Ace announcer and a lot more — that’s Betty Ann Boeving

By Judy Richter

Fans of Stanford women’s basketball have come to appreciate announcer Betty Ann Boeving for the role she plays in their enjoyment of the games.

Unlike announcers at some other venues, she strikes just the right balance. She’s not raucous or loud, drawing attention to herself. Instead, she’s a bit low key, providing factual information while helping to boost fans’ energy and enthusiasm.

Now in her 10th season at the Maples microphone, “I enjoy the connection with the fans and keeping people engaged in the game,” she said in a recent telephone interview. Her goal is to “turn the game into an experience” without detracting from the team.

The Menlo Park resident has amassed quite an impressive resume since her 1997 graduation from the University of Oregon, where she majored in broadcast journalism and international studies and played basketball as a small forward for four years. She still holds the school record for single-season three-point shooting percentage. Two years later she went to Stanford and earned her master’s degree in international conflict resolution in 2000.

Since July 2007, she has served as executive director of the Martin Family Foundation, which — among other philanthropic activities — supports education reform in East Palo Alto through the Ravenswood Education Foundation. Eff and Patty Martin also sponsor freshman forward Nneka Ogwumike’s scholarship.

Betty Ann also works with Wellspring, a resource for Christian spiritual growth that shares the Martin Family Foundation’s office in Menlo Park. In addition, she is active in the Menlo Park Presbyterian Church’s community and world outreach programs. They include its Ethiopia Initiative, which seeks to alleviate poverty in that African nation.

Prior to her work with the Martin Foundation, Betty Ann was the West Coast director of development for International Justice Mission. This Christian-based human rights group secures justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression. In 2006 she climbed Mount Kilimanjaro to raise awareness of and $45,000 for the group’s work around the world.

In addition to everything else she does, her personal and professional interests — which include leading Stanford alumni tours with a Stanford professor once a year — have taken her around the world to all seven continents and 75 countries. The 2002 Stanford tour took 88 people around the world to 11 countries in 27 days. “It’s really a blast,” she said. “The Stanford connections around the world are wonderful and are truly everywhere.”

Her first basketball-related broadcast job came a few months after she graduated from college. Fox Sports Network asked her to announce a women’s game between Stanford and Colorado. During that gig, she interviewed Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer about her recent book, “Shooting From the Outside,” which chronicles her experiences coaching the USA women’s Olympic basketball team to the gold medal in1996. Betty Ann had known Tara for a long time before that, having attended her hoops camp for five years, then coaching there another five years.

Later, Tara suggested that she try out for the job as announcer for the 1998-99 women’s basketball team. Betty Ann thought she might face some competition. Instead, “I just showed up the first night” in November 1998, and the job was hers, much to her delight. “It’s the one constant in my life that has been there for me to come back to year after year,” she said.

Her game day routine stays pretty much the same. For a 7 p.m. game, she arrives at Maples at 6 p.m. and goes to the media room to get the visitors’ starting lineup and the pronunciation of all names. If a pronunciation is unusual, she writes it phonetically. After that, she goes to the media’s pre-game dinner.

Once she takes her post at the scorers’ table, she checks the microphone and coordinates with the production crew in a side room. For example, she tells them who’s starting for Stanford so they can display the right head shots when the lineup is introduced. The producer tells her which sponsors are being featured during timeouts.

Shortly before the game starts, she asks the crowd to rise for the National Anthem. After a few more minutes, the band plays “All Right Now,” and it’s time to ask the crowd to respect the visiting team as its starters are introduced. Then she gets the crowd fired up for the Cardinal starters. It was her idea to ask the crowd to stand for the opening tipoff.

She announces the various contests during timeouts as well the halftime entertainment. After the game, she announces the final statistics.

During the game itself, she names scorers for each side and keeps an eye on the referees when they call a violation or personal foul. If a free throw is needed, she says who’s on the line for how many shots. She keeps track of the players’ and teams’ fouls.

Her trademark call for a traveling violation is “too many steps.” She also is remembered for “Brooke with the hook,” announced whenever forward Brooke Smith (’07) scored with one of her signature shots. She got the idea for that in a dream, she said.

Then there was the infamous blooper in January 2008. She returned home from Ethiopia that day, took a nap and went to the game despite her jet lag. She did fine until she had to do a plug for Outback Steakhouse. Sure enough, she said, “Outhouse Steakhouse.” She’s had a hard time living that one down.

As for the team itself, Betty Ann said she admires Tara and associate head coach Amy Tucker for their coaching and for the strong support they get from former players. With this year’s players, “Everybody is invited to be a contributor” on a team that no longer has superstar guard Candice Wiggins, who graduated in June.

And as the team’s long-time announcer, “I enjoy the connection with the game and keeping people engaged in the game,” she concluded.