By Tabitha Evans Moore, EDITOR & PUBLISHER
CHAPEL HILL, Tenn. — It’s Monday afternoon and former Moore County High School QB1, Kyler Parker, sits at Forrest High School ready to bring fans the play-by-play action for the Champions versus Rockets baseball game. It’s the district opener and the first away game for the new Voice of Cascade Baseball.
In between at bats, Parker gives key stats and morsels of inside information that make you feel as if you’re enjoying the sunshine at the Forrest diamond. As a Cascade runner gets caught sleeping and is nearly picked off, you can hear the home crowd get excited. The runner gets picked off on the next pitch, and you can hear the “ah man” in Parker’s voice but he keeps the broadcast neutral.
Parker’s voice sounds like those you might hear on ESPN Radio. He offers precise descriptions of the game without feeling the need to fill in every silence. As the Cascade pitcher goes inside, Parker spots it and seems to predict the big hit that’s unfortunately coming on the next swing. The Rocket batter gets a good lick on the next pitch – putting two runners in play and they score on the next at bat.
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From student athlete to sports media
Readers may remember Parker as a former two-sport MCHS star athlete. He played varsity football and baseball for the Raiders in 2020-21. The TSSAA named him a Class 1A Mr. Football nominee that season, and that spring, he served as captain on the state runner-up Raider baseball team.
However, it’s a serendipitous need that arose between football and baseball in 2020, that launched what would eventually be a budding sports media career.
“We had a good basketball team my senior year but because of COVID the attendance to games was very limited,” Parker explains. “I had done a few podcasts with Benji Garland my senior year, which led me to ask Moore County Sports Network Director Jonah Deal if he wanted someone to do play-by-play for basketball that year. I ended up loving it.”
He loved it so much that he switched his would-be college major from engineering to communications and sports media.
Parker attended Vol State his freshman year, where he majored in communications before deciding to transfer to Motlow State, where he completed his Associates Degree in Communication in the summer of 2022. He graduated early from Middle Tennessee State University this past December with a Sports Media degree.
Parker says one of the reasons sports media appealed to him is the idea that he could give rural student athletes more chances to advance their careers.
“When I was in school, there was a serious lack of high school sports coverage in Lynchburg,” Parker says. “I think it has grown over the last few years, which has brought much more attention to the good athletes in our area. I hope to help grow that coverage and give these athletes more chances to advance their careers or be recognized for their athletic accomplishments.”
Passion with a purpose
Parker says he’s been on a ballfield of some sort his whole life. His father, Kenneth Parker, coached basketball at places like Cascade and The Webb School as well as his kids’ youth sports teams.
“I’ve been around sports my whole life because my dad always coached,” Parker says. “I grew up on a ballcourt. Sports have been in the background of my life in one way or another for my entire life.”
Not all sports broadcasters have played the sport they cover, which means they need to research the rules and the basics. For Parker, it’s that lifetime of watching and playing football, basketball, and baseball that allows him to approach games with the foundational knowledge necessary to spot the nuanced stuff as it happens.
“I know the game inside and out, especially with football and baseball. I know when teams line up. I know what they’re looking for. I know how to attack a defense. I know baseball-wise in situations you’ve got first and third with certain outs,” he explains. “I’ve been in those situations so many times before, even though it wasn’t at the highest level, but I still know what to expect.”
Parker says combining his passion for sports with an opportunity to spotlight rural student athletes allows him to feel purpose-driven about his budding career.
“I just don’t think any of the kids in southern, middle Tennessee get the credit they deserve, and there are a lot of really good athletes that come out of this area,” he says. “It’s harder for kids from smaller towns to compete with places like Murfreesboro, Chattanooga, or Nashville because they’ve got, you know, access to the bigger city market and they’ve got more people over there covering, so they’ve got more eyes watching.”
Not only is it harder to get stats and other details about student athletes in rural communities, but many sportswriters also tend to live in bigger markets, and vote for kids they cover when it comes to awards season.
“What I really like about what I’m doing now is that I get to shine a light on the little guy that doesn’t get the recognition they deserve.”
In the end, Parker says he loves sports media because it still allows him to feel like he’s a part of the games he spent endless hours playing and practicing.
“I no longer carry a football, and I’ve obviously hung up my cleats, but I just like being around the game in general,” he says. “It’s a lot different than just going and watching the game because I’m sitting there with a headset on and I’m telling you exactly what’s going on as it’s going on.”
Not only is that a win for Parker, but also for fans and grandparents, who maybe aren’t able to attend games, but who are still very invested in the outcomes.
He also says sports media allows him to cover stories about student athletes overcoming adversity. For example, while at MTSU he penned a print story entitled, “How a Broken Arm Led to the Fourth No-Hitter in MTSU Baseball History.” {To read that story, click here.)
It’s the story of MTSU pitcher Chandler Alderman, a former right-handed pitcher who as a child broke his right arm and decided to simply start throwing with his left arm rather than quit the game.
“He just continued to play left-handed all the way out and then got a D1 scholarship to MTSU and threw a no-hitter as a freshman,” Parker explains. “I like bringing attention to little things that a lot of people wouldn’t know, too. There’s just so many cool things that go on in sports.”
Vision for the future
When we ask Parker what his dream sports job is, he says if he could snap his fingers and have any sports job right now, he’d take over for Mike Keith as the Titans play-by-play guy. After three decades with the Titans, Keith left two months ago to become the voice of his alma mater, the Tennessee Volunteers.
“I think play-by-play is the thing that I enjoy the most, because I’m sitting there during a game, and I’m painting a picture,” Parker says.
For now, he’s become the official voice of the Cascade Champions baseball team on The Zinger (WZNG 100.9 FM) as well as covering Shelbyville High School baseball and softball for Whiskey Country (WHMT 95.9 and 105.1 FM). There are also discussions underway for him to return to Lynchburg in the fall to cover Raider football games for the Moore County Sports Network (MCSN).
Parker credits the MCSN and Jonah Deal for exposing him to the world of play-by-play announcing in high school.
“Student sports broadcasting is so important. If it wasn’t for Jonah and that program, I would have never had the exposure to even consider it and I’d probably be an engineer right now,” he jokes. “I never would have had the opportunity to put on a headset and realize, oh, dang, I might actually be decent at this.”
Return to Jim Burton Field
On Thursday, April 3, Parker will get a unique opportunity as he returns to Lynchburg and Jim Burton Field but this time not as a Raider but as the official Voice of Cascade Baseball.
Parker admits that while most sports broadcasters tend to be “homers” for their organization, he attempts to be neutral but probably even more so when calling against his alma mater.
“With that being my alma mater, I’m going to be neutral. I like being neutral anyway because I’m trying to get experience. I like doing high school sports, but I’m also trying to build a reel and a portfolio for myself,” he says. “I’m still trying to sweet talk Coach Morey into giving my own space up in the press box.”
If you’d like to listen to his coverage, you can tune into 100.9 FM/ 1400 AM The Zinger or www.wzngradio.com beginning 15 minutes before the first pitch. The game is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. •
{The Lynchburg Times is a nonpartisan, independent community newspaper serving Lynchburg, Tennessee and the surrounding counties. We are dedicated to public service journalism for the greater good of our community. You can support us, by clicking here.}