Senior Reflection: Ryan Ragan finds his stride in CBADN

As a Christian Brothers Academy student, I have a lot to be grateful for.

My parents sacrificed a lot to put me through this school, and I will never be able to thank them enough for that. My experience at the Academy was, at times, challenging. However, I have gained so much more than I ever could have imagined as a result of my time at CBA. 

For as long as I can remember, I have had a strong interest in all things sports-related. Like many kids, I always enjoyed playing and watching sports, but my interest always seemed to go far beyond that. Whether it was collecting baseball cards or watching my favorite player’s college highlights, I spent hours on end during my formative years poring over the most minute details of sports. 

Despite my interest, I never really viewed sports as anything more than a hobby. I was never a great athlete myself, so I knew that option was basically out in terms of careers. One option that I thought was interesting was broadcasting.

As a Mets fan, I always admired SNY’s legendary broadcasting crew of Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez, and Ron Darling. The only problem with this idea is that for most of my life, I was incredibly shy and introverted. I couldn’t really imagine myself getting on the mic and giving commentary for listeners. As a result, I gave up on that dream pretty early. 

During course selection my freshman year, I was introduced to CBA’s period zero classes. I had a slight interest in a few of the options such as science team or robotics, but nothing really caught my eye initially. However, the Media, Marketing, and Broadcasting program was soon brought to my attention. I had heard about the program in the past and how the students covered sporting events, but was unsure as to what it exactly consisted of. Despite my lack of knowledge about the program, my interest in sports was enough to pique my interest. With the encouragement of my parents, I signed up for the class. 

This class met three times a week in the morning on the back half of the cycle. Because my bus would not get to school on time, my dad would have to drive me to school so that I could get to class. This was a sacrifice on his part, as he otherwise would not have been driving this way. I am grateful for his contribution in this respect because it is unlikely that I ever would have gotten involved in this program at CBA otherwise. 

In terms of academics, I enjoyed the Multimedia, Marketing, and Broadcasting class. Taught by Mr. Jason Lutz, we were tasked with completing different assignments periodically, ranging from articles to video interviews. While some students dropped the course early, I stayed because I was excited by the class assignments. While it certainly added to my workload, as I was taking one additional class compared to the majority of my classmates, I have to say that it was ultimately worth the added effort. 

I reenrolled in this class my junior year, and am happy to say that I had a similarly positive experience. While I completed the same amount of work in the classroom, I also began to assume additional responsibilities within student media. It was during this year that I first began to really contribute with CBA Digital Network’s live broadcasts of sporting events. In this COVID-riddled year, I found my niche working behind the camera and filming a lot of our broadcasts of basketball and hockey games. I became the go-to camera operator for the program, and I was happy to find a skill within sports.

Alongside my experience with the CBADN in my junior year, I began to engage in journalistic opportunities outside of school. A New York sports Instagram account that I had been following for years, All New York Sports, posted that they were looking for volunteer journalists to write for their website. As a fan of the page, I applied for the position and was soon accepted. Ecstatic, I began to write articles for ANYS right away. During my time with ANYS, I wrote almost twenty articles and accumulated about 5,400 page views for my work. Towards the end of my tenure, I began being paid for my contributions. Although grateful for being paid, I had never intended to make money off my writing in this stage of my life anyway, so I put all of the money that I made writing for ANYS back into the website.

In my senior year, I did not take the period zero class again. Instead, I enrolled in the digital media homeroom, again taught by Mr. Lutz. This homeroom consists of students of several grade levels, all of whom are dedicated members of the CBADN. It was during this year that I really found my place in the broadcasting world. Over the past two years, I had generated a wealth of experience in the fields of journalism and broadcasting. I continued both of these interests into the fall season, as I wrote and edited articles about CBA’s Shore-Conference winning soccer team, as well as filming a few of the games. I really felt like I was in the zone as a multimedia journalist.

As winter rolled around, I decided to revisit an old, dormant interest of mine: getting on the mic and broadcasting a game. Although I had “abandoned” this ambition years prior, I had grown as a person since then. I have become far more confident, and I believed that I would be able to get through a live broadcast if given the opportunity. I pitched the idea of doing color commentary for a JV basketball game to Mr. Lutz and he quickly gave me the gig.

Since then, as they say, the rest is history. This winter, I broadcasted fourteen games, far more than I ever had previously. A majority of these were behind the camera, but I had the opportunity to put the headset on for five games this winter. Two times were JV basketball, where I had the opportunity to broadcast with sophomore Chris Heite. I had the privilege to call two varsity basketball games, including an exciting game against Freehold Township where Peter Noble’s three-pointer won the game with only seconds left. On a whim, I also jumped on a varsity hockey call when senior Chris Tsimbinos invited me to join him in the booth.

My final broadcast came in CBA’s loss against Immaculata in the state tournament. This game featured our four broadcast “regulars” since November: myself on camera, Chris Ern on the computer, and Chris Carrino and Hugh Straine on the call. At halftime, Ern and I joined Carrino and Straine, this time in front of the camera, to discuss our experiences with the program. Personally, I felt that this was a very impactful moment for the four of us, as it encapsulated all of our hard work together, not only this year but also throughout our years at CBA.

My experience with the CBADN was valuable, to say the least. Going back even as recently as my freshman year, I don’t think that I ever could have imagined working on a broadcast, let alone getting on the mic. Now, my perspective, and even my future outlook, has changed immensely. As I head off to college in the fall, I now know where my interests lie. I would like to continue broadcasting in college, and hopefully beyond that. I don’t know what the future holds, but what I do know is that my experience with the CBADN has prepared me well for what is to come.