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John Boccacino: Hello, and welcome back to the Cuse Conversations Podcast. My name is John Boccacino, the communications specialist in 's Office of Alumni Engagement.

Chris Lewis: It's not like I have a background of table tennis. It's not like I grew up playing it. It's not like I followed it religiously throughout my time as a kid and an adult. No, it's really one of these things where I've had to pick it up and learn as much as I can within these last few months. So, it's been a lot, it's been fun. I've enjoyed every part of the experience so far and I haven't even really gotten started yet.

John Boccacino: Well, folks, our guest today on the podcast is Chris Lewis, a 2013 Whitman alumnus and an accomplished sports broadcaster. He is preparing to make his Olympic broadcasting debut at the Tokyo Summer Olympics in third week of July. Lewis, who is active, both Z89 and WAER as a Syracuse University student will handle play-by-play duties for NBC's coverage of table tennis.

Chris, welcome to the podcast. And how are you holding up with these games approaching pretty quickly?

Chris Lewis: I'm really excited for it. Also, thank you guys for having me on. I appreciate being on this podcast. And yeah, it's one of these things where it's just quickly approaching every day. You check the calendar and you're one day closer to this thing getting started. And it's almost overwhelming with the amount of work that you have to do to get ready, especially with my assignment doing play-by- play for table tennis for NBC Olympics. And it's not like I have a background of table tennis. It's not like I grew up playing it. It's not like I followed it religiously throughout my time as a kid and an adult. No, it's really one of these things where I've had to pick it up and learn as much as I can within these last few months. So, it's been a lot, it's been fun. I've enjoyed every part of the experience so far. And I haven't even really gotten started yet.

John Boccacino: You graduated in 2013. And like a lot of sportscasters, your resume is dotted with baseball, with basketball, with football. And then you get the call to go to Tokyo for table tennis. So, take us through that experience. How did you land this prestigious gig? I mean, it's not like there's a ton of broadcasters NBC was hiring you. You're a part of a pretty select crew.

Chris Lewis: Yeah. I'm really thankful and grateful for the opportunity, that's for sure. And I know it's one of these things where it's, as you said, only a select few get to do something as cool as this. And like every day, I'm just thankful that I was one of the ones that was chosen for it. And again, it's not like had table tennis on a reel and sending feedback for my table tennis play-by-play. No. It's not like it was something like that, but it's just in a way having a relationship with people who are at NBC and were involved with their Olympic selection coverage, and just doing my best to stay in contact with them, and constantly get feedback and send them my stuff with Boise State.

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I think one of the things with my role at Boise State is that I do get to do a variety of different sports. And I think that's one of the, if anybody has strengths, that's one of the strengths that I have is, I've called everything from tennis to gymnastics, to volleyball, softball. I do so many different sports at Boise State, all the Olympic sports that show in the versatility of being able to adapt to different sports, that it's not like I had a background in before, might've been a plus. And I take that same approach of diving into something new. I just do it on a more extreme level for this because the task is so grand. There is five different tournament's that take place in the Olympics for men's singles, the women's singles, to men's team, to women's team, to mix doubles. So, that's a lot of different events for just one sport.

So, what I've done throughout my time as a broadcaster and just now tailoring it towards table tennis instead of something like gymnastics or something like basketball, or something like soccer. So, still learning.

John Boccacino: So, you didn't have to do any table tennis broadcasting to entice the NBC folks to give you this position.

Chris Lewis: No. It was just more of showing what I can do and just being in contact. I had in the past really started last summer, the building off the relationship with some of the people with NBC sports and just sending my reel there. And fortunately, one of the things you learned throughout this business, you send your reels to people that doesn't mean they're going to respond with feedback. And that doesn't mean they're going to give you the time of day to hear what you're saying.

But I was just fortunate that I did get a response and they did take the time to talk to me and tell me some of the things that I do well, tell me some of the things that I can improve upon throughout my other reps that I continue to get at Boise State. So, just continuing that relationship of once I do something new, once I add some things to my reel, or once I do a game, send it off to them, get some more feedback, "Okay. Now, improve this. Try to work on this. See what you can do here." And then just repeat that exercise.

And then I got a call a few months ago, and we're recording this at the end of June, about, "Hey, we have an opening for table tennis for our Tokyo Olympics coverage." Now, of course, I'm not going to be in Tokyo. I want to be in Stanford, Connecticut in there remote broadcast studios, which will be fantastic. "But are you interested?" I'm like, "Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, no doubt." So I couldn't wait to say yes.

John Boccacino: That's got to be such a flattering feeling to be chosen like that off of the basis of your reel. And there are so many Syracuse legends that we'll be broadcasting at the Olympics, of course, starting with the godfather, , and working his way on down. There's so many Syracuse voices that are going to be permeating at the Olympics. What kind of honor and what kind of dream is it

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going to be for you to achieve, to get to have that microphone at the international spotlight?

Chris Lewis: Well, it's definitely a dream. And I guess, the only way I can answer that is I have to do it first. Actually, I've go through it to tell you what it's like, because right now it's still feels like a dream. It still feels like something that's in the future and not something that I've done yet. But I could just do what I always do and prepare as hard as possible and work as hard as I can beforehand. And then during it, and also just enjoy it, right? Because I do realize the opportunity that's given that not a lot of people get to do this. This is one of these dream assignments. So, don't let the moment go by without appreciating how lucky that you are to be able to do that.

And when you approach it from that mentality, I do think that it comes across on the broadcast too. When you go into it like, "This is fun and I'm lucky to be here, happy to be here." You can tell the announcers who take that approach through their reps, through their job on the day to day basis, the ones who love to be there, who feel grateful to be courtside, or feel grateful to be in the booth for a football game, or feel grateful to be there for a coverage of any Olympic event. So, that's probably the best way to approach it, is it still feels like a dream. And I'll tell you how it feels to be amongst all those people that you mentioned when I'm actually there.

John Boccacino: I read an article where you said that this was one of the most unique assignments you've ever had. How have you been preparing for this role?

Chris Lewis: Yeah, it's unique just because it's table tennis, it's not something that I've ever called before or studied in that way until getting this assignment. So since then, it's basically been a daily basis of looking up the athletes who are being involved, checking the table tennis websites to get up on the latest news, being in contact with the color commentator that I'm going to be calling table tennis with, just so I can introduce myself. He's been experienced, not only as a former player, but also as a broadcaster for the previous few Olympics for table tennis. So, learning as much as I can from somebody like him to just get that insight that I need to be able to watch this great sport from a perspective to where I can be a person who's on the gerund telling the stories of the people who are involved.

And I said like unique assignments, but with play-by-play, the fundamentals of it are the same, no matter what the sport is. You're telling the stories of the people who are involved. There's a winner. There's a loser. There's somebody who's trying to do something. Could it be for the first time? Could it be for the 80th time? And that's the story. There's always something, no matter the sport. It can be gymnastics, football, basketball, soccer, table tennis, traditional tennis. It could be anything. And there's storylines with the people who are involved trying to overcome something, trying to do something that they've never done before. And it's your job as the play-by-play announcer to be the ones to bring

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out those stories, to connect to an audience. That again, with the Olympics, it is in a way a different type of audience who consumes, let's say an NFL game on a Sunday, or consumes a Boise State Women's Basketball game that I'm calling or something like that. So again, it's unique in that way, but still the mechanics and the fundamentals of it are still the same.

John Boccacino: One of the coolest parts from my perspective of the Olympics, and gosh, we have really needed these games. There's so much anticipation. We need something that we can all come together and rally around the spirit of competition. There's so many great stories out there. And the Olympics, you can, at least I personally will watch matches, sports I've never seen before, because I want to see what the sport is all about. I want to get to learn some of the Olympians who are going to be capturing the stage. What about storytelling, really is your strength because you've got to draw out those stories to that audience?

Chris Lewis: Yeah. It's the enthusiasm, the energy, and again, the feeling of you being lucky to be there. And also the preparation of actually knowing these stories ahead of time too. And then also in your head, thinking of the best way to tell the stories of everybody who's involved. So, it's a lot of different things. And I guess, a strength, what I always say is be by preparation, the work and the effort that I put into it, I try my best to work as hard as possible and also enjoy the work that I put in.

Being on air the two or three hours for a traditional sporting event, that's fun, but you have to love the work that goes in beforehand. Because if you don't, then you're not really going to have the passion to do this at the level that we all want to do it when we decided to go to Syracuse in the first place. Right? Because we all went to Syracuse, if you're wanting to be a sports broadcaster. There's definitely a standard or a level that you've wanted to reach. So yeah, by strength probably, if there's that would be the preparation of it. I was you too, how many sports I got introduced to because of the Olympics. I'd be up at like 2:00 AM on USA Network, watching whatever they decide to throw at me because it's like, "Hey, it's like sports that are going on at this time. I love it." It was just got to be strange to now be on the other side of it, and the one who's on the television versus the one who's watching the television, because I was that guy too.

John Boccacino: What did you know about table tennis before getting this job? Had you ever watched a match live?

Chris Lewis: I think I've watched YouTube clips live, but that was, I don't recall ever seeing it on TV traditionally, other than the Olympics, which again, I probably have, because I've seen a bunch of Olympic sports, and just gotten into it because, hey, this is competition. This is one person versus another person. Or in a case of table tennis, it could be two people on each side. And it's fun and it's competition, and they're going for goal. So, I probably seen it in that way. But

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it's not like I had sought it out on YouTube, other than just something that went viral, "Hey, did you see this shot?"

Since I've gotten this assignment, I've pretty much seen most of the YouTube videos that are on, especially the fun roller shots and the long rallies that get the crowd engaged. And hopefully, we get some of that because if I'm going to call myself. But yeah, that's basically before I got this assignment, that's my background on it. What stands out to me on first watch from the not in the sport to now trying to dive into the sport, it's just wow. There's so many different precise movements and actions that they have to do. And the speed that they have to process like, "All right, if they send me this shot this way, then I have to respond to it this..." And how did they program themselves? How long does it take for you to be able to instinctually know how to return this in the speed that is coming at you? If you take hitting a baseball as hard, I could make an argument that returning a serve or returning aggressive forehand in table tennis is just as, if not much more difficult.

John Boccacino: Knowing that you're not going to be there live in Tokyo, what kind of challenge is that going to present for you to be broadcasting the games and not to be in the arena?

Chris Lewis: I think is a challenge that a lot of people have had to go through over this past year, year plus with COVID changing the game, changing the landscape of broadcasting and media. I think a lot more people have had to do a lot more remote broadcast, not just, it used to be the Olympics was the sporting event where the remote broadcast was king. And it really wasn't the case for a lot of the other events that you get to see on TV. But this past year, college basketball, college football, where a lot of it was calling that remotely. And whether it's Lacrosse Championships or other events that you see on ESPN, a lot of that was being called remotely.

So, I know for me, I am the radio voice for Boise State Women's Basketball, and for home games, we were there in person this year. But for road games, we did not travel this year with women's basketball, instead we called the games, I was in the football press box, calling them off of a monitor that didn't have any natural sound from the arena, getting back to me and my headset. So it's like, you're really calling this game dry. You're watching it on a monitor. You're doing a radio call and you're at the mercy of the angle that they're giving you on the screen. So, you feel like, "Hey, this might not be the best way to deliver the radio call that you're familiar with doing over the years." But you also realize that you're lucky to be able to be broadcasting a game at all, because there is a time where you didn't think there'd be a season at all. And everybody's working hard to at least get the kind of broadcast that they're getting.

And knowing all the people at Learfield and IMG, and Bronco Sports Properties at Boise State, how many different phone calls that they had to be on and the hours that they put in, just to give me the opportunity to call this game on a

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monitor in the football press box. So yeah, I couldn't say that, "Okay, this might not be the most ideal way to call the game, but I'm thankful to be able to call the game at all."

And it's the same thing with the Olympics, just at a broader scale. It's like I don't have any kind of reservations of not being there in Tokyo. No, I am lucky to be able to be calling this the way I'm calling this on a monitor in a booth in Stanford, Connecticut. And I'm just going to do my best to do the best job that I can for everybody who's involved in the process, because I know how many people are involved and the kind of hours that everybody's putting in to make this look and sound good across the TV.

John Boccacino: How did you get into sports broadcasting in the first place?

Chris Lewis: I think the first experience with it was, I was one of these kids during the Philadelphia Area, South Jersey, born in '91. So, you think of, okay, what was the biggest sports star in that area as a kid in the early nineties? Is Allen Iverson, right? Allen Iverson in Philadelphia is Sixers, right? So, I was the dude who wanted to be Allen Iverson. And I had corn rows, the braids. And every week during the summer, I would go to basketball camps. Both my parents worked, so if they needed something to do with me during the day, and there'd always be a basketball camp to go to. So, I would always do my best to try to be playing around Allen Iverson out there, but it wasn't really a playground in Allen Iverson.

John Boccacino: Your crossover wasn't quite as good as his.

Chris Lewis: No, it was not. Don't have hezzies, don't have the step backs. No. Can't fly off an Iverson cut. Can't curl around a screen and I was always, "Nope." But there was one week where there wasn't a basketball camp to send me to, but there was a sports broadcasting camp in Philadelphia run by Jeremy Treatman of Scholastic Play by Play Networks, sports broadcasting camps. And I was like, "Yeah, that sounds fun. I'm a sports fan. I watch a lot of sports. Yeah, let's go to that." I was probably like 11 years old, 12 years old, something like that. And it was something to do during the day. And I just loved it. I thought it was awesome. It was great to have people who are real-life commentators come to the camp and speak to us. This was awesome. Before these, they were just guys on TV, and now they're here in front of me.

So, I thought it was great. And I knew pretty much early teenage years that this is what I wanted to do. So, high school, I was out here doing the football games and the basketball games on teamline.cc, had my dad out here running cables from the court all the way to the offices in the athletic director's room, which was like a hundred feet away, just connecting these phone cables. It was kind of a mess, but it was what I wanted to do. And I have supportive parents who guided me along the way too. So, it was great.

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John Boccacino: And obviously, as we mentioned earlier, Syracuse University has a pretty good reputation when it comes to producing sports broadcasters. What was it for you, Chris, that made Syracuse stand out? I don't know. Who are some of the voices you maybe have learned from that came from that orange path to influence your style?

Chris Lewis: Yeah. The alumni list was the reason just like, I think a lot of people, when you see people who are having a jazz that you want and where they went to school, a lot of them was Syracuse. So it's like, "Okay, that's the place to go." So, whether it was Mike Tirico, , is the list that I'm sure has been referenced on this podcast, and many others that have to relate to Syracuse.

But a special shout out to Jim Jackson, who's the voice of the Philadelphia Flyers. He was the first speaker at that camp that I went to when I was like 11 or 12 years old. And I've stayed in touch with him ever since. And he's a Syracuse guy. So, like that was one of the many seeds that were planted early that, "Hey, this is the place you go to, if you want to be a sports broadcaster."

Now, I was again, lucky enough to get into Whitman of all places, which has its own story of getting into the business school and not the broadcasting school, but still thinking that, "Yeah, this is the right decision to still go to Syracuse, even though I'm not new house and we'll figure it out from there."

Sports broadcasting and being a play-by-play announcer was always the objective. And I just figured during my research that at Syracuse, the student media stations are the things that really changed the game or are the biggest asset of it from WAER, to Z89, to CitrusTV. So, I knew that, "All right, even if I'm not new house, I can still join all those programs and get experience that way." And I do that, going in my freshman year. So, I just made it a point that, "All right, I'll try to transfer into new house. I'll do my best to try to get the grades to transfer in. But I also want to put my foot in the door at those three places and put myself on a path to do as much as I can early."

And it worked out with the student media stations. WAER got some play-by-play reps there. Junior and senior year was most of the play-by-play stuff. CitrusTV got to be involved early as a producer and then on air. And then Z89, same thing getting, involved as a radio host and also a play-by-play. But I never did get to transfer in the new house because my grades didn't meet the cutoff or whatever. And I guess it's still the same way. I don't know if it is an app, but you just have the GPA cutoff line. And if you're above it, you get the transfer in. If you're below it, you can.

And with all the hours that I was putting in, I mean, I don't know if I would be a 4.0 student anyway. It's tough to be a 4.0 student, you got to have a gift for that. But I knew what the time that I was putting in with the other places, it would be probably tough to get a 4.0.

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But I still value the education that I got at Whitman too. And learning the different areas of business. My major there was just general management. It really wasn't like anything focused on accounting or Tripoli. I think it was one of the majors. It wasn't anything other than general management. But the whole time I still knew that, "Okay, sports broadcasting is the area that I want to go in. But also knowing that, hey, having the diverse knowledge of business can be an asset too, so not ignoring it.

But also when it came to, "All right, I can either choose to study for this test in the business school, or I can study my chart names and numbers for this Big East Tournament assignment that I have." What do you think I was going to do? I was going to absolutely get ready for that assignment, or get ready for that on air thing. And the way the sports department, especially at CitrusTV worked, a lot of that was late nights too. So, sometimes you did have to make choices of where to put your energy and where to put your efforts. And yeah, I always chose the sports broadcasting side of it.

John Boccacino: What's the biggest lesson or takeaway, the biggest way that your Syracuse career, your broadcasting career as a student has influenced you in your role today?

Chris Lewis: Biggest lesson, just always have a positive attitude, treat people well, do your best to be somebody who's pleasant to deal with. There's so many people who want to do this. There's so many people who can do this, right? It's not like we're performing brain surgery, we're talking about sports. So, there's a lot of people who can do it, physically can do it. So, if you're one of the people who people don't like working with for whatever reason, they just want to find somebody else. Right?

So, I think that's the biggest thing is to be somebody who is good to be around, good to work with. Doesn't have too big of an ego. Doesn't have jerk tendencies. And if you're somebody who's friendly and nice, and takes the time for other people, I think that it gives you a little bit of a leg up, because they'll remember that positive experience that they had working with you. And they'll more likely want to work with you again, or they'll maybe tell somebody else, "Hey, I enjoyed working with him. He does a good job. He works hard. He treated me nicely. How about you think of him for this?" So, I think that's one thing. And then just also working hard. Nothing that is worth doing, doesn't come without working hard.

John Boccacino: I was waiting for the right opportunity to bring up this next question. And I realize we're all works in progress. But I really want to commend you, Chris, for what you did last summer. We're dealing with the racial strife. We're dealing with the fallout of George Floyd. We're dealing with another unarmed black man getting killed at the hands of police. You wrote a really poignant column for the Idaho Statesman, where you were talking about previously, you felt really discouraged about speaking out on issues of racism and police brutality. And

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then that moment you felt more empowered to take on an active role and address these social justice issues. Take us through your thought process and how the response has been to that.

Chris Lewis: Going back to the timeline of last June, why I felt empowered is because I felt like people were listening, right? People were actually in a position to where they had an awakening of realizing it's not just George Floyd being murdered, and the realization that that's bad. For some reason before that, it was controversial that getting murdered like that was a bad thing. You'd have like half the population, "Well, no, that's fine. That's acceptable." I'm like, "No, that's not acceptable." But some people thought it was for whatever reasons or beliefs that they had. But that was the one that seemed to be universal, this is bad.

What I'm still trying to figure out like why was that one, the one where it could be universally accepted that this was bad. We're saying that this stuff has been happening for a while, has been on video, it has been on countless other examples of things like this happening, and it does it get the same kind of traction. It doesn't get this same universal, this is bad message that this one got. So, what was it about George Floyd? I don't know. Maybe it was because it was during a COVID, where there wasn't as much other things or there wasn't sports to distract us. There wasn't as many concerts or other things that were going on that divert people's attention. So, maybe that was part of it.

But I also noticed the wide ranging conversations that a lot more people were having, not just about police brutality, but the widespread effects of systemic racism, looking at why certain industries look a certain way, why the wealth is distributed in this country in the way it did. We're actually looking at some deep foundational issues that this country has had for a long time. And we're finally, and I said, we're finally, but like again, black people, a lot of people in my circles were talking about this for awhile, but now all of a sudden this conversation was being had at a more surface level.

We've had adverts having people in the industry, people who I hadn't talked to in years, calling me, wanting to talk about things that I would have never thought that they wanted to talk about. So, it was just a really interesting time last June. And I was really encouraged that people were wanting to have these kinds of conversations and just trying to hope that they could learn something from it and that they would keep that same passion, keep that same fire for change as we continue to go to the next month, to next month, to the next month. Now we're about a year since that. This is the end of June. That happened in Memorial Day Weekend, the George Floyd murder, and then a lot of the different conversations that came out of that were early June of 2020.

So, do we have the same energy and that same passion? I mean, some of it is certainly fallen off, but hopefully we're in a better spot, but I don't know. And that's the puzzling part or that's the part that sits on the back of your head and

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how much do you want to continue to press the issue on that versus be one that's like, okay, you're having a lot of these opportunities come, or you're getting a lot of these assignments that you're really enjoying. And other people are doing other things with their life too. How much do you want to continue to press the issue with that? So, there is a balance of it, but it's one that I'm still learning how to navigate these waters too. But I do feel like that column, at least sent them a little bit of perspective of what it's like is for an audience in Idaho, that for a black person, from the Philadelphia area who moved to Boise, Idaho in 2014, what it was like for somebody like that.

John Boccacino: And I appreciate Chris, you being willing to go down with that topic of conversation because it felt like, yes, it was a pandemic. You look at Rodney King, that should have been... I mean, there's so many incidents you could point to where it was clearly captured, there should be no debate, but yet there was somehow a debate.

And I thought your article succinctly put all the points together you were trying to convey. And especially given that you've got a sports background, it drives me crazy, it's got to do the same for you, when people say, "Stick to sports." Why can't you be a sportscaster who has opinions on other topics? I mean, that makes no sense to me.

Chris Lewis: Yeah. I mean, there's also in a way our responsibility, just because you're a doctor, you can only talk on medical things. This is weird. That's just doesn't make any sense and it never made any sense, right? You've had people who were sports figures who entered politics. You've had people who have political causes who do speak at sports games. I mean, the National Anthem is played before every sports game, right? It's always intersected. That's the whole stick to sports as if there's a sports lane and a politics lane, they've never crossed. It's a two lane highway, and the two lanes never see each other. That never happened. So disingenuous to tell me that that happened in the first place.

The Olympics for crying out loud, we're talking about the Olympics in this podcast. What, there's been no connection between politics and sports in the Olympics? No, that's not true.

John Boccacino: I mean, there's Tommie Smith and John Carlos, I mean famously with the Olympics in Mexico City, 1968. I mean, there's been all these-

Chris Lewis: We've had wars that have caused countries to not be invited to Summer Olympics. This is always intersected. This is to pretend that there was a light in the first place is so disingenuous. And so, it's coming at it from a very wrong place. And when somebody says something like that=, you know that it's not right.

John Boccacino: When we're talking about the stick to sports, and you've been a part of obviously the push for advocating for social justice issues. It must've been

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refreshing to see teams like in the NBA, the Milwaukee Bucks stage their playoff walkout during the playoffs where there's actual significance to those games. The voting centers were opened up. NBA teams seemed to be really vocal and having their stadiums and arenas be used for getting people registered to vote for the 2020 election. Do you think we can build upon the momentum that we've gained so far in the social justice awareness?

Chris Lewis: I hope so. And I also have to give a shout out to the WNBA. I mean, the WNBA, just did an absolutely fantastic job of taking this issue front and center, making their whole, you mentioned the bubble, like the wobble, the WNBA bubble. They've really dedicated it to Brianna Taylor. They did a fantastic job of keeping the attention on that. And the Atlanta Dream, that team and what they were able to do for Atlanta and Georgia, which turned out to be a key point in the 2020 election.

So, just big shouts to the WNBA and everything that they did throughout the different messages that you're talking about. And yeah, it was definitely encouraging. And I hope that we can continue to build upon that. And I think voting and not letting the access to voting be overtaken is one of the key things with this next couple of years cycle. You're seeing a lot of bills and a lot of a legislature that is trying to make it, so what happened in 2020 doesn't happen going forward. And having that same passion, as I mentioned, having the same passion that we had in 2020 to these next couple of years to make it so, no, we got to keep the access to voting. We got to have it, so there's not so many obstacles to vote for people in communities that... We know the communities that have long voting lines. We know the communities where you can just walk in and vote, right? We know there's a reason why it's set up like that.

And not losing sight of what is right and what is wrong surrounding the access to voting, I think that is one of the key things to not lose our passion about over these next couple of years, I hope for sports teams and sports owners. It's so important because the sports owners are the ones with influence in a lot of these places. I'm interested to see how that happens over these next few years, what happens in these cases, but I choose to be optimistic by nature, so I will continue to be, but we'll certainly see.

John Boccacino: That goes along the lines too, of the resiliency that we were talking about when it comes to your Syracuse story, and the more people can become resilient and overcome obstacles, it's going to test you early, but you'll be better off for it when you face those challenges down the road. And I think sportscasters, as much as people think it's a fun job, and it is a fun occupation, but there's a lot of challenges that come to finding a job, to rising up the ladder, to struggling the work-life balance with having a family. What is your advice to that next core of sportscasters coming down the pike from Syracuse and other schools that what advice can they learn from your story?

Chris Lewis podcast (Completed 07/19/21) Page 11 of 13 Transcript by Rev.com This transcript was exported on Jul 20, 2021 - view latest version here.

Chris Lewis: Well, just have fun with every part of the job, right? If there's parts about the job that you don't like, then when things go poorly, which inevitably you're going to have adversity, now all of a sudden the parts of the job that you don't like start to be that much more painful, right? So, if you can genuinely enjoy the prep, genuinely enjoy the parts of the job search, or genuinely enjoy talking to people that could maybe help you out down the line. Those are the things that really make it so that you're enjoying the ride, you're enjoying the path.

And people have said it to me and you're never willing to listen to it when somebody is offering it to you, but the final destination is not the only thing, the journey to the final destination matters too. And you should enjoy that. And again, it's easy when you're on the other side and you've made it to the destination that you want to, to say that to the people who are up and coming, and by no means am I saying that I'm in a position to where I'm not somebody who is still trying to be an up and comer. I'm always still trying to find the next opportunity. And I still want to think of myself as somebody who's on the journey to whatever is next. But just enjoying the journey is in all aspects of it, if you can find a way to do that, I think your life will be a lot more pleasant as you figure out how the sports broadcasting path, where it's going to take you and how it's going to affect you.

But I've been again, lucky and fortunate that the biggest adversity that I had was during the COVID time. And then I got the opportunity to teach coming off of that, which then allowed me to stay in the position that was at to keep building up the sports broadcasting opportunities. So, now it's led to a couple of other doors opening. And I had a job lined up before the end of graduation doing Minor League Baseball. And then right during that summer the women's basketball job at Boise State open. So, I've been lucky in that way to where I haven't had such a long period of time of mastery and trying to figure it out, which again, I can just say, I'm one of the fortunate ones.

John Boccacino: And you learn so much more about yourself during times of adversity than times of success, because there's opportunities to challenge yourself. And clearly, even though you say you've been in the right place at the right time, and you've worked hard to get these opportunities, and they're deservedly so. It's great to have you as one of our new broadcasters on the rise. I know no offense, but in Boise State, we get the Mountain West coverage on a lot of network cable packages, but it's not something that a lot of Syracuse community members might know about off the draw, but now you've got this national spotlight, you've got the NBC games coming up for the Summer Olympics in Tokyo. And the fact that you're going to be there from basically day one of competition through the end of competition with table tennis, that's so cool that the games really span the entire three week Olympiad.

Chris Lewis: Yeah, it's crazy. And it means there's a lot of prep and a lot of work, and not a lot of breaks, which is great. It's exactly what I want. And hours will be ridiculous because things are going on a 13 hour time difference from Eastern Standard

Chris Lewis podcast (Completed 07/19/21) Page 12 of 13 Transcript by Rev.com This transcript was exported on Jul 20, 2021 - view latest version here.

Time or Eastern Daylight Time. So, it'll be fun and it'll be like a college experience in a way, right? Diving into something, not sure how it's going to turn out. And I'm hyped for it. And yeah, hopefully, it's one of those things that can lead to other things.

And you mentioned Boise State and its connection to Syracuse. There was a time while I was in Syracuse, where it looked like Boise State was going to join The Big East. There is a little bit of a week or two where it was lined up for Boise State to join The Big East and be in the same conference this year [inaudible 00:38:45], wild. Creighton was an add. Butler has been an add since I've left. I left Syracuse last year that they were in The Big East. So, I covered the last Big East tournament that Syracuse was in while I was there. So, I always put a little feather in my cap for that one because it was just so fun. I grew up Big East Tournament was my thing.

John Boccacino: I think Chris, your story is yet to be written. What you've accomplished so far is great, but there's so much more ahead of you. And hopefully this is really the start of something big with the Olympics when it comes to just writing your own ticket.

Chris Lewis: Coming up this basketball season, I'll be doing games with Boise State, also with the fall season too. But also with CBS Sports Network, I'll have a package of games for them for college basketball season two. So, I'm really looking forward to that.

So again, it was a tough year for everybody in 2020, and just trying to do your best to make it through and as good of a sport as you could. And now that, I get it's not completely behind us, the pandemic is certainly not completely behind us. We still need to do our part to put ourselves in the best position going forward. But hopefully as you know, sports arenas are getting more filled. The economy is recovering a little bit, that this next sport season, there'll be a lot of fun stuff on the horizon, and I just can't wait to experience it.

John Boccacino: Well, Chris, it's really been a pleasure telling your story here on the Alumni Podcast. And we wish you nothing but the best of luck with the Olympic coverage and all your broadcasting endeavors to come.

Chris Lewis: Thank you very much for having me on. It was fun.

John Boccacino: Thanks for checking out the latest installment of the Cuse Conversations Podcast. My name is John Boccacino, signing off for the Cuse Conversations Podcast.

Chris Lewis podcast (Completed 07/19/21) Page 13 of 13 Transcript by Rev.com