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The Mtn. Announces 2011 Football Broadcast Teams

CENTENNIAL, Colo. - The Mtn. – MountainWest Sports Network has named its football broadcast teams for the upcoming 2011 Mountain West football season.
 
The tandems of Todd Harris (play-by-play) and Todd Christensen (analyst), Ari Wolfe (play-by-play) and Blaine Fowler (analyst), and Bill Doleman (play-by-play) and Jay Leeuwenburg (analyst) will form the three broadcast teams that will work the 30 games scheduled to appear on The Mtn. this fall.
 
Sidelines reporter duties will be performed on a rotating basis by Roger Bailey, Jenny Cavnar, Toby Christensen, Andrea Lloyd, Amanda Mazey, Cash Sirois, Molly Sullivan and Natalie Vickers.
 
“We’re pleased to present Mountain West fans with some of the best, most informed set of announcers anywhere,” said Steve Hurlbut, Vice President of Programming and Production for The Mtn.  “Our talent is passionate about Mountain West football and that passion shines through on our productions.”
 
The Mtn. is available nationally on DIRECTV (channel 616) and on cable systems in 25 states across the country.
 
Todd Harris
Todd Harris makes his debut with The Mtn. in 2011 as he enters his 20th year of sports broadcasting, having launched his career in 1991 with ESPN.  He joined ABC Sports in 1999 as a sideline reporter for ABC’s coverage of college football, and for seven years was teamed with legendary announcer Keith Jackson and pro football Hall of Famer Dan Fouts.  Following Jackson’s retirement, Harris moved into a play-by-play role for ESPN on their college football and basketball coverage.  After one year as a pit reporter on ABC’s Indy Car Racing League coverage, Harris was tapped as the new play-by-play announcer for ABC’s and ESPN’s coverage of IRL Racing in 2005. Harris was the voice of World Extreme Cagefighting on VERSUS from 2007-10 and is NBC’s host for both the winter and summer Dew Action Sports Tour.  His resume also includes extensive coverage of the Winter X Games for ABC and ESPN.  Harris will be part of NBC’s coverage of the 2012 Summer Olympics to be held in London and is a veteran of three Winter Olympics, covering the 1998 games in Nagano, Japan for Turner Sports and working for NBC at the games in Salt Lake City and, most recently, in Vancouver as the lead announcer for the network’s freestyle skiing coverage. Harris spent several years working for various broadcast networks, including Outdoor Life Network, Prime Sports, TBS, TNT and Fox Sports prior to joining ABC.
 
Todd Christensen
Todd Christensen enjoyed an 11-year professional career in the NFL as a tight end in which he was named All-Pro five times (1983-87), led the league in receiving twice (1983, 1986) and played on two Super Bowl championship teams with the Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders (1981, 1984). In the two decades since his playing days, Christensen has broadcast two Super Bowls, an Olympics, five National Championship college football games and over 40 bowl games. His accomplishments as a broadcaster have not gone unnoticed, as Todd has received two Emmy Award nominations for his work. This year marks the sixth in the booth for Christensen with The Mtn. Viewers can also follow Todd through his weekly blog entries on The Mtn. website.
 
Ari Wolfe
The Mtn. introduced Ari Wolfe to a portion of its Mountain West Conference football telecasts in 2009 as he split time between The Mtn. and Big Ten Network. In addition to his work for The Mtn., he provides news updates and reports for the NFL Network in addition to play-by-play and sideline reporting duties for the network’s AFL Friday Night Game of the Week telecasts. In 2009, Wolfe joined Universal Sports, covering hockey, rowing and other miscellaneous sporting events for the network.  The former play-by-play announcer for University of Louisville football and basketball on WHAS-TV in Louisville, Kentucky, Ari has also hosted Courtside with Rick Pitino and the Steve Kragthorpe Show for WHAS. Ari regularly called college football and basketball action on ESPN Regional Television productions and voiced Arena Football League games for VERSUS and AFL playoff games on ESPN. He was the television and radio voice of the Philadelphia Soul (AFL) from 2004-08 subsequent to his duties as the play-by-play announcer for the Indiana Firebirds on FSN Midwest from 1998-03. Last fall, Ari called preseason telecasts for the Minnesota Vikings for the fourth consecutive year, having previously worked as the preseason television play-by-play broadcaster for the Philadelphia Eagles in 2005. From 2003-07, Ari could be found working the sidelines for the NFL on Fox and Sports USA Radio.
 
Blaine Fowler
Blaine Fowler returns to the booth and sidelines for 2011, where he succeeded in transitioning his on-field talents into a successful broadcasting career spanning more than two decades. In addition to his football duties, Fowler is a regular analyst on The Mtn.'s men's basketball telecasts. As a quarterback at BYU from 1981-85, Blaine helped lead the Cougars to a National Championship on 1984. He subsequently played in the Canadian Football League (CFL) before joining KSL-TV in Salt Lake City, Utah as a color commentator on the station's football telecasts. Fowler has broadcast nearly 500 live college football and basketball games, working for networks such as Video West Sports, the Blue and White Network and SportsWest before joining The Mtn. Blaine’s talent has also led to work as a basketball analyst for VERSUS on Mountain West games.
 
Bill Doleman
Bill Doleman moved from the broadcast booth to the studio as a network anchor, joining Marius Payton in April 2008 to create an in-studio tandem dedicated to bringing the best in Mountain West news, scores and highlights to viewers.  Doleman had been part of The Mtn.’s football, basketball and volleyball play-by-play teams for the two seasons prior to his move behind the anchor desk, and returns to his play-by-play roots in an expanded role for 2011.  He was a regular on ESPN’s regional coverage of Big 12 Conference men’s basketball for 14 seasons and has performed extensive work for several other conferences as well.  Prior to joining The Mtn. on a full-time basis, he called numerous events for the Mountain West beginning in 2002. A former Nebraska Sportscaster of the Year, Doleman possesses an extensive resume of host and anchor duties, including work for ABC Sports, Fox Sports Net, NCAA Productions, the Big Ten Network, CBS College Sports and the ESPN family of networks.
 
Jay Leeuwenburg
Jay Leeuwenburg draws on a standout collegiate and nine-year NFL playing career to lend his knowledge and insight to The Mtn.’s game day football telecasts, both in-studio and from the booth as well as on the network’s season preview and review shows. Drafted in 1992, Leeuwenburg went on to a successful career as an offensive lineman in the National Football League, spending four seasons with Chicago, three with Indianapolis and one each with Cincinnati and Washington before retiring after the 2000 season. He started 129 regular season games, played in four playoff contests and has the distinction of being one of only a handful of NFL offensive linemen to start games at all five offensive line positions. Jay co-authored the book Yes I Can! Yes I Can!, an autobiography that focuses on his struggles with diabetes, diagnosed at age 12, and his journey to the NFL.