Two alumni, Katie Garman Kammerdiener ’10 and Pat Campolieta ’02, returned to Cotterell Court this past season. But, instead of dribbling up and down the court, the former basketball players sat in as the color commentators. Both are university employees and were asked by John Painter, director of sports communications, to partner up with Eric Malanoski from WKXZ-FM.
“Eric does a terrific job on play-by-play with our football and basketball broadcasts,” Painter said. “But color analysts add so much to your listening enjoyment and understanding of the game.”
Kammerdiener covered the women’s home games, while Campolieta gave analysis for the men’s team.
“It’s something I never thought I’d do — I’m not really a chatty person,” said Kammerdiener, who is program coordinator in the Center for Leadership and Student Involvement. But, “eventually, it felt like more of a conversation with Eric than something I was sharing with the world,” she said.
Kammerdiener prepares by reading the stats and expectations of the rival teams. It shows, commented Malanoski. “Katie is constantly taking notes, and it’s obvious she does her homework before game time,” said Malanoski, who has been doing the play-by-play for the Raiders since the 2002-2003 season. Recalling Kammerdiener’s hard-work ethic as a student-athlete, he added: “Just like she was during her playing days, she is always looking to improve.”
The former geology major said her most memorable game as a player was going into the conference as the last-place seed and beating the first-place seed, Bucknell — something that’d never happened before.
Malanoski never got to see Campolieta play. “But it’s been an absolute pleasure working with him,” he said.
Like Kammerdiener, Campolieta said that doing the color commentary “was a little challenging” at first. “You have to formulate an analysis and say it [quickly] so that Eric can move on to the next play,” he said. Campolieta, too, has found it helpful to study each team’s strengths and weaknesses in advance.
“Pat is a natural at it, and at his first broadcast, it was hard to believe [he’d never done it before],” Malanoski said.
A political science major, Campolieta was a four-year forward and a captain his last two years. After graduation, he played and coached in Ireland for two years before becoming an assistant coach at LeMoyne College. In 2011, he was inducted into Colgate’s Athletic Hall of Honor.
As the assistant director for athletic advancement since 2012, Campolieta occasionally gets to see the players away from Cotterell Court when he is on the road building support for Colgate athletics.
“They did a terrific job [doing commentary],” Painter said. “Plus, with our games being simulcast on WKXZ-FM for radio and the Patriot League Network for video streaming, more Colgate basketball fans than ever were able to enjoy our improved broadcasting product.”