HUNTLEY — While in junior high, Anderson McNiven began doing play-by-play for YCN Sports for Huntley Project games.
Fast forward to McNiven's senior year, and he's now starring on the hardwood for the Red Devils, no longer calling games during basketball season.
"When we do starting lineups and I come out, I kind of have to look (toward the YCN Sports broadcast) when I'm running out. I always look up and it's like, 'Yeah, I get to play now and that's cool, but getting to do that with my dad — it's pretty sick,'" McNiven said.
"Even though he's my son, he's still an employee. He gets paid for what he does and I want to make sure he's doing a good job," said Jonathan McNiven, owner of YCN Sports. "We have a product we need to put out and we need to make sure we're doing a good job. I'll call him out on it when there's things he's not doing. I've done it a lot. I don't do it much anymore. I think he's actually surpassed me at this point."
McNiven is pumping in nearly 21 points per game for the 6-3 Red Devils, and he credits that time studying the game from media row for his rapid ascension.
"Definitely the IQ part of the game, it helps. We had good competition — Jake Fox, Noah Bouchard, Tim Rose. That was my seventh-grade year, and sometimes we split the court with them. Just watching them, that was big for my IQ," Anderson McNiven said.
McNiven has called over 400 games for YCN Sports, getting experience few are able to, especially as a teenager. But what lies ahead?
"If I can play in college, that would be sick, but if I can broadcast and do other sports — it doesn't have to be basketball, (it could be) volleyball, football — anything to get me more involved in college. That's something that interests me," McNiven said.
It appears McNiven has a future, whether that be on the hardwood or behind the mic.
