In Touch With…Jay Resha

On Episode 39 of The Wolverine Report, Evan Cardimino and I caught up with Westwood High School alum Jay Resha, who just started his 33rd year behind the mic as the Wolverines Football PA Announcer. Resha talks about his playing days at Westwood, his time as PA Announcer at Westwood High School, and stories from his time growing up in town.
 
Morgan: We’re excited to hear some stories.
 
Jay: Having hit a big birthday, I won’t tell you which one.
 
Morgan: 29
 
Jay: Something like that, or 25, or two of those. I have a lot of stories of growing up in Westwood. There are a lot of people I’ve met along the way, and so many stories. A lot of them revolve around sports at Westwood High, and now we’re going into the second generation with my own kids there. It’s rewarding, it’s fun, it’s exciting so I’m happy to share some of those stories with you – so you lead the way.
 
Evan: You grew up in a great time for Westwood sports, and you were part of an exceptional time for Westwood sports when you were there. Tell us about some of your favorite memories of being a Westwood athlete during that time?
 
Jay: Now “Westwood athlete” and being a part of a great era may be two different things. I was a varsity tennis player and four years of football. I know that I had zero Tri-Valley League All-Star selections for myself, so it wasn’t so much about me, but I’ll tell you what, I really did grow up in a great time. As a little kid I was inspired. We were winning everything. The girls basketball team had so many years in a row of winning the Tri-Valley League. The football team had Super Bowls in ’84 and ’88 – guys that inspired me to play football, frankly.
 
There were six “Dalton” Awards, you remember that award from The Boston Globe? No town had as many as we had. Now we haven’t had any in the last couple of decades, so I hope we get back to it. I just learned we finished second in the Dalton Award the year-before-last, so we’re right on the cusp of getting back up there, which is pretty cool. There were some great names. There were some great teams and then in high school it continued with us.
 
Evan: You did a lot in high school and I think for a lot of these students it’s important to try new things and get out and do a lot. You’re a parent now. How much did doing all of this in high school help you in your professional life, and are those lessons that you’re trying to impart on your kids now and encourage them to do more?
 
Jay: Agree 100% on that. Aside from being comfortable with a microphone in front of my face and being able to talk to a crowd – shout-out to Stephanie Kelsch
 
Morgan: Oh my gosh, I had her as well
 
Jay: She taught Oral English. I think they’ve changed the name, happily, since then, but what a great class it was to learn how to speak in public. I probably would not have had the microphone in my hand to do those morning announcements my senior year had it not been for that class. Yes, those skills stay with you. You have to be able to talk to people, whoever you’re talking to.
 
Evan: Talk us through a little bit about your start as a PA announcer. After leaving Westwood High School you went to college. You come back, how did you start doing PA – what was the impetus?
 
Jay: It’s a great story and I’ve told it many times. I try not to let the story change over the years and get any bigger or bolder, like the fish that you caught, but the truth is I had a parent who was ill, so I went off to college, but I was coming home on the weekends. By doing that, I was able to go to games. The very first home game, there I am with my old friends and I’m going to watch the game, but they needed a chain crew. I went down and did the chain crew. The next game, a week or two later, Joe Gearon himself is doing the PA because the fella, Roger, who did it for a number of years, he was no longer doing it.
 
So Joe was doing it and I thought that he wasn’t very good at it, and I also thought that now since I was in college, I can tell him that, and not get in trouble because I’m no longer a student at Westwood High.
 
Halftime comes, Joe comes walking down the stairs right by me. He says, ‘Hey, Resha, how you doing.’ I said, ‘Oh Dr. Gearon, nice to see you. You’re not very good at that.’ He grabbed my shirt, like in the movies, and yanked me up as though I was still a freshman and he said, ‘Oh Resha, you think you’re so good? You get up there and do it. You come with me right now.’ He marched me up the stairs, into the booth, and he sat me in the chair and said, ‘You do it.’
 
I did the second half, figured it out on the fly because I’d been listening to so many games, and 33 years later here we are. We are still here and I’m still doing them.
 
Morgan: We’re thankful for it. I’ve mentioned to you numerous times, I’m thankful for you because for two years I didn’t have a home football field. We played a home game against Medfield AT Medfield one time. We played in Norwood against Bellingham. That was our home field for a game, and thankfully because of Xaverian we had some consistency with a field. We had to play some games on Thursday at 4 o’clock or Saturday at 10am before they would play at 1. There was no consistency with that, but the guiding light through all of that is we had a home voice. We could have played the game on Mars, we could have played the game at any time of day, but when you have Jay Resha on the mic saying, ‘Touchdown, Wolverines!’ that would fire us up. It was so beneficial for us because it felt like home. There were some important games. We won back-to-back Super Bowls
 
Jay: Thank you. I’m flattered by that. I know you had a group of guys and a group of coaches who made it happen. I’ve always said I’m a tiny little cog in a very large wheel and those years on the road were very interesting without having a home field.
 
Morgan: You started with football. At what point did you expand to the other sports – like basketball?
 
Jay: About five-six years ago, I approached Matt Gillis about doing some more basketball games, and I do more basketball games now than anything else because there are more on the schedule, but I also love it. I wouldn’t say I love it more than football, but basketball is very unique, it’s very exciting. I love being a part of the game in a way that you’re not in football because you really get to scream it out and say, “Three-Pointer” and all of that and that’s a lot of fun.
 
Evan: We saw you at a couple of volleyball games this year on the mic. Is it hard to separate the PA announcing from “dad mode” when your daughter, Maddy, is on the team?
 
Jay: That part was pretty easy – the separation. It’s very rewarding, to be involved, and to have something else we’re doing, as a family. Even though it’s a community event and it’s at the school, but it’s another thing that we’re doing together. My wife’s in the stands, my son’s in the stands. Everybody is there. What a great season it was for her. In fact, the longest notes I wrote before this were about last fall and how amazing it was to see her work so hard and work her way into the starting lineup and then, for them to go on that run to make it to the Final Four, which no Westwood team had ever made it that far… that was extremely emotional, in a good way. They lost to a juggernaut of a team in Westborough. That was a highlight that compares with me remembering when we won the Super Bowl in 1992, for sure.
 

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