Teachers help senior fulfill dream visit to Bulls’ game
Senior Omarion Thomas is known for his sports commentary for PNN (Pirate News Network) and recently received an all-access pass to the last Chicago Bulls’s home game in the regular season.
“I felt very excited, surprised, and honored that they would even invite me to be a part of their organization,” Thomas said.
His inspiration, to be a sports commentator, comes from Stacey King, one of the commentators for the Chicago Bulls.
“I’ve always wanted to be around sports and be a sports commentator. … The advice I’ve learned was to do research about the players, what you’re talking about, and know what to use and say,” Thomas said.
Mr. Harvoth reached out to some people he knew to make it happen.
“The Bulls liked Omarion’s segments and [wanted] to invite him along with his family and Past and I so he can learn how they do things in professional sports,” Harvoth said. “We got everything arranged and took a trip to the United Center.”
Thomas was able to learn from Bulls’ announcers Chuck Swirsky and Adam Amin, who Mr. Harvoth worked with after Amin graduated from Valparaiso University.
Mr. Past hopes to see more future opportunities for PNN students.
“We look to hopefully have other students in the future from PNN possibly get similar experiences,” Past said. “We feel that we could send a story out and see what others think about our student’s work.”
Harvoth remembers Thomas’ reaction when he found out.
“We broke the news to him and he was very excited about this opportunity. He got very emotional and it is one of my proudest moments as an educator for the past 13 years in Merrillville High School,” Harvoth said.
The guests were treated to a 5-star cuisine, while also meeting Bulls players on the court.
“For dinner, we had steak, calamari, lobster, and mac and cheese,” Thomas said.
Thomas shared this advice that helps him achieve his goals: “Whatever you aim to achieve, continue to put in effort.”
