Jason Bryant presented with 2016 Ed Aliverti Golden Microphone Award

Jason Bryant, second from left, receives the Ed Aliverti Golden Microphone Award from USA Wrestling president James Ravannack, wrestling legend Dan Gable and USA Wrestling Executive Director Rich Bender in Iowa City, Iowa. Photo by Tony Rotundo, Wrestlers Are Warriors.

Jason Bryant of New Brighton, Minn. has been presented with the 2016 Ed Aliverti Golden Microphone Award, an award which is given annually to honor a public address announcer who has excelled in the craft and made a major positive impact on the wrestling community.

The award selection was announced during the annual USA Wrestling Awards Banquet, held in Iowa City, Iowa during the U.S. Olympic Team Trials.

The award is named in honor of the late Ed Aliverti, the Hall of Fame public address announcer, who set the standard for how to announce wrestling competitions.

Bryant has tremendous respect for the work of Ed Aliverti, one of his mentors who he considered a friend.

“I first heard Ed at the second wrestling event I attended, at the Virginia Duals. Ed was on the microphone. I said to my friends, ‘Who is this guy?’ I also heard Ken Berger that first year. My friends were telling me, ‘take notes.’ I got to know Ed well, because the Virginia Duals were run by my wrestling club. He was respectful and polite. He could do everything. It was a pleasure to know him. He was a great person. To get an award named for a person I consider a friend and who was there for me during my formidable years in the business is truly an honor,” said Bryant.

Bryant has been doing public address announcing for 22 years, in a variety of sports, but is best known for his work with wrestling.

This year has been a busy year for Bryant, who was a PA announcer at the 2015 World Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas, Nev., the 2016 NCAA Div. III National Championships in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the 2016 NCAA Div. I Wrestling Championships in New York City and the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Iowa City, Iowa. It was his first time on the PA for all four of these major events.

He is also in final consideration for a PA position at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janiero, Brazil, having worked the Olympic Test Event at the Olympic Wrestling Venue in Rio earlier this year.

Bryant also has extensive experience announcing scholastic and collegiate wrestling.

Since 2011, Bryant has served as a PA announcer for one of the most historic events in wrestling, the Ken Kraft Midlands Championships in Evanston, Ill. He announced the 2008 EIWA Championships at Franklin & Marshall College. He was also the voice of Franklin & Marshall home dual meets from 2006-2008. While an employee of the National Wrestling Coaches Association, he announced several NWCA events from 2003-2008, including the Scholastic Duals.

In 2011, he announced at the Virginia Duals in 2001 when the legendary Ed Aliverti could not attend due to a medical emergency in his family.  He also was on the mike at the 2006 and 2007 Virginia Group AAA State Championships at Robinson Secondary High School.

“I would be remiss if I didn’t thank (USA Wrestling Events Director) Pete Isais, who gave me an opportunity to work at the World Championships. I have always felt that I could do an event like that, and he gave me that chance. Getting to do the Midlands and work with Sandy Stevens really helped me. They did not know about me in the Midwest. The people out East had heard me. I got to do the Worlds. Then I got a call to do Div. III Nationals, then the Div. I Nationals and then the Olympic Trials. It is humbling. When you make mistakes, thousands of people hear you. You just have to roll with it. You can’t get flustered. You go for it. You want to do your best job, and you stay positive,” said Bryant.

Public address announcing was part of his life very early. He started as a freshman at Poquoson High School in Virginia, PA announcing with baseball in the spring of 1994. He added boys and girls basketball, volleyball and soccer as a sophomore. By his junior year, added JV football, field hockey, wrestling and post-season softball events. As a senior, he did all of those sports, and added girls soccer to the mix.  Bryant announced Regional and Sectional tournaments as a junior and senior in high school.

As a student at Old Dominion University, he expanded his activities. He announced Old Dominion wrestling home duals from 1998-2004. He also got some major high school assignments, announcing Group AAA Eastern Regional and the Region I Group AA Championship in 1998. Bryant also helped Ken Berger announce the respected Beast of the East Tournament in Delaware from 2000-2004.

He also began announcing high school tournaments on the weekends starting in 1997. The first to open the door was Athletic Director Russell Flynn at Lake Taylor High School in Norfolk with the Titan Kickoff Classic. Every weekend in college was basically filled with a wrestling tournament. Events he handled every year included Lake Taylor/Granby Kickoff Classic, Western Branch Rotational, the Deep Creek Hornet Holiday Classic, the Virginia Holiday Classic, the Eagle Holiday Classic and the Brookville Capital Challenge.

He was the PA announcer for the USA vs. The World international dual meet wrestling at the 2011 NCAA Championships. He also emceed the Greco-Roman Night of Champions in 2014 in Minneapolis.

Among the other sports he has done extensive work with include roller derby, field hockey, lacrosse, slow pitch softball, semi-pro football and others. Included were Div. I field hockey semifinals and finals, and Div. III women’s lacrosse regional semifinals and finals.

Bryant has an extensive career as a broadcast announcer on television and radio, and has a long career as a wrestling journalist at all levels.

Professionally, he is currently managing Mat Talk Online, a podcast company which provides on-demand wrestling content. He served as editor of Amateur Wrestling News from 2012-2014. He worked on the USA Wrestling national staff as Coordinator of Grassroots and Social Media from 2009-2012. Prior positions included Program Director for Media Sports Productions from 2008-09 and Director of Media Relations for the National Wrestling Coaches Association from 2005-2008. He has also served in a variety of positions in the promotion of wrestling on the grassroots level. His newspaper experience includes wrestling coverage for the Daily Press, the Island Echo and the Poquoson Post in his native Virginia.

On television and webcasts, he has served in all broadcast roles, including play-by-play, color analyst and sideline reporter. Among the events he has called are all three levels of the NCAA Wrestling Championships (Div. I, Div. II and Div. III), the NAIA Championships, the 2013 World Championships, numerous college and international events for FOX College Sports, and nearly every major event hosted by USA Wrestling during the 2008-2012 years.

He has been able to successfully switch hats easily, from PA announcing, to television announcing as a play-by-play announcer or an analyst, and then to a print journalist with strong writing abilities.

Bryant must have different skills and approach when working the PA microphone than when he is calling a sports event for a television or radio broadcast.

“It is different. One you go out to a larger audience. You assume people know less about your sport. You don’t have to constantly talk while doing public address announcing. You aren’t doing a full public address call when you are on TV or radio. You prepare the same, but the delivery is different. It is not interchangeable. But I’ve been doing both for a long time. I have no problem going back and forth,” said Bryant.

ED ALIVERTI GOLDEN MICROPHONE AWARD WINNERS
2010 – Sandy Stevens, Glen Ellyn, Ill.
2011 – Don Blasingame, Midwest City, Okla.
2012 – A.L. Haizlip, Lenexa, Kan.
2013 – Ken Berger, Virginia Beach, Va.
2014 – Scott Casber, Des Moines, Iowa
2015 – Shane Sparks, Oshkosh, Wis.
2016 – Jason Bryant, New Brighton, Minn.