The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) has announced the broadcast partners and on-air talent for the upcoming television broadcasts of America’s Original March Madness.
Longtime IHSA TV Network mainstays Dave Bernhard and Lee Hall return to call play-by-play for all of the boy’s and girl’s action. A pair of newcomers will sit in the analyst seat next to Hall for the 1A and 3A girl’s state final games in WSIL’s Kelly Burke and former Illinois State University coach Jill Hutchison, respectively, while Bernhard teams with Big Ten Network analyst Patricia Babcock McGraw for the girl’s Class 2A and 4A games.
Former Gordon Tech and Southern Illinois University standout Camron Smith bookends the boy’s state final coverage, as he will serve as the analyst on the 1A and 4A telecasts. Longtime IHSA TV talent Mark Lindo returns to work with Bernhard on the boy’s games in Class 2A, while Sean Harrington joins the broadcast team as the analyst on the 3A tilts. Playing for his father, Jim, Sean led Elgin High School to the state tournament in 1998 and went on to serve as a team captain during his playing career at the University of Illinois.
Guiding viewers through the month of high school hoops action will be WSCR 670 The Score p
ersonality Matt Rodewald, who will serve as the studio host and sideline reporter throughout all four weekends.
The action begins with the IHSA Class 1A & 2A Girls Basketball State Finals on Friday and Saturday, February 22-23 from Redbird Arena on the campus of Illinois State University in Normal. The girl’s finals continue from Redbird with the Class 3A/4A tournaments on Friday and Saturday, March 1-2. The action then shifts to Carver Arena inside the Peoria Civic Center for the 2013 IHSA Boys Basketball State Finals. The Class 1A/2A tourneys will unfold on Friday and Saturday, March 8-9, before the final high school games of the season are contested during the Class 3A/4A tournaments on Friday and Saturday, March 15-16.
Click here for a list of stations carrying the games by market.
A brief bio on each broadcaster is available below:
PATRICIA BABCOCK MCGRAW – 2A/4A Girls Analyst
Patricia Babcock McGraw brings nearly a decade of broadcasting experience to the IHSA state finals, including having served as the color analyst on television broadcasts for the WNBA’s Chicago Sky and DePaul University women’s basketball. Since 1997, she has been a reporter and columnist for the Daily Herald, writing a weekly women’s sports column that is one of the few of its kind in the country. During basketball season, she is a game and studio analyst for women’s basketball games on the Big Ten Network. The 1990 Indiana Miss Basketball winner went on to play collegiately at Northwestern University, where she earned All-Big Ten and Academic All-Big Ten honors.
DAVE BERNHARD – 2A/4A Girls & Boys Play-By-Play
Dave Bernhard has become the face of the IHSA TV Network over the course of the past decade, working the football playoff pairings show, football state finals, boys & girls basketball and baseball state final broadcasts. The Beecher High School grad has covered high school athletics in Illinois on television, radio and in print for nearly 30 years. Dave was inducted into the Media Wing of the Illinois Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame in 2009 and has earned two local Emmy and two Cable Ace award nominations for his work on IHSA events.
KELLY BURKE – 1A Girls Analyst
Kelly Burke is a sports anchor/reporter for WSIL-TV News-3 in Carbondale. For the past three years she has covered area high schools and the Southern Illinois University Salukis, working on Saluki basketball and football broadcasts and coaches shows. She grew up in Arizona and was a standout runner and basketball player in high school, before going on to run track and cross country at Arizona State University. A magna cum laude graduate of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, Kelly has worked production for ESPN, TNT, and Major League Baseball. Before coming to Southern Illinois, she started her career at KDRV-TV in Medford, Oregon, as a weekend sports anchor/reporter.
LEE HALL - 1A/3A Girls & Boys Play-By-Play
Lee Hall first joined the IHSA TV network in 1994 and has since gone on to cover IHSA state final events in the sports of basketball, football, baseball, softball, volleyball and track & field. Lee has served as the Sports Director at WEEK in Peoria since 1988 and has been a fixture on the Peoria Sports scene, calling television play-by-play for Bradley University Men’s Basketball, Peoria Rivermen hockey, Peoria Chiefs minor league baseball and Peoria Pirates arena football. Lee is an alum of Academy of Our Lady/Spalding Institute High School in Peoria, where he was a co-captain on the baseball team with current New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi.
SEAN HARRINGTON – 3A Boys Analyst
Sean Harrington is currently a basketball analyst for the Big Ten Network (BTN), calling games and making studio appearances on BTN. Harrington played for his father, Jim, at Elgin High School, where he guided the Maroons to the state tournament in 1998. He was then a part of four NCAA Tournaments teams at the University of Illinois and went on to serve as the Director of Basketball Operations at both Illinois and St. Louis University. Harrington also made coaching stops at the University of Kansas and Northern Illinois University and has broadcast games on ESPNU as well.
JILL HUTCHISON – 3A Girls Analyst
Jill served as the head women’s basketball coach at Illinois State University from 1970 to 1999 and earned enshrinement in the Missouri Valley Conference and Women’s Basketball Halls of Fame for her prodigious career. She has served as a basketball and volleyball analyst on radio and television for over a decade, including regular appearances on Missouri Valley Conference TV, ICN5 Broadcasting and Fox Sports Midwest. Hutchison was the first-ever President of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association and won 428 games in her coaching career, in addition to a combined nine trips to either the NCAA or NIT tournaments.
MARK LINDO – 2A Boys Analyst
Mark Lindo was a high school basketball coach in Illinois for 27 years, reaching the Sweet 16 three times during his time leading Aurora Central Catholic and Naperville North. A member of the Illinois High School Basketball and Baseball Halls of Fame, Mark continues to serve as an assistant basketball coach at Aurora University. Mark has served as a color analyst on IHSA TV network broadcasts for nearly a decade and he also works as the radio analyst for Northern Illinois University football games, including the 2013 Orange Bowl, as well as on select NIU basketball games. Mark has called numerous high school, collegiate and minor league basketball, baseball and football contests on radio and television.
MATT RODEWALD – Host & Sideline Reporter for all games
Matt Rodewald is an Emmy Award winning reporter and a sports radio mainstay for the last decade in Chicago. Matt has been an innovator in high school sports coverage in Northern Illinois, including the creation of the successful "High School GameNight" post-game show while at ESPN 1000. Matt is also the founder of NBC 5's "Prep Destination of the Week," a ground-breaking segment that saw unprecedented success with social media interaction. Matt currently serves as an anchor/host at 670 The Score, while contributing to CN100, PlayON! Sports and High School Cube during high school game broadcasts. An experienced play-by-play announcer with WKRS, WBIG, and ESPN 950 in Indianapolis, the Geneva High School grad has also covered high school sports for the Chicago Tribune and the Kane County Chronicle.
CAMRON SMITH – 1A & 4A Boys Analyst
A native of the west side of Chicago, Camron was a standout on the hardwood at Gordon Tech High School and went on to play in the NCAA Tournament three times as a member of the Southern Illinois University basketball team from 2004 to 2007. He made his debut on the IHSA TV Network a year ago, serving as an analyst on the Class 2A games. Camron has a wide array of media experience, having covered high school, collegiate and professional sports as a reporter/analyst for Comcast CN100 and the Big Ten Network. He also hosts CN100's show "Prep Profile" and delivers color commentary and sideline reports for CN100's IHSA Games of the Week in football and basketball.