COVID-19 in the world of athletics, is really a dirty word. When the pandemic hit, games were canceled, careers were shortened and fans were not allowed to attend games. For Jackson Walsh, a junior baseball player at Wheaton, a career opportunity was born. 

As a high school student at Cumberland High School in nearby Rhode Island, Walsh was working soccer games as the scoreboard operator, but Matt Campenelli, the school's Athletic Director at the time, felt that Walsh had a good voice for the mic and asked him if he would be interested in taking on the role as the Public Address announcer at games. When it became a universal practice to restrict attendance of games to just participants and officials, the emphasis for live-streaming games became much more pronounced. This time, the new AD, Eric Blanchard, turned to Walsh to fill this void. Although he had never done play-by-play on a broadcast before, Blanchard felt that Walsh was so good on the mic that he might be the best candidate to broadcast the Clippers' games. He began doing some field hockey games on Youtube Live and then transitioned to broadcasting football games for Cumberland High. 

"Broadcasting was something I was always kind of thinking about getting into," explained Walsh. "I would always watch Providence basketball games and I fell in love with watching Gus Johnson doing the games on Fox Sports. I loved his energy and it makes the game awesome. It was something I could see myself doing in the future, but never took it that seriously until I started doing the play-by-play and I realized that I really liked it. I always knew that I wanted to do something with sports, but I just didn't know what."

Without any websites to go to prepare for his high school broadcasts, he was just asking players on the teams what their stats were in addition to watching the NCAA Division I Championship games to get a sense of how the games were played and the cadence of them, especially soccer. 

"I never played soccer growing up, I didn't really go to soccer games until I was working them," said Walsh. "So, the only prep I actually did was going back to watch NCAA highlights from the Division I National Championships from past years and just listen to the terminology a lot more. Still even after doing that I had no idea what I was doing. I remember I was watching a video of a foul in the box and there was going to be a PK (penalty kick) and then it took me about 40 seconds to realize there was going to be a PK when I was actually doing the game at the time. I tried to do a little prep from watching other broadcasters, but it really wasn't that effective."

Fast forward to August of 2021 and Walsh found himself on the Wheaton campus as a first year baseball player trying to figure out the first steps of college life. He knew he wanted to try broadcasting in college, but there was no major at the time that lent itself to that medium. While meandering around the campus in his first few days at Wheaton, he ran into Gavin Viano, the Associate Vice President for Athletics & Strategic Programs, and engaged in a conversation where he conveyed his desire to broadcast games. Viano directed Walsh to Alan Wickström, the Director of Athletics Communication at Wheaton.

"I was reading through student-athlete information forms in August and I opened a form from Jackson Walsh," explained Wickström. "I had just started at Wheaton in July and I wanted to enhance our broadcasting presence. Wheaton had done livestreaming before, but had only used broadcasters for post-season games and I wanted to do this for all of our games. Jackson had indicated an interest in broadcasting, so I wrote his name down on a pad of paper and circled it. Then one day in August he shows up at my door and introduced himself and as soon as he said his name, I pulled out my pad and told him I had been waiting to talk to him. He sent me samples of his work and I had him do a field hockey game for us and the rest is history."

Walsh's time was limited, however, due to his baseball commitment at Wheaton. The fall ball season delayed his debut for the Lyons, before finally broadcasting a Wheaton field hockey match. 

He broadcasted a few other fall events in October, but it was the winter season that really put the spotlight on this unpolished diamond. 

"Wheaton is extremely fortunate to have someone like Jackson broadcasting our home events," said Head Wheaton Men's Basketball Coach Brian Walmsley. "I watch a lot of D3 webcasts online and you would be hard pressed to find a more professional and informed student broadcaster in the entire country. I have had so many positive comments about the quality of our broadcasts from our alums, families and friends of Wheaton basketball."

With the fall baseball season complete, Walsh now had time to focus on his other love – broadcasting. He became the main broadcaster for men's and women's basketball, but he also had to learn how to broadcast sports he was not so familiar with. Swimming & Diving, Track & Field and Artistic Swimming. 

"When this (swimming) was first brought up to me, my initial thought was about this race from the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where Team USA had a massive comeback against France and the place was going nuts. It was such a cool call, Phelps, Lezak and the other guys. It was such a cool moment and that was the first swim thought I had. It was so cool." Walsh continued, "You have eight people racing out there, you kind of call it like horse racing, what position people everybody's in and if there's movement, so I was thinking of calling it like the Kentucky Derby. So that's how I approached it, which really helped me." 

Broadcasting swimming & diving and track & field also afforded him experience of broadcasting with a partner. He was paired with former swimmer Austin Halstead and then Johnny Forman for track and field. Walsh fed off the energy of Halstead, while allowing him his space to help tell the story of the meet. With Forman, he treated a track meet like they were hosting this event for the viewers with so many different events taking place at the same time. He would talk about the Wheaton team and using Forman to help guide him through the broadcast. He used this method during an artistic swim event and let the action speak for itself, while interjecting where it was appropriate. 

"It's awesome to have Jackson broadcast our track meets," said junior track and field member John Dowgiert. "With track and field, it can get a bit boring watching some races at times. However, Jackson really makes an emphasis to make sure that isn't the case. I first heard him commentate my 4x4 relay race freshman year, and it was great to hear him excited about it the whole time!"

He did his homework. He watched these sports on either past Olympic broadcasts or NCAA Championship events. He talked to members of the teams to understand the lingo and learned on student-athletes of those sports to give him more comfort and add to his knowledge base on broadcasts. His preparation skills had also grown leaps and bounds from when he was a junior and senior in high school. Now he was compiling pages of notes on both teams in the game he was broadcasting, looking for trends, looking at seasons results or past games with common opponents to get an idea of what to expect in the game. You'll find a lot of his notes scribbled on the roster pages of teams after he gets to the site of the contest as well. It also helped that he had a really good sense of the Wheaton teams by this point to understand tendencies and what players were really good at.

"Jackson is such an integral part of our community, especially for basketball," said junior men's basketball player Ty Murphy. "He has often told me how fun it is to call our games because he used to play in high school and still loves the game. Whenever the team is in film, we all tune in to hear his calls because you never know what amazing one-liner he might pull out of the bag. Whether it's, "Onions!" or the team's personal favorite, "This place is a nuthouse! Don't go anywhere!" after a big shot and a timeout from the other team. It is also great to hear the positive feedback from parents and others who stream the game. Everybody loves how enthusiastic and professional he takes his job; I believe that separates him from the rest. I feel very fortunate to have him both as an announcer but also as a friend."

With every broadcast, just like every practice on the baseball field or every outing on the pitching mound, he became more experienced, more comfortable and a better broadcaster. He enjoyed big moments as they happened, like his call that has now become famous when he narrated the men's swimming 200-yard freestyle relay against Babson to end the regular season. His excitement matched the euphoria of the fans in Balfour Natatorium and he ended it with a phrase that the men's & women's swimming & diving teams have adopted as their own. "There's mayhem in Balfour Natatorium!"

Anyone can simply explain what's happening during each competition," explained former Wheaton Swimming & Diving Coach Barrett Roberts. "The outcome of each race, who finished first, second, etc. What impresses me about Jackson is his ability to relay to the viewer the energy and emotions that take place on deck during the ebbs and flows of each meet. Jackson's addition to the livestream makes for a much more complete viewing experience, and he does a great job conveying what makes the Wheaton Swimming & Diving team special through his broadcast. His impact has been far greater than I could have imagined, and his talents are most obvious when comparing Wheaton's broadcast to that of our competition when viewing the livestream at an away meet."

"I had to keep reminding myself that he was just a first year and didn't even realize until he told me later that the first basketball broadcast he had ever done in his life was at Wheaton," said Wickström. "His level of talent is so good, so early that it's uniquely special and the Wheaton community is extremely fortunate to have him."

While his breadth of talent was being expanded by doing different sports, he was also adding more to his repertoire. In his second year, Athletics Communications began having post-game interviews, immediately following a Lyons' win. Walsh was a natural at interviewing "the player of the game." But by this time, they weren't just players on the team, they had also become his friends. He was becoming well-known among student-athletes as both a broadcaster and a friend. He was forging the types of relationships that we all hope to gain when we are away from home for four years. You could hear it in his voice during broadcasts just how much he was pulling for these teams to succeed, while navigating that line of remaining professional on the broadcast, but leaving no doubt who he was rooting for in the timber of his voice.

"At first I was kind of a stranger to most people, but now it's so cool that I've made a lot of friends here. They recognize me and know me," said Walsh. "I think I would have eventually become friends with a lot of people from eventually crossing paths with them, but nowhere close to the amount of friendships I have made from broadcasting. You see people around campus and talking to them about the team, just casual conversations. Everything just keeps evolving. I've become so close with so many athletes here. All of the athletes from the teams. They are a really good group of people that I'm really, really close to." 

"The thing that is really a cool part of it, is that I'll have parents, siblings, family members come up to me and tell me how much they enjoy when I'm broadcasting and it's been happening almost every game and it really puts a smile on my face."

"I was talking to Jackson the week of the Coast Guard meet telling him about how much my grandfather appreciates being able to watch the meets live as he is not able to attend them in person," explained senior women's swimmer Amelia Butler. "I was telling Jackson that the main reason my Grandfather appreciates the live streams is because of his ability to announce the meets at the same energy as the meet is happening in action, which is not easy to do (my family likes to call him the next Rowdy Gaines). After sharing this information with Jackson about my grandfather, he gave my grandfather a shout-out during the meet. 'Special shout out all the way out in Pittsburgh PA right now tuning into every meet, Mr. Linwood Butler. Grandfather of Wheaton senior, Amelia Butler.'"

Walsh also began to tinker with a radio show from the basement of Balfour-Hood on the Wheaton campus. He would review the week in Wheaton sports and also conduct interviews with different student-athletes or Wheaton athletics personnel. Although the show was deepening his understanding of the medium, his listenership was very limited due to a Monday half-hour time slot, so he moved out of the air studio and turned his show into a podcast. The Wheaton Watch. Now, he was available, "wherever you get your podcasts". His show became the Official Podcast of Wheaton College Athletics. 

Walsh was also recognized outside of the Department of Athletics for his impact on campus, being named the Student Employee of the Year in Community Building by the Student Employment Program and Financial Services division on campus. 

"Jackson's brought an exceptional level of professionalism and enthusiasm to our broadcasting team since day one," said Viano. "He's taken the time to learn about each one of our 20+ sports and has exhibited great ability in showcasing our student-athletes and creating a 'big game atmosphere' during every single broadcast."

Now, he's a fixture at Wheaton fall and winter games, before he goes on hiatus to pitch as a member of the Wheaton baseball team. Balancing his fledgling broadcasting career and playing baseball for Wheaton is a tightrope that Walsh has been walking, but there's no question what comes first in his life.

"It is difficult, but I wouldn't trade being able to broadcast because I love playing baseball and playing for the team and summer ball," explained Walsh. "Not being able to broadcast for a while is nothing that I'm going to complain about at all. I came here ultimately, because of baseball and nothing can ever interfere with that."

When his career is finished at Wheaton, he would like to move on and break into broadcasting as a professional. He already has a few connections and like any good professional will look to leverage and network as best as he can. For now, the Wheaton College community is the beneficiary of a star on the rise in Norton.