One of the many benefits I’ve had over my 32 years of teaching is to see the kids grow up and pursue their dreams.
One young man I met while I was teaching at Anamosa High School back in the 1990s was Jon Swisher.
Jon was a member of my golf team. He also played baseball and basketball. On Kevin Barnes’s basketball team, he was the manager, JV player and student assistant coach. Coach Barnes was a great role model for Jon. He spoke very highly of him and his work ethic.
Jon’s dream was to be a radio broadcaster, and he actually received his start by broadcasting track an eighth-grade student in Anamosa. He announced high school football, basketball, volleyball and track meets.
Another great role model for Jon was Daryl Schepanski. Jon job-shadowed Daryl at the Journal-Eureka covering all the local sports teams.
Jon graduated from Anamosa High School in 2001. He then attended Kirkwood Community College and majored in broadcasting, even announcing Kirkwood basketball games.
He then was hired at WMT radio in Cedar Rapids and while there worked with Leo Greco, which led Jon to working with Ron Gonder. He also met KCRG’s sports director John Campbell who complimented Jon on his radio sports announcing.
All these legends had a big influence on Jon, who currently works at 94.7 KMCH radio in Manchester as their sports director. He also works with Gary Dolphin ‘Voice of the Hawkeyes’, Super Bowl champion Ed Podolak and NBA champion Bob Hansen for the Learfield Network covering Iowa Hawkeye football and men’s basketball games. Jon is Dolphin’s right-hand man and helps him with stats and preparing for the games.
Years ago, I spearheaded a project to get our Anamosa High School weight room named after Marshal Yanda and retire his #77 Blue Raider football jersey.
I put together a panel of people to help me with this tribute for Marshal. The first person I contacted was Schepanski. After completing my panel, the first two people I said we needed were Jon, to emcee the event, and Iowa Hawkeye football coach Kirk Ferentz.
Both of these men attended Marshal’s tribute.
Last spring Jon and Dolphin came to St Pat’s School and were my guest speakers for my students. Jon being a former St. Pat’s student. Jon’s experiences have led him to broadcast two Iowa Hawkeye men’s basketball games at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in the last few weeks.
The dream Jon started as a kid has come true!
Jon said ‘doing radio as the voice of the Chicago Cubs would be my ultimate goal. I know that’s way off and out there, but that’s my ultimate goal.’
Jon, as you know I also teach P.E. at Aquin Catholic School in Cascade, which is where Gary Dolphin attended school as a kid. When I started there 19 years ago, we had a student named Colin Rea. In 2020 he pitched for the Chicago Cubs.
