” (as he describes himself) since he was a young boy.
“Since I was a little kid I loved being around sports,” Anderson said. “I learned pretty quick that I wasn’t going to be an athlete.”
The Anderson Family – Jerrad, Michelle, Addisyn and Vincent
Instead, he became an announcer, a passion, combined with skill and a career choice that brings sports to the multitudes. In Wyoming, with the vast distances between even rival schools in the same conference it takes a concerted effort to make it to many games. Because of announcers like Anderson, we don’t have to, they bring the game to us.
In the beginning he carried just one case of equipment into the announcer’s booth, but that too has changed. “I have a lot more to haul around now,” Anderson said. “I used to carry just one case, now I make three trips to my vehicle.”
Kids have personalities they follow. Football players, baseball players, basketball players or the stars on the ice, but you can have other people to look up to as well.
In Anderson’s case, it was Dave Walsh and Kevin McKinney as they broadcast the Wyoming Cowboys. Until recently, watching the Cowboys on TV, or even streaming them to a device was a rarity. Listening to the Pokes on your AM or FM dial has been an autumn and winter pastime around the Cowboy State since the 1940s.
Jerrad Anderson in action at UW
Another radio legend, this one of the local variety, was not only an icon, but a gateway to broadcasting for Anderson.
“John Gabrielsen is one of the big reasons I got into sports broadcasting,” Anderson said. “I kept stats for John and Joel (Kindle) and sometimes they let me do a little play by play.”
Fans have favorite sports, athletes do, and so do coaches, the same is true for broadcasters.
“Basketball is the sport I played the most. I like calling basketball,” Anderson said. “I’m just describing what I see. In football, you’ve got a lot of downtime between plays where you have to fill the air.”
After picking up small segments with Gabrielsen, Anderson took his first position at KTAK in Riverton, doing an afternoon call-in show.
“I became familiar with being on the air,” Anderson said. “Then they threw me into the mix for the Class 1-A / 2-A Regional basketball tournament.”
Vincent, Michelle, Addisyn and Jerrad Anderson
Jerrad took classes at Central Wyoming College and followed his girlfriend and future wife, Michelle Steinhoff of Wind River to Laramie for a year.
“Michelle didn’t like the cold,” Anderson said. “She transferred to Nevada, Las Vegas.”
In Las Vegas, Anderson found a job broadcasting for KXTE.
The couple were married and they have two children, Addisyn who is nine, and Vincent, five.
Vincent has a broadcasting connection as well.
“We named him after Vin Scully,” Anderson said.
The venerable Scully was the voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers for an incredible 67 years.
“We had the Dodgers on cable in Vegas,” Anderson said. “I listened to Vin Scully and watched every game I could.”
Anderson became the voice of the Riverton Wolverines at County 10. He enjoys covering the Wolverines and Lady Wolverines throughout the year.
A post game interview
“Riverton Lander games are my favorite,” Anderson said. “Last year, Riverton knocking off Powell in the playoffs and ending a 10-year post-season drought was a highlight.”
In thinking about his career, not even 20 years from graduating from high school yet, he has broadcast all but five teams in the state of Wyoming.
That broad range of coverage comes through his work with the NFHS Network, which has a contract to broadcast and video all culminating events in Wyoming, in particular football, and the two weekends of Natrona County mayhem, the Class 1-A/2-A and Class 3-A/4-A state basketball championships.
Like any professional, Anderson has favorite places to work.
“Afton is one of my favorite stadiums, but some of my equipment literally froze at the end of the semi-final game last year in the cold,” he said. “Buffalo gave me a table setup that was at an angle so I was holding onto equipment and stats while things were sliding off the edge constantly. COVID-era basketball was weird. We had a couple places asking us to broadcast with masks. Casper College at State set up plexiglass boxes for us to broadcast into so we didn’t spread any potential germs.”
Jerrad and the kids at the “War”
Favorite locations are sometimes tied to the magnitude of the game he is broadcasting.
“We did a Shoshoni football championship game at War Memorial,” Anderson said. “Wyoming Indian’s gym is one of my favorites still. I love the uniqueness of Mountain View’s gym and atmosphere. And of course, Riverton is always great, it’s fun to do games where I grew up and went to school.”
Anderson has stepped up his game this season, broadcasting from the sidelines for the Cowboy Sports Network.
He was on the sidelines for the game against Northern Iowa. Sending in sideline reports is vastly different than doing color or play-by-play.
“You have a tight time frame,” Anderson said. “You have to pick the right 10 or so words to get everything packed into a five to 10 second broadcast between plays. It’s mostly injury reports, but it can be intense.”
He works with former Riverton radio personality, Erick Pauley, Keith Kelley, and Kevin McKinney.
“I’m the bench warmer,” Anderson said. “If there’s a conflict for Erick or he needs to go to the booth, I come in.”
Anderson is recognized throughout the state as a calm, entertaining voice in the darkness of a winter’s night. The Wyoming Association of Broadcasters (WAB) knows it as well.
Making a haul at the WAB
Anderson was named the winner of Best Sports Coverage and Best Play by Play by the WAB this past year. Over his career, he’s been honored a dozen and a half times with his play-by-play and sports coverage, but also in the news category.
It can be hectic in the booth, getting set up, dealing with questionable power connections, and even more sketchy internet connections or low-bandwidth cell phone availability. That, combined with the coat closets that pass for broadcasting booths in many stadiums, presents challenges that don’t exist in the professional or big-time college markets. But they’re all part of the job.
He’s happy in his career choice and enjoys working with the players, coaches, local fans and parents.
“My family is happy here,” Anderson said. “It’s fun to be involved in high school sports.”