Student Athletes debut in the broadcast booth

Sorelle Ineza and Jacco Firtz, active players on Hofstra’s women’s and men’s basketball teams, ditched the laces and picked up a headset for a night. Ineza, a graduate student, added on-air analysis for over MSGSN and FloHoops to the men’s basketball game against Stony Brook University on Thursday, Feb. 1, and Jacco Fritz did the same for the women’s team over MSG and FloHoops in their game against the University of Delaware on Sunday, Feb. 4.

Dan Savarino, left, and Jacco Fritz, on-air as color analysts. Photo courtesy of Alexis Friedman / Hofstra Athletics

Kevin Dexter, an adjunct professor and play-by-play broadcaster for Hofstra Athletics, said it was Dan Savarino, a color analyst for Hofstra Athletics, who suggested inducting current student-athletes into the broadcast booth.

“We’ve gotten to know Sorelle [Ineza] specifically over the last couple of years and thought, hey, this might be good this might be something she might be interested in,” Dexter said.

“I was excited,” Ineza said. “I’ve always had an interest for broadcasting, but I never really had the chance to do it because of basketball and our crazy schedule, but now when they gave me the opportunity, I was like yeah, for sure.”

“Exciting, very exciting,” Fritz said. “I’m glad I got the opportunity [from] Hofstra, Dan and Kevin. Just an amazing opportunity that I had a lot of fun with.”

Their analysis was made so interesting by the fact that they are current Division I student athletes with connections to each other’s teams.

“I was able to follow my intuition as a player to give analysis,” Ineza said.

“Do your research, which you kind of just do anyways for every game,” Fritz said.

Dexter said he enjoyed Ineza’s NBA insider-like moments. After Jaquan Carlos made a mid-range shot, her immediate reaction was to say that she had seen him practice that exact shot 10 times in the practice gym the day before.

Once the logistics were ironed out with Athletics, it was about working behind the scenes between the seasoned talent and the newcomers. 

“They were just preparing us, giving us the rundown; like this is what we’re gonna do, this is what you guys have to focus on,” Ineza said. “They had sheets printed for me and everything with the players’ names and their averages and stuff like that.”

“I knew I was gonna be nervous at the intro, but after it’s gonna be fun and talking about the perspective of being a basketball player,” Fritz said. “Once you get going, you get a little nervous, but I was prepared for that.”

“We gave them some tips and told them to have fun,” Dexter said.

And so they did.

“Overall, the whole broadcast, the vibes from pregame, everything together was just so much fun,” Fritz said.

Would they put on the headset again?

“Of course!” Ineza said. “Sign me up!”

 Frankie DiCalogero contributed to the reporting.

Photo courtesy of Alexis Friedman / Hofstra Athletics