While watching a baseball game, you hear two announcers—one over the speakers and one directly behind you. Turning your head slightly, the source of the secondary play-by-play is found.
A kid, around 8 or 9, providing his own live commentary as the game goes on. No one can tell if it’s annoying or cute.
Scott Bacon was that kid.
Now that same voice is heard on the radio, Big South Network and highlight videos, nearly becoming a trademark of the Longwood athletics department.
An Ohio native, Longwood’s newly promoted senior associate athletic director of external relations knew early in his career — meaning before it had begun — that he wanted to go into sports broadcasting.
After participating in a broadcast program provided by his high school, he went on to attend Otterbein College, a small school in Ohio similar to Longwood, and graduated with his bachelor degree in communications. At Otterbein, he had a radio show and announced for their varsity sports.
“I went there to call games, I was locked in,” said Bacon. “(His advisor) said you could go there and you could get on the air right away instead of waiting two years.”
Taking his experiences at Otterbein to the next level, Bacon moved to Virginia in 2007 to professionally announce for the Lynchburg Hillcats, a minor league baseball team, as well as several professional teams affiliated with them.
It was in Lynchburg where the first sound of the Lancer’s voice was heard, at the time just a whisper.
“My first ever game that I called, was our first game as an official Division I school,” said Bacon.
His role at Lynchburg also involved doing the play-by-play for Longwood’s men’s basketball, becoming close to the program and the university. After four years, Bacon took on a full-time position with Longwood Athletics as a broadcaster in 2011, expanding not only to other sports, but also a new area of communications – marketing.
In 2012, Longwood, still growing as a Division I program, became a full member of the Big South conference. Having been working with Longwood since November in 2007 and fully employed the year prior, Bacon had the opportunity to play a major role in the department’s transition and development.
“In Ohio, all of our D1 schools were kind of established, I had never come across a transitioning D1 school before,” he said.
To Bacon, his purpose is to shape the way others view not only the athletics department, but Longwood, wanting them to feel the passion he does for the university. For him, he doesn’t sell his vision, but shares it, truly believing in the message he conveys.
“I could never just sell to sell… You’ve got to believe it,” he said. “We really want to tell the Longwood story.”
While at Longwood, Bacon also experienced another milestone prior to his promotion with his wife, Lacey Bacon, – the birth of his son, Mason. With his son nearly two years old, Bacon had nothing but positive things to say about fatherhood.
“He’s always hearing me in the car, the football games on TV… Now he’s gotten to the point, Lacey said that he heard my voice on the radio in the car and started saying, ‘Da-da, da-da,’” said Bacon. “My number one goal in life, back to the teaching aspect of it, was to be a dad. That’s always been number one on my list… It’s my biggest purpose in life.”
Secretly, Bacon would love to start his own summer camp with a college friend for kids to run around in, though he doesn’t expect it to become a reality.
“I’m pretty open-minded, I’ve got a lot of crazy ideas,” he said with a smile. “We’re still working on the game plan for it (the camp).”
The future isn’t totally clear for one of the highest Longwood Athletics staff members, broadcasting versus administration, but he knows that while he’s with Longwood he’s “building a legacy.”
“All I know is I love all of it,” said Bacon.
“The real blessing of the opportunity for me at Longwood is that I could do so many things and have the opportunity this week in this small school environment,” he added. “The fact that I could take on so many things and have a real authority in the university is tremendous.”
12/4/2015 2:31 p.m. - Scott Bacon was previously said to have worked for the Lynchburg College Hillcats, however the Lynchburg Hillcats baseball team is not associated with the college. The article reflects the change.
Senior Associate Athletic Director of External Relations Scott Bacon does play-by-play for the men's basketball games alongside his other marketing responsibilities.