Graduate Student Uses Lifelong Passion To Find Career In Sports Announcing

With an eye towards the Lord through multiple hardships, Liberty graduate student Jason Prill finally earned a play-by-play job with the Lynchburg Hillcats.  

It didn’t take long for Prill to realize his desire to be a sports broadcaster. Growing up just outside of Cleveland, Ohio, he began “broadcasting” the baseball games he and his friend played in their cul-de-sac. 

However, Prill had a speech impediment in his younger years, which made it difficult to formulate the “th”, “ch” and “sh” sounds. He overcame it in elementary school through speech therapy sessions and now thinks of it as a demonstration of God working in his life. 

“I never viewed it as something that made me second guess or hesitate or doubt that this was where the Lord was leading me,” Prill said. “It’s a cool testimony to how God equips us.”

When Prill came to Liberty, it took until his second year to get involved in 90.9 The Light radio station — the organization that gave him most of his training. Prill first joined on for a morning show every Saturday with a friend of his, and he made enough of an impression to get more opportunities doing play-by-play for high school football and basketball broadcasts.

Prill became involved with Liberty football radio broadcasts as a highlight cutter. He also landed a dream internship at ESPN Cleveland between his junior and senior year, and they intended to offer him a job after he graduated in May 2020. 

However, in March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and Prill’s potential job with ESPN Cleveland vanished. Faced with this new reality, Prill spent a week in Atlanta working as a marketing events coordinator, which he did not enjoy. 

“It ended up being a glorified street salesman job,” Prill said. “I woke up miserable every single day.” 

Eventually, Prill contracted COVID while in Atlanta, Georgia, which led to his decision to leave his job. He moved back to Ohio, where he got an unexpected call from his coworker on Liberty football broadcasts offering him a GSA position. He took it and immediately enjoyed being back in Lynchburg, despite struggles along the way. 

“Pretty much every morning I wake up with a joy and an excitement about the day ahead of me and the opportunities that I have,” Prill said. 

Then, he heard about the job with the Lynchburg Hillcats. Despite having no experience working baseball games, he came in for two interviews. Soon afterward, he received the job offer. He could hardly contain his excitement.

“Involuntarily, I just kicked and hit my shin on the bottom of my desk because I was so excited,” Prill said. “I screamed, one, from excitement and, two, from pain.”

He immediately called family and friends to tell them the good news. 

Through all of the excitement, however, Prill is keeping in perspective the Lord’s role in his life. 

“I truly believe he is calling me into broadcasting,” Prill said. “But the Lord works in mysterious ways, and he can call me anywhere.” 

Lipowski is a sports  reporter. Follow him on Twitter