WATCH: Catch the Play-by-Play of Tony Castricone's Journey to the Booth, UW
Tony Castricone played basketball until he was cut from his high school team as a junior. While he considered becoming a math teacher and a coach, he worked at an ice cream store. Greeting customers, he was told by them that he had a great voice and should get into broadcasting.
The rest is history.
From the first moment he stepped foot on the campus of Ohio University, Castricone wanted to know how to pursue this career, gain experience and what high school volleyball game he could call. He did play-by-play while playing video games.
This would lead to him to places such as Virginia and Clemson for broadcasting jobs. While it might seem like all fun and games, Castricone said it's hard to be good at it and requires a lot of sacrifice.
His biggest supporter is his wife, Selena. He doesn't lose sight of that. She makes him better.
“One of the the things I started doing in 2021 is gratitude journaling,” Castricone said. “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t mention her or this job.”
Similar to his broadcasting roots, Castricone and Selena came together through fate, like something out of a romance novel. They lived on opposite ends of the country when they met, Selena in California and Tony from the Carolinas. Their "first date" was conducted over the phone.
"It was love at first phone call," Castricone said.
He packed up his belongings and moved west to be with his significant other.
Not long after that, he applied at Washington to take over for the retiring Bob Rondeau.
“I told Selena, ‘I don’t know how you feel about moving to Seattle, but the guy who’s retiring is a legend – there’s a less than two percent chance I get this job.' ” said Castricone, who, of course, was wrong about that.
The Huskies made the transition easy and enjoyable for him. In his first season in the booth, he ended up with the UW at the Rose Bowl, not a bad way to break in as a new voice. He knows how lucky that is.
Broadcasting colleague Joe Starkey, the voice of the California Bears, has called games for 45 years and he's not had the pleasure of describing a Rose Bowl game on the job.
Castricone considers him a lucky man, whether it was turning that ice cream job into future employment, finding coast to coast love or getting introduced to Pasadena on New Year's Day right off the bat.
It's almost as much to experience it as it is to take that rich voice and describe it.
To learn more about Tony Castricone, check out Husky Maven's Kaila Olin's full conversation in the video above.
