JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman's Athletic Communications Department has set its broadcast crew for the coming year with a slew of award-winning individuals.
Voice of the Eagles – Adam Cavalier
The 2013 winner of Stretch Internet's Call of the Year competition, Cavalier enters his second year as the Voice of the Eagles and C-N's director of athletic communication.
A decorated journalist, Cavalier has won more than 250 state, regional, national and international awards for his work across media platforms. In 2012, the West Virginia Associated Press Broadcasters' Association lauded him with its Significant Impact Award, given to an individual who has worked in broadcasting in the state for at least six years and whom has made a "significant impact" on the industry in the state. He is the award's youngest winner in its history.
From 2009-2011 he guided Marshall University's award-winning campus radio station WMUL-FM as its graduate student station manager. At the same time, he was the play-by-play voice of the Marshall women's basketball team. During his tenure with WMUL, both as an undergrad and graduate student, he was twice named the WVAPBA's Broadcast Journalist of the Year. He won the organization's reporter of the year award four times and its sportscaster of the year twice. Through Cavalier's two years as station manager, the station as a whole garnered 230 awards, including a station-record breaking 131 in his final year with WMUL-FM.
In 2009, Cavalier won the inaugural Jim Nantz Award from the Sportscasters Talent Agency of America as the top collegiate sportscaster in America. The same day, he finished second in the Hearst Journalism Awards radio news competition for the best collegiate news reporter in the nation.
Voice of the Lady Eagles – Roger Hoover
Also back for a second year is women's basketball play-by-play voice Roger Hoover. Hoover returns to Mossy Creek after spending the summer as the lead voice for the Jacksonville Suns – the AA affiliate of the Miami Marlins.
Hoover was the Suns broadcaster during the 2011 season, and finishes his sixth season of professional baseball broadcasting.
Hoover has spent the past four seasons broadcasting baseball in the Southern League, working for the Suns in 2011 and as a broadcasting assistant with the Tennessee Smokies, for three of the past four years dating back to 2009. His experience in the Southern League includes: providing play-by-play in the 2009, 2010, and 2011 Southern League Championship Series, working with baseball Hall of Famer and 2009 Smokies manager Ryne Sandberg, being a part of the radio coverage for the 2010 and 2012 Southern League All-Star Games, as well as the Smokies Radio Network's coverage of the 2010 Rickwood Classic in Birmingham, Ala.
Hoover is a graduate of the University of Tennessee and served his alma mater as the color analyst for Tennessee Baseball on the Vol Network in 2012.
Hoover, a native of Kingsport, Tenn., spent his first season broadcasting professional baseball in his hometown with the Kingsport Mets of the Appalachian League in 2008. Hoover began his broadcasting career in 2006 with the Vol Network at the University of Tennessee.
Football Color Analyst, Baseball Play-by-play – Michael Wottreng
A voice already familiar to East Tennessee sports fans, Michael Wottreng begins his first season as an announcer for Carson-Newman University. Wottreng has spent the summer of 2013 with the Tennessee Smokies as the team's senior broadcast assistant. With the Smokies, he filled several on-air roles including play-by-play, maintained the website for the Smokies Radio Network and assisted in video production of a variety of features.
A native of Cincinnati, Wottreng worked in the broadcasting department at Miami (Ohio) prior to joining the Smokies on Radio team. At Miami, Michael was the play-by-play broadcaster for volleyball, baseball, and softball. During the summer of 2012, he was the play-by-play broadcaster for the East Texas Pump Jacks, a summer collegiate baseball league team.
A May 2012 graduate of Marquette University, he was the sports director at Marquete University Radio (WMUR) for three years, where he was a play-by-play broadcaster for basketball, volleyball, and soccer and a radio show host. Wottreng also was a TV host and reporter for Marquette University Television and was a writer for the Marquette Tribune.
Sideline Reporter – Leannda Carey
Leannda Carey begins her first season as the Eagle Sports Network's sideline reporter.
Carey comes to Carson-Newman by way of Marshall University where she oversaw the operation for the college's campus radio station, WMUL-FM, from 2011-13. Under Carey's guidance, the station nabbed a two-year high of 260 awards.
She finished her broadcasting career in the Mountain State with more than 130 broadcasting awards – second all-time at WMUL-FM – at the state, regional and national level. Carey's top honors include a King Best of Festival Award from the Broadcast Education Association for reporting on the Upper Big Branch mine explosion in Montcoal, W.Va. She is also a two-time Anchor of the Year for the state as named by the West Virginia Associated Press Broadcaster's Association.
A former sideline reporter on Marshall football broadcasts, Carey has been recognized for her work roaming the Herd sidelines more than 15 times. Her sports reporting has run the gamut from breaking down the intricacies of the 3-3 odd stack to visits to former Herd greats at Pittsburgh Steelers' training camp. All told, she's won more than 30 awards pertaining to sports reporting and sports production.
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