Voice of Vashon will test the idea of play-by-play sports broadcasting on Vashon next Monday when the Vashon High School baseball team goes to bat against Eatonville at home in their season opener.

VoV volunteers hope that if the first broadcast goes well, the project could grow into a learning experience for VHS students who would like to learn about broadcasting by helping with broadcasts or even running future broadcasts themselves.

Preben Martin, a 1993 VHS graduate, is the spark behind the effort. Martin was a team captain at VHS and lettered in football, basketball and baseball.

“My interest in sports in high school took me to broadcasting and a career as a professional director of network television sports broadcasts,” he said. “So this is a way for me to be involved with the community that gave me that start. … Ultimately if this plays out as intended and we can get students involved, it can also serve as a platform for giving kids in our community exposure and experience in broadcasting.”

Veteran broadcaster Jeff Hoyt will be calling the game for Voice of Vashon, and Island youth baseball supporter Lance Morgan will provide color commentary.

Hoyt said that if there had been a way for him to learn sportscasting when he was in high school, he would have “jumped in head first.”

“I used to geek out by doing the play-by-play of our high school basketball games from the top row of the bleachers, flanked by a color commentator and statistician on either side,” Hoyt said. “Only problem was there was no radio station. We broadcasted only to the annoyed fans sitting within the sound of our voices.”

— Richard Rogers is a Voice of Vashon volunteer.

Voice of Vashon will do a play-by-play broadcast of the Pirates’ season opener baseball game at 4 p.m. Monday. It will be broadcast on VoV’s public access Comcast channel 21 and web streamed at www.voiceofvashon.org.