GHSF Daily is expanding its Four Questions feature this season beyond head coaches to other voices in high school football. Today's interviewee is Frank Santore, the play-by-play voice of the Ringgold Tigers. He can be heard tonight on WAAK Radio 94.7 FM calling Ringgold's game at Peach County.
Frank Santore, play-by-play voice of the Ringgold Tigers
1. What's your background, and how did you end up doing Ringgold football? "I am an attorney by trade, in my day job. I always harbored a dream to do radio play-by-play, which is a dying art. Listening to the greats of years past as I was growing up -- Larry Munson at Georgia, John Ward at Tennessee - whetted my appetite even more. So, two years into my legal practice, I began to take steps toward achieving this dream, first attending a sportscasting camp run by hockey Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Miller, retired voice of the L.A. Kings, then taking every job I could find, from calling high school football and basketball in five states, to calling minor league hockey in the East Coast Hockey League, and Division I football, basketball, women's basketball, baseball, men's soccer, women's soccer and volleyball for five different Division I institutions, which led me to gigs at Sirius/XM, broadcasting the FCS Game of the Week, the Mid-Major basketball game of the week, various Division I college basketball championships, and the like, and another gig broadcasting FCS football and mid-major basketball on a clear channel AM out of Cincinnati. I also had the privilege of doing the play-by-play for the last FCS Championship Game held in Chattanooga, and also did the Minnesota Twins' Rookie League affiliate's games in Elizabethton, Tenn., for 15 years.
"As for how I got the Ringgold job: I had been out of sportscasting for two or three years, as my mother had gotten sick and I had to care for her. After Mom passed, my friends, Chris Goforth, the television voice of the Chattanooga Mocs on ESPN, who is also the scoreboard host for the Atlanta Falcons' football network, and David Jenkins, our current executive producer, who has a 30-year background covering major college and high school sports in the print and electronic media, steered me toward this job. I am in my sixth year, I love it. I don't have to put up with the garbage with which one usually puts up from college athletic directors and syndicators. And I get paid more than I ever have before!"
2. What's your observation on this season in your part of the state? Among other things, how good is Treylon Sheppard? Calhoun? And Ringgold? "I really concentrate only on our classification in north Georgia, which means, to a great extent, Region 6-AAA. I have always thought it is the most competitive region in any classification of the state (for those of us not Calhoun, of course). This is evident by five teams getting into the playoffs from our region. And Adairsville and Sonoraville both had a chance until their final game.
"Treylon Sheppard is all that and a bag of chips. Of course, because of his size, he doesn't fit into the classic 'formula' that D-I schools look at. I'll put his toughness up against anyone's. Calhoun? They are just, well, Calhoun: You oil them, rather than feed them. Dave Stokes, Calhoun's longtime play-by-play guy, provides me with stats each week. They are so deep that, to this point in the season, 17 different people have carried the ball, 29 have at least one catch, and 57 different players have at least one tackle.
"With regard to Ringgold, the first half of the season was brutal. We had to play a split Friday-Monday game at Dalton to open the season, where they burned us with a 95-yard kick return and an odd 99-yard punt return. We had the ball twice on North Murray's side of the 50 in the first quarter, failed to score and lost. With the exception of four-five mistakes at Haralson that cost us, the second half of the season has been great, although, in Peach County, we are facing a team as deep as, and maybe with more speed than, Calhoun."
3. When did you start doing the region report and stats, and why? "Really, I am only the compiler of the region stats. I take what I am given. ... Foremost, I want to give the coaches and these players, most of whom will never play beyond this level, a chance to have their accomplishments noted and to see that they mean something to someone. Next, I think our media and the play-by-play guys in particular, need to have these so that they don't have to work as hard. Doing Division I sports, everything is fed you by the SIDs. At this level, we are the true men (us play-by-play guys) and we really have to go out and work. I admire all of my play-by-play colleagues."
4. What attracts you to high school football? Why do you love it? "All college sports, even at the Division III level, is becoming too commercialized. These young men, most of whom, as I said, will never play another down past the final whistle of their final high school game, play it for the love of this truly, great American game. That's why I love high school football. And when anyone says I'm just a 'high school football broadcaster,' I let them have it."
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