As the play-by-play broadcaster for the Rome Emperors, the Braves High-A affiliate, Gavin Booker ’23 lives and breathes baseball. After calling a game, he often catches another on TV or radio. In college, he lived a similar sports-focused routine, playing on Berry’s baseball team, taking sport leadership classes and working for Berry’s athletic department. Now Booker is excited to be back in Rome, taking his next big step in broadcasting.
From an early age, Booker muted the TV and pretended to be a sports announcer. At Berry, he found himself in communication and sport leadership classes, tailoring his experiences to broadcasting opportunities.
He also worked with the athletic department trying on this role. Booker was responsible for the Berry baseball team’s sports information. He did research, prepped rosters and lineups, and made sure his press-box team was organized and prepared to keep stats. After prep, he would call the game and then complete the post-game notes and press releases.
“Berry jobs are safe places to fail,” says Booker, recalling when he took 250–300 senior-day photos without a chip in his camera. “It was awful, but it wasn’t a career-ending failure.”
In his junior year, a former teammate offered him a radio broadcaster role for a Sunbelt League team, the Waleska Wild Things. Booker jumped on the opportunity. Ultimately, the experience affirmed he had an affinity for play-by-play calling.
“I wasn’t polished yet, but people were taking notice,” says Booker. “I could talk about baseball for hours, and I realized it wasn’t something everyone could comfortably do.”
The following summer, he was invited to Oxford, Alabama, to be the voice of the Choccolocco Monsters, another team in a slightly larger market. This gig transitioned Booker from calling games on digital livestreams to being a voice on the radio.
To keep up his momentum, Booker talked with Kevin Renshler, director of Berry's sport leadership and strategy program. Renshler encouraged Booker to get his foot in the door at a Rome Emperors job fair, even if the team wasn't listing internships.
“I was ready to be any version of gameday staff,” says Booker, “but the team created an internship position for me.”
This role allowed Booker to be the communications Swiss army knife of the team. He ran the on-field mobile camera, was the number-two broadcaster and worked as a technical director, running the field video board, in-house feed and public livestream.
Looking back, Booker also highlights one of his most impactful Berry experiences — Berry Singers. A music professor and mentor recognized that singing brought him joy and encouraged him to leave room in his busy schedule for this activity, though he wasn’t a music major. Booker is eternally grateful for this advice.
“I loved creating beautiful music,” says Booker, “and I’d give some credit to Berry Singers for never experiencing stage fright or jitters before calling a game.”
When not at the field, Booker serves as a substitute teacher for Rome City Schools. He encourages Berry students, saying, "Take advantage of the campus jobs and experiences. You won’t know what you want to do until you know what you don’t want to do.”
