When one door closes, another one opens. Although Streetsboro graduate Stephen Koroly’s dream of becoming a professional athlete were not in the cards, he has still remained close to sports by rising through the ranks as a play-by-play sports broadcaster including calling a pair of women’s soccer matches at Ohio University through ESPN+ this past fall.
“It is great exposure and it is just so nice that we were able to do that as college students because there are a lot of different places where I have seen it in different for Mid-American Conference schools,” Koroly told The Weekly Villager on April 5. “They just get freelance broadcasters. To be able to come in and do that as a student in my sophomore year where I am only 20-years old is just great exposure and such a great opportunity.”
Although still a sophomore at Ohio University, the 2022 Streetsboro graduate has continued adding experience to his growing resume of sports broadcasting. Through Bobcat TV, Ohio University’s official YouTube channel, Koroly was picked to work as the play-by-play announcer for two Ohio University women’s soccer matches streaming through the ESPN+ app.
“I really think back to my play-by-play experience in high school,” Koroly said. “It was awesome to be able to call those games. I got a lot of great clips and great moments from there and I am sure I am going to do many more soccer games in the future because that is what I love to do the most, calling play-by-play and the opportunity is absolutely there.”
Koroly said that sports have always been his greatest interest since he comes from a sports-minded family. Several of his cousins played sports through high school. Koroly said he wanted to pursue a professional playing career in either soccer, basketball or baseball but realized after his freshman season that it was a longshot.
He joined Streetsboro’s student-run radio station 88.9/WSTB-FM in his junior year when he was recruited by communications teacher and general manager Bob Long.
“I did not plan on getting involved with WTSB at Streetsboro but he told me we need good people and you are good people,” noted Koroly. “He said he would put me on staff and I said okay. I did not know what I was getting into and what it entailed but I was made traffic director.”
Koroly’s duties as the traffic director included programming all of the different ads during the day and also programming different songs. He mostly worked behind the scenes but wanted to get in front of the camera when he saw that Rocket Radio did live radio broadcasts of high school basketball.
Koroly added that he approached Long with the idea of Rocket Radio doing live streaming broadcasts in the midst of the 2020-21 COVID-plagued season.
“When I started, it was me and one of my friends who were broadcasting the games and we were doing in a remote spot, not inside the gym but were watching it inside the live stream and were broadcasting over the live stream,” Koroly said.
Although he had very little experience as a play-by-play announcer, Koroly had plenty of experience from being a student-athlete he could draw from by playing on the boys’ soccer team for all four years and competing in basketball and baseball in his freshman season.
“I think my experience with sports really helps with that because I understand what is going through the athletes’ mind and I can understand different aspects of the game especially with soccer and basketball,” he noted. “I played those two sports and watched those two sports all of the time. I feel like that really gave me the base knowledge where I am really able to go on air and into depth about different things.”
Koroly continued pursuing broadcasting opportunities outside of school by also working as the play-by-play announcer for the Ambassador’s Football Club, a premier youth football club in the Greater Cleveland area.
After calling Streetsboro basketball games for two years, Koroly enrolled at Ohio University.
Once there, he joined Gridiron Glory, a weekly 30-minute sports show that airs highlights from Southeastern Ohio high school football games and Hardwood Heroes, a weekly 30-minute show that covers all high school basketball teams in the Tri-Valley Conference.
Koroly also worked as a beat reporter for the Muskinghum Valley League, a high school athletic conference in the Southeast Ohio region.
In only five years since beginning his broadcasting career, Koroly said he can already envision himself working as a sports broadcaster for a major network such as ESPN or another big sports show.
“The dream is to broadcast big or work for a big soccer or basketball team but really I love sports journalism and want to continue with it in any capacity,” he said.
