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When he was attending Narraguagus High School in Harrington more than a decade ago, Barry Alley hit upon an idea for an ideal career.
“I think it was my sophomore year. I thought about getting into broadcasting because I loved sports,” Alley said. “It was just an idea I got.”
That idea blossomed into a full-blown career in the field of sports journalism, but not quite the way Alley envisioned.
After graduating high school in 1993, Alley enrolled at Husson College’s New England School of Broadcasting. Two years later, he earned an associate degree in science.
“It’s funny. I really didn’t take any TV classes at school. It was all radio,” Alley said. “I was doing Husson basketball with Raymond Alley, so that was a lot of fun.”
Seven years later, Alley was on the field during Super Bowl XXXVI shooting action as a videographer for Fox Sports Net New England.
Tuesday, the 28-year-old Alley returned from his second Super Bowl assignment and another New England Patriots win. On Thursday, he was at a Boston Celtics practice session.
“Yeah … Boy, what a drop-off, huh?” Alley joked.
While trying to work his way toward Bristol, Conn., and the studios of ESPN, Alley’s career path took an unexpected turn.
The Addison native accepted an internship at Bangor TV station WVII (Channel 7). There, he did a lot of work as a cameraman. When his internship ended, WVII had a photographer’s job open, so he took it. Alley worked at WVII for two years before a friend at Manchester, N.H., station WMUR suggested he apply there. He did, was hired, and worked there for three years.
It was at WVII that Alley met his wife Andrea (Craig), a New York native who grew up in Waterville. He and Andrea both moved on to WMUR and Manchester, where they now reside with 7-month-old son Timothy. Andrea is now a producer at Boston TV station WHDH.
In 2000, Alley took a videographer job with FSNNE and has been shooting everything from the Patriots and Super Bowls to the Boston Red Sox and league championship series games to the Celtics ever since.
“It’s worked out great. I couldn’t have asked for anything more,” Alley said.
Sunday night, he was mere feet away from Adam Vinatieri and Tedy Bruschi as they celebrated their second Super Bowl win on the 50-yard line.
“The highlight for me was just being on the field for the whole celebration. It’s a feeling you can’t describe,” he said.
Tuesday, Alley was on a stage in the midst of hundreds of thousands of fans at the Patriots’ victory rally in Boston. Wednesday night, he was shooting Celtics game action and talking to Los Angeles Clippers star Elton Brand for a feature on FSNNE’s New England Sports Tonight show.
Not bad for a kid from Addison whose claim to sports fame in high school was a couple of seasons of freshman-JV basketball, some JV baseball, and varsity golf.
That doesn’t even include his other Super Bowl experiences:
. Friday, Alley went to the Kid Rock-Nelly-P. Diddy show and interviewed New Hampshire native and CBS’s “Yes, Dear” star Mike O’Malley.
. Sunday afternoon, he was nearly run down by a golf cart transporting Beyonce Knowles and her bodyguard to the field 90 minutes before kickoff.
. Sunday night, he got footage of a streaker who impersonated a referee on the sideline before shedding his clothes and the streaker’s subsequent tackle by Patriot Matt Chatham and apprehension by police.
“You just push record and keep shooting,” Alley said. “You’re right there in the middle of it. There’s no greater thing.”
Even after all the “world-class” sporting events Alley has attended, he still ranks the Eastern Maine high school basketball tournament at the top of the list.
“Nothing beats Bangor. The Auditorium is the best,” said Alley, whose father William played for three state championship teams coached by Ordie Alley at Jonesport-Beals. “I love going to the games. My grandfather [Keith Alley] took me to them when I was a little kid.”
Alley was able to repay his grandfather, a big Red Sox fan, last year by taking him to his first game at Fenway Park.
Game onnnnnnn!
Bangor TV station WABI (Ch. 5) will air both Friday and Saturday night’s 7 p.m. University of Maine hockey games against Alabama-Huntsville, thanks to a waiver of Hockey East’s exclusivity clause with New England Sports Network.
“This was done back in the fall,” said UMaine sports information director Brent Williamson. “If it hadn’t been a nonconference game, Hockey East would not have granted us a waiver.”
It also helps that WABI’s Friday broadcast is not in direct competition with NESN’s Hockey East broadcast either regionally (New England) or even statewide since it will not air outside the Bangor market.
Andrew Neff can be reached at 990-8205, 1-800-310-8600 or at aneff@bangordailynews.net
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