Perhaps second only to basketball, high school football coverage seems to take on a heightened sense of excitement all its own.

That heightened sense is evident on local television stations each Friday night as the sports departments beef up their staffs to cover more and more games. Seemingly, anyone who can point and shoot a video camera is sent out to film some action.

And along that line, Bangor’s WVII (Channel 7) has literally pulled out even more stops as station meteorologist Rob Nucatola has been moonlighting as a sports reporter for the station’s Friday night Sports Blitz segment.

“We needed more bodies to do the show effectively and I was more than willing to help out,” Nucatola said.

It hasn’t been that much of a stretch for Nucatola, since he was weatherman, news reporter, and cameraman at Presque Isle’s WAGM (Ch. 8), where he worked 15 months before joining WVII in February.

“I absolutely love the fact that I have the opportunity to have some variety in my job every day,” Nucatola said.

The 24-year-old grad of the University of Buffalo (B.A.) and Syracuse (master’s) has also incorporated sports into his weather report as he does a specific forecast for the town or area hosting one of the top games each Friday.

Nucatola said he doesn’t know if WVII will offer a similar “Blitz” segment during basketball season, but he’s more than willing to help out.

“I used to shoot a lot of basketball at WAGM. It’d be kind of nice to do it again,” he said.

New face at Five

When he joined the sports department at Bangor TV station WABI (Ch. 5) last month, it was a homecoming of sorts for weekend sports anchor Travis Lee.

After interning in Boston, graduating from Ithaca College in New York three years ago, and working in Ithaca, Lee is back in the state where he was born.

Lee, who grew up in Yarmouth and attended Yarmouth High School, also interned at WPXT (Ch. 51) in Portland.

“One nice thing about coming to Bangor is I’ll be able to get back to doing stuff with hockey, which was huge in Ithaca with Cornell University there,” he said.

The 25-year-old is currently commuting from his parents’ home in Yarmouth or relatives’ homes in the Pittsfield area.

Lee said although he’s had to bone up on the pronunciations and history of local schools, he’s enjoying his time here.

“People in the area really get into their local sports,” he said. “I’m sure basketball season will be a lot of fun.”

WZON hauls in awards

Bangor all-sports station WZON (620 AM) received four first-place awards at the recent Maine Association of Broadcasters banquet in Boothbay Harbor.

The Sports Zone won firsts in four categories: continuing sports coverage (for NCAA Frozen Four hockey coverage), sports play-by-play (to Dan Hannigan and Blair Marsh for NCAA hockey championship game), sports feature (Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race), and best on-air promotion (Hangtime’s Crunchtime March Madness contest). WZON also took third-place awards for on-air personality (Hangtime’s Hannigan and Wayne Harvey)and best newscast (Al Jackson).