‘The Voice of Northern High'

Leavitt leads the Patriots crowd with the microphone

Friday, March 12, 2010

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by DARWIN WEIGEL In the mid-1980s Jon Leavitt began announcing wrestling matches as well as soccer games and has since added football and basketball. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

Leavitt, the soft-spoken voice of the Patriots, has been keeping fans up to date for more than 20 years now with his own brand of public address announcing.

"I try not to be a homer, although I know I am," said the 63-year-old Leavitt, who lives across the road from the Owings-based school, where his twin sons Jason and Justin, now 34, went to school. "I try to treat the other team with a little respect because I've been to other gyms and listened to their public address. I just enjoy doing it."

"He's a great addition to the athletic department, football and basketball," said Huntingtown High School Principal Rick Weber, who had Leavitt announcing his games when he was the head boys basketball coach at Northern High. "I think it makes it more of a first-class event when he's there announcing the scoring and the fouls. He's been a tremendous help."

Before games, Leavitt will go over pronunciation of players' names with a scorekeeper or coach and keeps a pseudo roster in front of him to help keep track of fouls and timeouts.

During games Leavitt maintains a low-key style that prevents him from becoming the focal point.

"Northern basket by No. 1, Alex Manning."

"Foul on Northern's Malik Tonkins, his first and Northern's fifth team foul."

"Timeout Northern, their third and final timeout."

He said he likes to give the spectators plenty of information, in part to keep himself in the game.

"I have heard people do that and it keeps me alert, that's why I give the points," he said. "They need to know the fouls so you give that information, but it also keeps me busy and from daydreaming and talking and not paying attention to what's going on. Because sure enough when you don't pay attention, something happens and you don't know what happened."

Those days seem to be very rare the last couple years and that comes with plenty of practice.

"He gives the information," Weber said. "I know sometimes the fans get excited, but he does a great job of staying impartial and letting the people know what's going on in the action."

Leavitt's introduction to public address work came on a fall Saturday in the late 1980s during a Northern football game.

"I was just sitting there one day and the person who was doing the P.A. was doing more of a play-by-play," Leavitt said. "Well this [Northern] kid starts running down the sidelines and [the P.A. guy] said, ‘Hey, it's a reverse and he's in the open.' They tackled the guy at the 5 and they never did score. I thought that was kind off odd that the guy would say [which play they were running] because if he hadn't said anything they would have scored."

Leavitt discussed the play with then-Northern assistant football coach Mike Henshaw at a church function. Henshaw listened and then asked Leavitt a simple question.

"He said something along the lines of, ‘Would you like to get involved up there?," and I said, ‘Like doing what?,'" Leavitt recalled. "He said they'd find something for me."

And they did. In the mid-1980s Leavitt began announcing wrestling matches for then-coach George Miller, now the school's principal, as well as soccer games. Leavitt said the latter sport was a challenge at first.

"I knew nothing about soccer, nothing so [my announcements] were very elementary," Leavitt said. "I would introduce the starting lineups and make noise when there was a goal."

Weber later transferred to Northern for the 1991-92 school year and became the varsity head boys basketball coach and he needed a P.A. announcer.

"Rick asked me if I wanted to do basketball," Leavitt said, "and I said, ‘I've never done it before, but I'll give it a shot.'"

He did so well at the high school level in fact that for the last 16 years he's also been calling the boys state basketball playoffs.

He also started calling football games shortly after taking on basketball, alone at first and then was helped by the addition of a spotter.

"It's a little tough to see and if you don't have somebody with binoculars [with you] it's a little tough to pick different players out," he said. "When you have the lines between the one and the five [painted on the field], it's a little easier to see."

He was also a state football spotter for announcer Chuck Gillette.

"I backed him up for three years," Leavitt said, "That meant I got to do a half in the second game while he went to eat."

Leavitt said there were some butterflies in the beginning after Gillette left and he began calling the games the next several years.

"There was [some pressure] at first because I was nervous," he said. "They have a format that they're very religious about following up there. They do certain things a certain way and they don't like to deviate too much from that. Everything I do [at Northern High] I write out because I do very little ad-libbing. Up there is pretty straightforward."

Background

Leavitt attended Warren Central (Ind.) High School in Indianapolis and played football, basketball and baseball while there. Upon graduating in 1964, he was drafted and served a four-year stint in the Army.

He later attended Indiana State University and majored in physical education. While there he became heavily involved in the intramural program and eventually earned a certificate which allowed him to run his own intramurals program. He graduated from Indiana State in 1970 with a degree in teaching/physical education.

He later worked in three government agencies –– the National Credit Union Administration, the General Services Administration and the then-Government Accounting Office O –– before working as a senior space management specialist ("I was a glorified building manager," he said with a laugh) for the government's Department of Justice where he oversaw a staff of about 40.

He retired in 2007 after 35 years on the job.

Leavitt, who has been married to wife Judy for 38 years, admits he enjoys his time at the mic more so at hoops games.

"It's more exciting," he said. "There's more to do and I guess you could say I'm more familiar with that game."

The fans and players and coaches and staff at Northern undoubtedly agree.

"Jon is ... and has been for a long time, ‘The Voice of Northern High,'" said Miller, who started the wrestling program in 1984 and ran it until 1988. "Most impressively he has consistently supported all of our athletes and our programs, even those that he does not announce. He is certainly an icon and a part of the many rich traditions that are, Northern High School."

mreid@somdnews.com