Nets fan’s chance behind the mic makes for one happy camper
A fan is someone who sticks with a beloved team or player through good times and bad. If the dictionary included an entry for “New Jersey Nets fan,” you’d find Zach Links included in the definition.
Links, 18, says he’s been following the fortunes of the Nets since he was two years old, so he’s seen them at their worst and best. His epiphany about what to do with his life didn’t come until much later — when he was six.
In the down years, “when I would be pretty much the only person at the Nets games,” he had the opportunity to meet Ian Eagle, one of the team’s broadcasters. It was then he knew he wanted to be a sportscaster. “I went home and started — poorly — imitating him on a tape recorder after listening to [him],” said Links. Four years ago, “when I heard about his camp, I was the first to sign up.” Links has been going back to the Bruce Beck & Ian Eagle Sports Broadcasting Camp, based at the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center in Little Falls, ever since.
Like many kids, Links dreamed of a career in sports with his favorite team. Not as a player, since he claims to be one of the most unathletic people you could meet, but in the broadcast booth. “My dream job would probably be backing up Ian as the Nets’ play-by-play guy.”
“The camp gave me a huge leg up. Researching, writing copy, and collaborating with others is the basis of sportscasting.” After completing the basic camp — which includes such topics as sideline reporting, hosting sports shows, the role of women in sports broadcasting, on-camera exercises and critiques, sports talk-radio hosting and producing, and play-by-play of a professional baseball game — Links attended an advanced program, where he learned about studio work.
“The best time at the camp was spent working on the five-minute piece for a studio report because you got to understand that a week’s worth of work goes into that five-minute broadcast. Everyone comes away with a lot more confidence because they’re able to finally do this. You get over all your stage fright, get over all the initial nerves. I think it’s a great experience for anyone, whether or not they want to go into sportscasting.
“You learn that sportscasting is anything but a glamorous business,” Links said. “Prep work and practice are the most important things. It is also important to be a team player and work well with everyone; there are many people behind the scenes who work together to make a broadcast flawless.”
The 18-year-old Springfield resident graduated from Jonathan Dayton High School and attends Rutgers University, where he parlayed his camp experience into a spot on the WRSU campus radio station. “I was able to get onto the air…right away and that’s solely because of the experience I had at the camp.” Links hosts SportsKnight, a weekly talk show and covers basketball, baseball, and football. He will spend the summer as an intern with College Sports TV.
That his parents, Jane and Allan, are both sports fans has only made deciding on his career path easier. “They’ve been so supportive of me since day one. They’ve always just wanted me to be happy and do what I want to do.” His younger sister, Alexa, also attended the camp last year.
“Ian is the best play-by-play announcer in the country and one of the best people I have ever met,” said Links.
He credits Eagle and Beck, a Livingston native, for setting him on the right road as he reaches for his goal.
“Besides his NBC work, Bruce does [Rutgers] Scarlet Knights sports and so many other things. A last minute look at [his] work at Rutgers convinced me to change my mind: I turned down my acceptance at Newhouse” — the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University — “because I saw the huge opportunities in Rutgers athletics. It was a great decision, and I thank Ian and Bruce for helping me work through that.”
Something else Links has learned from his mentors is that sports isn’t everything. Eagle, who lives in Essex Fells and is a member of Congregation Agudath Israel of West Essex in Caldwell, is active in communal causes. During back-and-forth e-mails with Links in preparing for his interview, the member of Temple Beth Ahm in Springfield deflected questions about himself to suggest a story about a charity hockey game to raise funds for the family foundations of two of his friends who died of leukemia.
(The praise is a two-way street. In an e-mail, Eagle told NJ Jewish News: “Zach was with us from the beginning, and I’m so proud of what he has already accomplished at such a young age. He quickly established himself as one of the top campers in the program, and I’m not the least bit surprised that he’s off to a fast start at Rutgers. It’s been quite fulfilling to see Zach and a number of our kids move on to college and pursue a career in broadcasting.
“One problem,” continued Eagle: “I’m starting to think that we’re probably training my eventual replacement, but I’ll deal with that down the road.”)
“Ian Eagle and Bruce Beck are the best in the business and terrific people in real life,” Links said. “[They] work hard and are very successful and still take the time to teach future sportscasters. They are amazing on and off air, and I am very fortunate to have them to show me how much I need to learn to become half as successful as they are.”
For more information on the Bruce Beck and Ian Eagle Sports Broadcasting Camp, which runs July 24-28, call 908-233-1113 or visit their Web site.
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