By MIKE O’BRIEN
Special Contributor
Fans of Mainland Regional High sports are familiar with the voice of Brian Hatz. For the last 10 years, the math teacher at the school has been lending his voice as the public address announcer for football, basketball and volleyball games at the Linwood school.
“The volleyball program was just starting out and I was asked to run the clock for the matches,” Hatz said about his first foray into public address announcing. “The first few years, I would just announce the starting lineups and then just keep the score the rest of the way.”
But one Friday afternoon during an important volleyball match, Hatz kept the microphone in his hand and announced that day’s action with regular commentary as if it was a basketball game.
“Afterwards we received some e-mails and phone calls from parents who were happy about the atmosphere I helped create that day.”
Hatz had found his unique voice.
AN UNPREDICTABLE JOURNEY
Lending his voice to live high school sports, however, hadn’t necessarily been one of Hatz professional goals.
In fact, teaching wasn’t even on his radar to begin with until being asked to serve as a long-term substitute at the middle school in Collingswood — the district where Hatz grew up.
After just one day in front of a classroom of students, Hatz said he knew he had found his home.
“When it came down to picking a career, I was so focused on what I WANTED to be that I didn’t realize what I WAS,” added Hatz, who was the valedictorian of his class and a three-sport athlete in high school. “I had always been a teacher, a coach and a leader. It just took me to get in front of a classroom of kids to realize that.”
The road to that moment wound Hatz through four years of business classes that made him realize that the business world was not for him.
“I wasn’t like any of the other people in those classes,” he added.
Prior to Mainland, Hatz cut his teeth teaching and coaching at Pennsauken High, beginning in 2006 when two of his friends — Reggie Lawrence and Clinton Tabb — helped him get an interview to replace someone in the school’s math department.
He started teaching there the next day.
“I had six amazing years at Pennsauken,” said Hatz, who coached football, basketball and baseball for the Indians.
It wasn’t until the fall of 2007 when Hatz met his future wife, Jill, who is also teacher at Mainland and a 2002 graduate of the school, that the opportunity to work in Linwood became a possibility.
After marrying Jill in 2009, the two built a home in Egg Harbor Township and Hatz had to commute to Pennsauken for the last half of the 2011-12 school year.
And when that drive became too much for Hatz, he applied to numerous schools closer to his home and said he was “blessed” to get hired at Mainland.
“Leaving Pennsauken High School was one of the hardest things I have ever done,” he added.
A LIL SOMETHING EXTRA
When Hatz was hired at Mainland, it was under the condition that he work with some of the school’s “tougher” kids… students who he was told needed some “extra love.”
And it has been Hatz’s instinct to provide that extra love that has helped him develop his special style while announcing games. Whether it is providing details into the background of the athletes during football games, updating the crowd on the success of Mainland athletes in college or his very popular practice of using nicknames and different voices for some of the top Mustang basketball players, Hatz’s desire to go the extra mile for teams and athletes at Mainland is very apparent.
“I have so much fun calling games,” Hatz said. “Adding the voices and the nicknames just came naturally for me.”
Some of his most famous nicknames for recent hoopsters include Jake Cook, who was “Cookie Monster”, Kylee Watson, who was “The Unicorn”, current senior Cohen Cook, who is referred to as “The Quiet Storm” and former star Camryn Dirkes, who Hatz referred to as “Killer Cam.”
Mainland head boys basketball coach Dan Williams believes Hatz is the best public address announcer in the area because he does research into the players’ backgrounds that most public address announcers don’t take the time to do.
“The most important characteristic that factors into the awesome job that Hatzy does is that he really cares about the students,” Williams said. “He understands their strengths and digs into what makes them tick and then incorporates that into his announcing.”
Hatz, who recently announced he is stepping away from his basketball duties to help coach his young daughters’ teams, considers himself very lucky to have the chance to learn about the players and promote their lives.
“All of these incredible human beings have helped shape me into the teacher, husband and father that I have become,” Hatz said. “They’ve all made a huge impact in my life.”
