Rose basketball highlights
FRI.| 4-12-24 | ENTERTAINMENT
Rodgers replaces Charles as voice of Pirates
MON.| 3-27-23 | SPORTS
On Feb. 10, 2023, Jeff Charles passed away. Charles was the voice of East Carolina University (ECU) athletics for over 30 years.
Charles was respected in the pirate family and was often referred to as “The Voice.”
Scott Rogers is the current ECU baseball and womens basketball play-by-play announcer.
Rogers has been announcing baseball games for almost a year and a half now, and it is his first season as the women’s basketball play-by-play announcer. When the position was handed over to Rogers, Charles helped him learn how to be the best announcer possible as Rogers began his broadcasting career.
“We actually became pretty close, ever since I got the baseball job last year, he was someone that I had always looked up to,” Rogers said.
At the beginning of his broadcasting career, Rogers was assisted and taught many things by
Charles.
Graphic by Smith Vick
“He kinda took me under his wing.. taught me a lot of stuff last year.. I learned a lot of stuff from him,” Rogers
said.
When somebody who has the experience of Charles tries to give you advice, you know it’s valuable when he has been in the announcing career for over 30 years.
“Once I took his suggestion you could tell how much better I got just by doing those little things,” Rogers said. One thing people knew about Charles was that he was always willing to help, no matter the situation, Charles wanted to be a light in the community.
“He was a great mentor, anytime I had a question that was related to broadcasting, or anything, he never hesitated to answer,” Rogers said.
“He had such an impact at ECU and in the community as well.”
As Rogers starts his career in broadcasting, he hopes to be the official voice of the Pirates, just as Charles once was.
“Hopefully I will get that job, it’s something that I will be going after pretty hard when the time comes, so hopefully I will be able to carry on that legacy into full time,” Rogers said.
After every win, Charles would say, “you can paint this one purple,”
something that Rogers has tried to implement into his broadcasting career.
So after every win, Rogers says, “in the words of Jeff Charles, you can paint this one purple.”
This is something that Rogers hopes he can make last in his young and bright future of announcing, to pay homage to his mentor, "The Voice," Jeff Charles.
