Tripp Takes Over Radio Play-by-Play Duties

During an interview of Guy Gadowsky on "Sports Talk with Steve Jones and Brian Tripp" on ESPN Radio 1450 in State College Wednesday afternoon, it was revealed that the show's producer and co-host, Brian Tripp, will be the new radio voice of Penn State men's hockey in 2013-2014.

The news, as tends to happen, spread and was confirmed on Twitter, including by the subject himself.

Tripp represents a sharp departure from the man he is replacing, eleven-year Icers and Nittany Lions vet Steve Penstone. While Penstone took on broadcasting as a second career, was largely self-made, a bit unpolished and primarily concerned with hockey, Tripp is a young jack of all trades who trained for broadcasting from day one - and in fact, was calling games for some of PSU's most-regarded teams (women's volleyball, to name one) as an undergrad. Here's Tripp's bio from ESPN Radio 1450:

Brian joined State College's ESPN Radio 1450 in February 2012, serving as the producer for Sports Talk with Steve Jones. In addition to working on the station's afternoon talk show, his responsibilities include producing daily news and sports updates and hosting sports talk programming on a fill-in basis. Brian also serves as a broadcaster with the Penn State Sports Network and Penn State Athletics. He just completed his third full season as the play-by-play voice of the Penn State women's volleyball team and serves as an analyst for Lady Lion basketball and Penn State baseball broadcasts. He is a native of Nazareth, Pa and a 2011 graduate of Penn State University with a degree in Broadcast Journalism.

For those unfamiliar with his style and eager to get a sneak preview, Tripp maintains a personal website including clips of his work on volleyball, basketball, wrestling... and even THON. While a fair criticism would be his inexperience with hockey (or even worse, with some people, his lack of "hockey guy" status), Tripp's resume to this point and his proven versatility seem to indicate that he'll have no problem picking it up.

Oh, and there's this clip of him doing play-by-play of a Casey Bailey goal on February 1st against Ohio from his website:



Tripp will be joined in the booth by analyst Tim King, who debuted alongside Penstone in 2012-2013 and will reprise his role in the coming year. Further details on PSU's radio arrangement, including the stations carrying the games, are still being worked out.