The dedication of Rick Surrey to his craft can not be
overestimated. At halftime of a San Benito High football game at
Live Oak two years ago, Surrey, who has done television
play-by-play for Baler football games for the past 11 years, needed
to recharge a battery or the show wasn’t going to go on.
The dedication of Rick Surrey to his craft can not be overestimated. At halftime of a San Benito High football game at Live Oak two years ago, Surrey, who has done television play-by-play for Baler football games for the past 11 years, needed to recharge a battery or the show wasn’t going to go on.
“I took the battery down to the concession stand, pulled out the plug of a microwave used to cook hot dogs, and recharged the battery,” said Surrey. “They were coming over and trying to cook the hot dogs and wondering why they weren’t being cooked. I just stood there and played dumb.”
Unfortunately for fans of Haybaler football, Surrey’s foray in the world of play-by-play work for Haybaler football is about to come to an end. He is selling his massive 99 year-old Victorian home designed by J.G. Hamilton located at the corner of West and Seventh St. in Hollister and moving to LaPine, Oregon. LaPine is situated about 30 miles south of Bend on I-97.
“It’s too hard to make it as a general contractor in California,” said Surrey, who is out of here by late September. “It was a great 11 years doing the games, but it’s time for a change.”
The big snafu to Surrey’s pulling up stakes is that, not only is the public access program losing it’s play-by-play man, it is losing its technical force, too. Surrey was the man who knew how to put the wires in the right place so production could go on.
The search is on for a ‘techie’ and an on-air replacement for Surrey, not necessarily having to be one and the same.
“It has to be someone with the passion Rick has,” said Bob Borges, who has run the camera during games for the past eight years. “Rick made the games fun.”
“It was never a polished product,” said Surrey. “We had to have fun with it.”
Surrey dubbed last year’s newly-formed Tri-County Athletic League the “Tri-Tip League”. That’s because every school in the league served tri-tip sandwiches.
Ah, the food.
“The food was the best part of the game,” joked Joe Postigo, Surrey’s sidekick in the booth for all 11 years and a fellow general contractor. “We always were given tri-tip sandwiches by the boosters at halftime. The boosters were great to us. It was harder at Gilroy. We had to place our order in before the half, or else they would be sold out of tri-tip. We gave some money to the ambulance drivers to place our order.”
Surrey brought it up
The idea to cablecast football games was actually brought up by Surrey when he, Postigo and Joe Garcia were at a Contractor’s Association meeting. Garcia happened to run the local public access TV station in Hollister.
“I asked Joe Garcia is he had ever thought of televising the high school football games,” said Surrey. “He put a camera in my hand and said go to it. That’s how it started.”
Dave Lomanto helped out as a spotter. Throughout the years, guest announcers have appeared, such as John “Madden” Mondo, Roy Navarro and Mike Graves.
“We missed about four or five games in 11 years for different reasons,” said Surrey, who moved to Hollister from San Jose in 1987. “We did all the home and away games, including the Central Coast Section games. I don’t think any high school does that.”
The games were telecast on Channels 18 and 34 before moving to Channel 17 last year as part of the Community Media Access Partnership. The CMAP is based at Gavilan College and is responsible for stations 17-20. For the first 10 years, Surrey would hand the tape to Clay Lee, Director of Management Services for the City of Hollister. Last year, it was a drive to Gilroy to drop off the tape at CMAP.
Lee, for one, is worried the televising of Baler football games on a delayed basis may come to an end.
“It’s the longest running cable program in Hollister,” said Lee, who has lived in Hollister for 17 years. “They do a great job of giving the kids recognition. We’ve had great feedback about the games. They’re well-received.”
“Parents take a lot of pride in their kids,” added Postigo.
Freedom of speech
Surrey is the self-professed armchair quarterback. Ask Postigo.
“Sometimes, he questions play-calling the whole game,” said Postigo, a Haybaler alum of 1981. “Then he’ll question a referee’s call, or even wonder about a rule. ‘Can they do that?'”
“I get together with the coaches and socialize,” said Surrey. “We have a good relationship.”
Baler head coach Chris Cameron said that having his games replayed during the week has been “good for the kids”, as well as the opposition.
“I hear about teams getting our tapes and scouting off them,” said Cameron. “Or friends of the other team’s coaches live here and tape them for them.”
“It’s good for the kids to get the exposure,” said Baler offensive coordinator Rick Dukes. “The kids like watching themselves on T.V.”
Now, all of that could be in jeopardy unless someone or two step up and fill Surrey’s spot. Postigo might not return, either.
“It’s time for the young kids to take over,” said Surrey. “But it has to be someone with energy and someone who really wants to do it.”
And someone with the passion of Surrey, who will be missed.
