Every sports team has its “homers” and, deep down, most “homers” want their voices to be heard.
The Plant City Raiders football team happens to have two who made that happen.
Scott Hammock and Rhett Rollyson, both Plant City High graduates, have taken their passion for Plant City football and, with Hammock’s radio equipment, can be heard on the airwaves every Friday night the team is under the lights. Although Hammock and Rollyson do provide traditional play-by-play and color commentary, they pride themselves on being huge Raider fans who just happen to have an audience.
Hammock’s uncle, a former sound technician, taught him and his cousin, Matt Costine, how to use radio equipment at a young age.
“We always had the stuff to play with,” Hammock says. “Since we were little kids, we always did our own little radio show for fun.”
Before then, Hammock and Costine spent three years calling football games for Lake Gibson High. Although Hammock eventually left, Costine stuck around and still calls games on LGBravesRadio.com.
“We started out in Lake Gibson and kind of worked the bugs out in those first three years,” Hammock says. “Now we know what equipment we need, how streaming works, all that stuff.”
Hammock began doing the Plant City broadcasts last season, beginning in the playoffs, and set up in Plant City’s crowded press box to call the Raiders’ historic playoff run with Costine. The weekly coach’s show with former head coach Greg Meyer started around the same time.
“We were able to, through a coaching contact (Costine) had last year, do the playoff games,” Hammock says. “They really liked what we did, so I reached out to Rhett on Facebook and said, ‘Hey, let’s do it, man.’ Here we are.”
Rollyson is no stranger to the airwaves. He grew up listening to Al Berry and Dick Shiflett on WPLA in Plant City, which inspired him to get into the business in high school and at the University of Florida. At PCHS, Rollyson and Tampa Bay Times sportswriter Darek Sharp did a Thursday night football show and worked on the sidelines Friday nights. At UF, Rollyson worked on shows with Steve Spurrier, Lon Kruger and others in Gainesville’s sports radio scene.
Although Rollyson eventually left the radio business, he knew he would have fun going back to work part time with Hammock — even if it meant trying out color commentary, which he had never done before.
“For me, this is an outlet to do something I really like,” Rollyson says. “It’s fun. It’s always good to be down there, but it’s fun doing it in the press box … it’s a different style, but I like it.”
Having known each other for many years — both men graduated from PCHS in 1989 — Hammock and Rollyson didn’t take long to build on-air chemistry. Hammock handles all of the play-by-play duties, also providing other scores from around the area and occasionally talking about upcoming college and NFL football games. Rollyson calls the action as he sees it, giving his opinions on everything from the previous play to what a good nickname for a player would be.
And, in true “homer” fashion, both men like to talk about what plays they would call for the Raiders to run.
According to Hammock, Plant City High didn’t hesitate to welcome the two men into the press box. He also says that, at road games, Plant City’s opponents have been good about letting them into the box.
At the moment, Hammock and Rollyson are the only game in town for regular live football broadcasts. Durant and Strawberry Crest fans have to wait until their teams play Plant City — which means they’d also have to deal with a pair of proud Plant City fans in Hammock and Rollyson.
“It’s good to be a ’homer,’” Rollyson says. “You don’t have to play it down the middle. We don’t have to hide the fact that we both like Plant City High School, and we both want them to be successful.”
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.