WAC Sports Network Announces Broadcast Schedule, Talent

DENVER (Nov. 1, 2011) – The WACSports Network (WSN) today announced its men’s basketball broadcast schedule and talent line up for the upcoming 2011-12 season.

WSN – a product of the Western Athletic Conference and its multimedia rights partner, Learfield Sports – will broadcast nine evening games from Jan. 5 through Feb. 25, 2012. In its second year, the WAC Sports Network allows for WAC football and basketball games to be produced and distributed to media outlets in the respective schools’ markets.

The broadcast team for the 2012 men’s basketball games comprises Rich Cellini and Guy Haberman (play-by-play) and Dave Bollwinkel and Bob Donewald (color). All four members are returning from WSN’s debut season last year. The entire schedule and respective talent lineup is as follows:

Jan. 5 Fresno State at Utah State (7 p.m. MT) Haberman/Donewald
Jan. 7 Fresno State at Idaho (3 p.m. PT) Cellini/Bollwinkel
Jan. 7 Nevada at Utah State (7 p.m. MT) Haberman/Donewald
Jan. 21 Fresno State at Nevada (7 p.m. PT) Haberman/Bollwinkel
Jan. 26 Fresno State at Louisiana Tech (6 p.m. CT) Haberman/Bollwinkel
Jan. 26 Neavda at New Mexico State (8 p.m. MT) Cellini/Donewald
Jan. 28 Fresno State at New Mexico State (8:30 p.m. MT) Haberman/Bollwinkel
Feb. 9 Fresno State at San Jose State (7 p.m. PT) Cellini/Bollwinkel
Feb. 25 Nevada at Fresno State (7 p.m. PT) Haberman/Bollwinkel

“We received such positive feedback from our member schools and their communities about last year’s WSN basketball broadcasts,” said WAC Commissioner Karl Benson. “We are now excited to introduce another tremendous lineup of WSN basketball broadcasts for the 2011-12 season.”

WSN Talent Lineup

Rich Cellini – PBP Announcer
Cellini joined Sports USA in 2005 as a play-by-play announcer and sideline reporter. His broadcasting resume includes play-by-play coverage of college football for Fox Sports Net, ABC Sports and CSTV. He also has covered NFL Europe and worked for NFL on Fox as a sideline reporter. In addition to his on-air work, Cellini is a professor in the Master’s Program in Sport Management at the University of San Francisco, teaching in the areas of Leadership and Critical Thinking. He is a Fresno State graduate and has called Nevada basketball games since 2004.

Guy Haberman – PBP Announcer
Haberman returns for his second season of basketball on WSN. He previously spent three seasons broadcasting Fresno Grizzlies games from 2008-2010. A native of Davis, Calif., Haberman also is the voice of FresnoStatewomen’s basketball and softball, served as a sideline reporter for FresnoStatefootball on the Bulldog Sports Network in 2009 and was pre- and post-game color commentator for the 2010 WACSoftball Tournament.

Dave Bollwinkel – Color Commentator
Having served 25 years in college basketball, Bollwinkel spent nine of those as head coach for both Saint Mary’s College and Cal Poly University. During his coaching tenure, he served as an assistant for the California, Oregon, Wisconsin, Dayton, Colorado State and San Jose State programs. Additionally, he has been a college basketball color analyst for Fox SportsNet, Comcast SportsNet and The Mountain Network. Currently he also scouts for the NBA’s Chicago Bulls and is a professional speaker.

Bob Donewald – Color Commentator
Former head basketball coach for Illinois State University from 1978-1989, Donewald led the Redbirds to appearances in the NIT and NCAA tournaments and guided them to a victory in the 1984 Missouri Valley Conference championship, the year he won MVC Coach of the Year. Prior to ISU, he served five years as assistant basketball coach for Indiana, which went on to win the Big Ten Conference three of those years and the NCAA title in 1976. Donewald also served as head basketball coach for Western Michigan University, from 1989 – 2000, leading the team to numerous accomplishments in the NIT and NCAA tournaments and the 1998 Mid-American Conference Championship title. Since 2001, Donewald has been a basketball consultant and television color analyst.

Learfield Sports’ locally based WAC Sports Properties team has oversight of WSN through the company’s extensive conference partnership. It represents the WAC, as well as six member schools: Fresno State, Idaho, Louisiana Tech, Nevada, San Jose State and Utah State. Overall, Learfield Sports manages multimedia rights for more than 50 collegiate institutions and is title sponsor of the Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup, co-founded by USA Today and NACDA. For more about its history and collegiate portfolio, visit learfieldsports.com.