Chaminade student Thomas Gamba miked up for Yankees-Tigers ESPN KidsCast at MLB Little League Classic
Chaminade junior Thomas Gamba Credit: Allison Gamba
Thomas Gamba does not remember a time when he didn’t dream about working in sports. Growing up watching the Knicks and Yankees in his Garden City home, Gamba says his favorite part was learning the players’ statistics and story lines.
“I always wanted to be a general manager of a team,” he said. “I never thought I would have an opportunity to get into broadcasting, but my parents always told me that I would be great at it.”
The dream took on a new dimension when Gamba joined Chaminade High School’s sports media program as a freshman and was asked to fill in as the public address announcer for a basketball game.
“The players were asking who that freshman was on the mic and the coach said to me, ‘We need that kid on all our games right away,’ ” said Pat Reichert, an English teacher and the director of the school’s program. “It was almost immediately apparent that Thomas was where he was meant to be.”
As a result, Gamba became the basketball and lacrosse announcer for the Flyers and has called more than 100 games since.
Now the 16-year-old rising junior is preparing to call the biggest game of his budding career.
At 7 p.m. Sunday on ESPN2, he’ll be behind the mic as a part of the KidsCast for the MLB Little League Classic as the Yankees and Detroit Tigers meet at Bowman Field in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, during the Little League World Series.
“This whole experience has taught me how lucky I am to have this opportunity,” Gamba said. “I’m thinking of it as just as Chaminade but the Yankees, like it’s any other game I’ve done.”
After the Chaminade lacrosse season ended in May, Gamba continued to talk about his experience with the program. It was in a conversation during a car ride on the way to Bruce Beck’s Sports Broadcasting camp in July that Gamba showed Mike Quick of ESPN NY 98.7 FM a clip of him calling a freshman lacrosse game.
“He was impressed and wanted to bring me up to the veteran camp right away,” Gamba said. “A few weeks later, I got an email saying I was one of eight finalists for the KidsCast. I thought it was spam at first and I didn’t think I’d get it because I was going up against college kids and high school seniors. I was the youngest finalist.”
There were no applications for the ESPN 2 KidsCast gig. Instead, the network selects three young broadcasters based on tapes from the camp. Gamba got the call about getting on the call last week.
“A week goes by after my audition, and Bruce calls me on the phone to tell me I won. I couldn’t believe it,” Gamba said.
Gamba also earned an internship with the Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League after gaining experience at Chaminade. Assistant athletic director and basketball coach Dan Feeney remembers when the program started four years ago because two students wanted to create a sports podcast.
“I have kids tell me it’s the reason they came here,” Feeney said. “It’s grown from two kids to a team of over 30. They have matching uniforms, do interviews before the game and get professional experience in the field. It’s been incredible for coaches, players and parents to see.”
Despite moving from the Chaminade press box to the ESPN broadcast booth in Williamsport, Gamba said his preparation will be no different.
“I always preach that hard work beats talent,” he said. “As long as I work hard and prepare well, I know I’ll be proud of myself. The different thing about this opportunity is I’m getting the chance to give back to Chaminade and my community by hopefully representing them to the best of my ability on a national stage.”
