By Robert McKinney, Assistant Athletics Director, Communications
SALEM, Ore. -- Jef Lucero has put together a lengthy career of providing public address announcing, radio announcing, and webcast announcing for athletic events in a variety of sports and at various levels of high school, college, and professional competition. His announcing has gained him a solid reputation as an announcer in the Pacific Northwest. Now, Lucero is the primary webcast announcer for football and basketball at Willamette University. He follows in the footsteps of Mike Allegre, who retired from announcing Willamette athletic events this past spring after 29 football seasons and 23 basketball seasons.
Lucero began his Willamette announcing career this fall during webcasts of Willamette's home football games. More recently, he has been the play-by-play voice of the Bearcats during webcasts of home basketball games at Cone Field House.
Start of Lucero's Broadcasting Career
His involvement on radio began as far back as 1995-98, when he volunteered at KAOS radio (89.3 FM) at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. He was known for hosting "Sessions" throughout that time period, as well as "The Evergreen Sports Report" in 1996-97. He was the lead sports reporter at KAOS in 1997-98.
By 2000, Lucero was broadcasting with Pioneer Radio and Sports. He was the color analyst for Evergreen men's and women's basketball, and he hosted a weekly "Northwest Conference Spotlight Show." He was at Pioneer Radio and Sports until 2002. He began public address announcing for girls' softball games at Tenino High School in Washington in 2005 and 2006, and announced Centralia College baseball and softball games on KCED Radio (91.3 FM) in 2006. He provided public address announcing at Black Hills High School in Washington in 2007 and 2008.
His efforts returned to the college level in 2009, when he became the public address announcer for several sports at the University of Puget Sound and was the play-by-play announcer at the annual Puget Sound/Pacific Lutheran University baseball game at Cheney Stadium.
Additional Experience as an Announcer
Lucero added Saint Martin's University (Washington) to his list in 2012, when he started serving as the public address announcer for softball, baseball, and soccer before becoming the Saints' broadcast announcer for the men's and women's basketball teams in 2016. He was a public address announcer at Seattle University in 2014 and returned as a public address announcer at Evergreen in 2015. Through his ties with Seattle University he announced the Western Athletic Conference softball tournaments in 2014 and 2016 as well as the 2014 WAC men's soccer tournament. Lucero provided the announcing at the University of Washington softball games in 2022 and also occasionally announced men's soccer and women's soccer for the Huskies. He has announced basketball games at Oregon State University when available this season.
As he increased his high school and collegiate experience, Lucero began working with professional and semi-professional sports teams. He was the public address announcer for the Seattle Impact FC men's indoor soccer team during its only season of operation and announced for the men's semi pro team with Kitsap Puma SC in 2017 and 2018. He was the public address announcer for the DubSea Fish Sticks during the 2022 summer college baseball season.
He added perhaps his most significant professional sports announcing job when he became the public address announcer for the Seattle Storm in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) in 2020.
The extensive and varied announcing and broadcast experience Lucero has received, have provided him with a depth of knowledge in several sports. In addition, he willingly puts in the time needed to prepare for quality webcasts. His announcing greatly enhances Willamette's internet broadcasts of home events.
"I bring a lot of joy and fun to the broadcast, that's for sure," Lucero said. "I love doing this so much, and it's hard for me to contain how happy it makes me to be able to do it. Just being able to help bring the games into the home for families who aren't able to be there in person – knowing that they're dialed in to see the games, is very special, and it's a rare privilege to be able to deliver something like that for them."
Preparing each Week to Announce Games for the Bearcats
Lucero interviews coaches and players to help him prepare for each webcast and to learn more about the teams. Keeping up-to-date on honors and awards, and looking at the season stats for the Bearcats and their opponents, also contribute to Lucero's preparation for each webcast.
"The whole process is great, because every component helps create a better product. That's the hope, anyway," Lucero commented. "Obviously, calling the games is the best part, but games always sound better when the person calling them has done their homework. All the prep and research ... learning more about the players, coaches, programs and history ... that go into the broadcast make it more fun for me as well."
At Willamette, Lucero is off to a successful start. After announcing for the webcasts of Willamette home football games, he is now into the basketball season, with the majority of Northwest Conference games still to be played.
"We are all excited to have Jef join the Bearcat family," Willamette Head Women's Basketball Coach Peg Swadener said. "He has so much experience with collegiate sports throughout the Northwest and his wealth of knowledge adds a great perspective to his broadcasts."
"His fantastic announcer voice, paired with authentic energy and game knowledge, makes Jef an awesome addition to our Bearcat family," Willamette Head Men's Basketball Coach Kip Ioane noted. "I appreciate him wanting to be as informed as possible for our games, and our sit downs in the hoops office have hopefully done that for him."
"Jef's positivity is infectious and we all appreciate the time he has taken to get to know us all (coaches and players) individually," Swadener concurred. "His energy and personal approach to the broadcasts has been really well received from all of the families, friends, and fans who have tuned into the broadcasts."
Lucero has been able to adapt quickly to working with the football and basketball teams at Willamette. It helped that he already was familiar with the teams and rosters.
"Having more of a personal connection to the players and coaches," Lucero said regarding what's different about working with Willamette. "Since I knew a lot of them before I got here, it definitely helped to cushion the landing once I arrived."
Memories from Lucero's Career as an Announcer
Although he will certainly develop many new memories as he announced Willamette events, Lucero already has a large number of exciting moments to recall from his broadcasting career.
"Three experiences definitely stand out," he said. "Two were buzzer-beaters, one for the St. Martin's men's basketball team and one for The Evergreen State College women's basketball team. The Evergreen one was especially amazing, because it was off an in-bound play with less than half a second left on the clock. St. Martin's women's basketball defeating the University of Western Washington for the first time in 12 years was exciting. The third event was broadcasting the NAIA National Tournament games in Point Lookout, Missouri, for The Evergreen State College men's basketball team."
Gaining an Interest in Broadcasting while Growing Up in Topeka
Lucero didn't just begin showing an interest in athletics and announcing games in the Pacific Northwest. He actually started out in the middle of the country.
"I was born and raised in Topeka, Kansas," Lucero said. "I grew up listening to Kansas City Royals games on the radio. That's definitely where my fascination with, and passion for, sports announcing and broadcasting came from. I also attended a lot of games at Kansas University and Washburn University, which fueled my love of college sports, and in the case of Washburn (then an NAIA school; now in NCAA Division II), my love of smaller-college sports."
After high school, Lucero moved to the West Coast and to Olympia, Washington, in particular to attend Evergreen. While at Evergreen, he was the sports editor of the school newspaper for two years, hosted a radio program for three years, and played on the tennis team for one season.
"One of my first jobs out of college was doing sales for a sports radio production company. They gave me my first opportunity to broadcast games more than 20 years ago -- basketball for Evergreen, the very college I'd attended," Lucero recalled. "It was an amazing experience, no doubt about it. In fact, without the connections I made while broadcasting for Evergreen, I would not be at Willamette today."
Moving from Olympia to Salem for 2022-23
The move to Salem followed several decades in Olympia, but the transition still went well for Lucero.
"It's been very smooth and easy, thanks in large part to how much the Willamette community has welcomed me into the mix," Lucero noted. "I had lived in the Olympia area for 30 years -- almost to the day -- when I moved to Salem. Leaving wasn't easy, but arriving in Salem was, because I was made to feel at home immediately by everyone in the Willamette athletic community."
Now that he is the Bearcats' webcast announcer for football and basketball games, Lucero can work with Willamette Athletics to improve the already solid internet streams produced and directed by Christopher Sabato, assistant athletics director, media. Sponsors also help make the webcasts possible and Capitol Community Media (formerly CCTV) provides much of the video during football webcasts.
"On the football side, I really hope we can find someone to provide color analysis in time for next season," Lucero said. "The play-by-play person is limited in what they can watch on the field, both before and during the play. Having a color analyst who can watch the defensive side of the ball, both pre-snap and during the action, and then talk about it once the play is over will definitely enhance the broadcast."
Whether announcing on his own or with a play-by-play colleague, Lucero adds a lot to Willamette's webcasts. He brings many years of experience plus a lot of excitement. He's ready to go from the first half kickoff in football or the opening tipoff in basketball.
"For me, the biggest thing is just being able to help bring the excitement of live sports to folks who really care about what they're watching," Lucero commented. "When you know your audience is invested in the game, it's easy to feel the same way."
