NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Colour commentator Lance Doll and Medicine Hat Tigers play-by-play broadcaster Gino De Paoli watch the play unfold in the first period of a 4-2 win on Dec. 17 at Co-op Place against the Kelowna Rockets.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
Gino De Paoli is 41 games into his WHL broadcasting career and he still has to remind himself he’s in calling games in the Western Hockey League.
The 35-year-old jokes he only has to call 3,981 more games to catch the legendary Bob Ridley’s game totals. Until then, he’s just happy to be along for the ride.
“I still can’t put in the words, I’ve been doing this for a living every day I get to wake up and call hockey games on the weekends and during the week and talking to hundreds of NHL draft picks,” De Paoli said. “I’ve still got a lot of work to do, my game can be a lot better, it’s probably like the players here. They want to be getting better too and my job takes away from some of my skill sets from day-to-day broadcasting. But that’s the role I’m in and I have to get a little bit better in that aspect.
“I’m looking forward to more, I’m still blown away that I’m here in the Western League.”
On top of calling every Tigers’ game, De Paoli also runs communications for the team and has a hand in social media and game notes distributed to media members, stats counters and scouts. He shares that load with media services manager Troy Durrell and says he couldn’t do what he does without him.
“I really cannot do what he does and he can’t call a hockey game, but I’m sure if I made him he would do it,” De Paoli said. “It’s just fun to go to the rink every day with Troy, we’re in the same boat and we all have the same goal of getting better.”
Even with the extra work added to his broadcasting role, the more than a decade grind has paid off. The biggest difference he’s noticed between his 11 years in the AJHL calling Okotoks Oilers games and his first season in the WHL, is how few mistakes there are.
He’s also appreciated how much the Tigers staff and coaches have worked with him and didn’t just brush him off as ‘Bob’s replacement’.
“Willie (Desjardins) has taken me under his wing a little bit, I had to take some heat on the bus a couple of times because I’m the new guy,” De Paoli said. “Joe (Frazer) has been an unreal mentor and friend to me, Josh (Maser), and Jayce (Desjardins) is one of the most brilliant minds in the Western League. We have a really nice balance when we’re on the road, all five of us. It’s really fun to be here and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else right now.”
He’s enjoyed getting to know players, which started out as with any new job, putting names to faces and more importantly names to jersey numbers. He wouldn’t pick out a favourite but says the team as a group has been great to work with and makes every day easier.
“They’re just a really good group of kids, they come here and it’s not just playing in the Western League, they’re playing for a pro contract, they’re playing for that WHL scholarship,” De Paoli said. “I can’t express that enough that if the career ends in Medicine Hat, their career is not over and they’ve got a really good sort of starting base here. They’re a very funny group of kids.”
There have been a lot of highlight games for De Paoli in the first 41 contests of the season. Getting to call Desjardins’ 400th win behind the Medicine Hat bench, calling his first game in Calgary’s Saddledome where he and his late father Mel went to a lot of games, and being part of the Tigers’ 9-1 home opener win against the Lethbridge Hurricanes are his top three games so far.
“My first game in Calgary was really fun, I got to do it with my idol Peter Loubardias, he’s one of my mentors and my girlfriend Kelci was in attendance and got hit by a puck, it was really funny,” De Paoli said. “I spent a lot of time in the Saddledome so it was special and opening night was something else. Troy and I were absolutely stressed making sure we do everything right. We’ve never done this, it’s his first game, it’s my first game, we didn’t even get our naps in that day.”
It’s been a while since De Paoli has been asked when he’s going to drive the bus like Ridley used to but he has pondered the idea a time or two.
“We had to stop in Airdrie one night to switch drivers and Mas’ and I kind of looked at each other and said, ‘one of us get our G licence so we don’t have to switch over,’ a couple farm guys we could probably somehow guide this thing home but I’d rather have Maser drive than me though, I would be too afraid to have that much cargo, that many lives in my hands,” De Paoli said. “I’d maybe like to just to say I could do it but it would have to be a trip to like Lethbridge on the sunniest of days with no traffic on the road.”
