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JP Dellacamera

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JP Dellacamera
MSG Network commentators J.P. Dellacamera and Shep Messing at the opening of Red Bull Arena (Harrison), a match between the New York Red Bulls and Santos FC.
Born
John Paul Dellacamera

(1952-01-11) January 11, 1952 (age 72)
Waltham, Massachusetts, U.S.
OccupationSportscaster

John Paul "JP" Dellacamera (born January 11, 1952) is an American play-by-play sportscaster primarily for Major League Soccer with the Philadelphia Union, as well as major soccer tournaments and ice hockey.

Early life

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Dellacamera grew up in Waltham, Massachusetts and graduated from Waltham High School in 1970. He studied broadcasting at Grahm Junior College and spent much of the 1970s as a minor league hockey announcer. In 1982, he got his start as a soccer announcer with the Pittsburgh Spirit of the Major Indoor Soccer League.[1]

Commentary career

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Minor League Hockey

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Considered the "Godfather of Erie, Pennsylvania Hockey Broadcasters", Dellacamera was the first hockey radio announcer in the Erie when hired by the Erie Blades ahead of the team's first season in 1975 as the public relations director and broadcaster. Previously, Dellacamera had been in the North American Hockey League (1973–1977) with the Long Island Cougars, and accepted the Blades job after the Cougars ceased operations.[2]

Dellacamera called Blades games on WLKK from 1975-1982.[3] Blades' public address announcer and back-up radio broadcaster John Leisering took over broadcast duties for Dellacamera when he left for the Pittsburgh Spirit.

Soccer

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In the 1980s, Dellacamera was the play-by-play announcer for broadcasts of the original Major Indoor Soccer League on ESPN and FNN-Score.

He was ESPN and ABC's play-by-play announcer for their coverage of international soccer, and has been calling the sport for nearly 30 years. Dellacamera did not call the 2006 World Cup, with Dave O'Brien replacing him, but teamed with Tommy Smyth to become the lead radio commentary team for the 2010 and 2014 World Cups for ESPN Radio.[4][5][6]

His most famous assignments include eight UEFA Champions League finals and the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup final between the United States and China. That match ended in a 0–0 tie after regulation, with the U.S. women winning in a penalty kick shootout 5–4 ("The shot-save, Scurry!" was one of Dellacamera's most memorable calls from that day's shootout, coming from U.S. goalkeeper Briana Scurry's save on China's third kick of the shootout). He has also called numerous United States' World Cup qualifiers, including Paul Caligiuri's famed 1989 "Shot Heard Round the World" goal against Trinidad & Tobago.

In 2001, he was the lead play-by-play announcer for the WUSA national broadcasts on TNT and CNN/SI. Dellacamera was NBC's play-by-play voice for soccer at the 2004 Summer Olympics, where he did both the men's and women's tournaments. He also did play-by-play for the New York Red Bulls on MSG Network for several years.

Dellacamera was the first host of ESPN's PressPass alongside analysts Tommy Smyth and Eddie Mighten. The show airs on ESPN's African, Pacific Rim, and Middle East channels, in addition to ESPN360. Dellacamera has been replaced by Derek Rae, and Mighten has been replaced by Janusz Michallik.

Dellacamera served as the lead play-by-play announcer for NBC Sports coverage of Soccer at the 2008 Summer Olympics.[7]

On January 16, 2010, Major League Soccer expansion team Philadelphia Union announced that Dellacamera will do play-by-play for local TV broadcasts during its inaugural season.[8] He called Union matches through the end of their local TV contract after the 2022 season.

In March 2011, Dellacamera left ESPN to join Fox Soccer as their lead MLS play-by-play commentator. However, in November 2011, the NBC Sports Network signed a deal with the league to broadcast all league matches starting in the 2012 season.[9] Fox re-gained rights in time for the 2015 season and Dellacamera reunited with Fox through the 2022 season. He also continued his duties with the Philadelphia Union and even called Union games on Fox broadcasts.

Starting in 2013, Dellacamera will do play-by-play for the New York Cosmos on ONE World Sports when games do not interfere with Union broadcasts.[10]

In 2014, he was a play-by-play commentator for ESPN Radio for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. He was the play-by-play commentator for ONE World Sports's coverage of the 2015 Asian Cup.

In 2018, he was a featured commentator alongside Tony Meola on FOX and FS1 for their United States broadcasts of the FIFA World Cup. He also was the 2018 recipient of the National Soccer Hall of Fame's Colin Jose Media Award.[11] In 2021 JP took the position of President of Communications/Media of the Major Arena Soccer League.

In 2022, Dellacamera returned to call his ninth World Cup in Qatar and his second with Fox Sports. Then, he returned to call the Copa America in the United States.[12] Calling matches with him both tournaments was former USMNT midfielder and Los Angeles Galaxy player/broadcaster Cobi Jones.[13][14]

National Hockey League

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In addition to soccer and a few other sports, Dellacamera is a veteran NHL announcer. In the early 1990s, he was a part of the Chicago Wolves for two seasons, being the first play-by-play person on the team. From 2003-04 through 2008-09 he was the television play-by-play voice of the Atlanta Thrashers, and previously served as one of ESPN's many play-by-play commentators. Possibly due to his extensive work in soccer, Dellacamera is one of the few hockey play-by-play broadcasters to use "goal" in his goal calls (i.e. instead of saying "he takes the shot and scores," Dellacamera will say "takes the shot, goal"). Earlier in his career he did play-by-play for both the EHL Long Island Ducks and NAHL Long Island Cougars.

World Junior Hockey

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Dellacamera served as the play-by-play announcer for all US National Team games on the NHL Network during the 2010 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships. Dellacamera replaced Gary Thorne, who was originally scheduled to announce the games.

TV credits

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References

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  1. ^ Souza, Scott (July 15, 2015). "Waltham's JP Dellacamera makes history as Women's World Cup announcer". Waltham News Tribune. Archived from the original on October 4, 2023. Retrieved September 30, 2023.
  2. ^ https://soundcloud.com/erieotters/jp-dellacamera-interview-during-erie-blades-night
  3. ^ https://erieblades.tripod.com/id158.html
  4. ^ [1] Zap2It
  5. ^ [2] Sun Broadcast Group
  6. ^ [3] Archived 2024-05-24 at the Wayback Machine Soccer America Daily
  7. ^ Medium Well: Your NBC Olympics lineup - A blog on sports media, news and networks Archived 2008-08-03 at the Wayback Machine Baltimore Sun
  8. ^ @PhilaUnion (2010-01-16). "JP Dellacamera will be Philadelphia Union's play-by-play announcer for the club's Inaugural Season!" (Tweet). Retrieved 2022-11-25 – via Twitter.
  9. ^ "MLS, NBC announce three-year broadcast deal". MLSsoccer.com. 2011-08-10. Archived from the original on 2011-10-25. Retrieved 2011-10-11.
  10. ^ "JP Dellacamera to call some New York Comsos NASL games". 10 June 2013. Archived from the original on 2014-10-19. Retrieved 2013-08-08.
  11. ^ "JP Dellacamera Named 2018 Colin Jose Media Award Winner". ussoccer.com. 2018-09-25. Archived from the original on 2019-04-11. Retrieved 2022-11-26.
  12. ^ Zeitlin, Dave (2022-06-13). "JP Dellacamera, the understated voice of American soccer, heads to his ninth World Cup". theathletic.com. Archived from the original on 2022-11-27. Retrieved 2022-11-26.
  13. ^ Bucholtz, Andrew (2022-10-04). "Full Fox 2022 FIFA World Cup commentator roster revealed, with all commentary teams on site". Awful Announcing. Retrieved 2024-07-01.
  14. ^ "Fox Sports coverage of 2024 Copa America includes Strong, Holden on USMNT matches". Pro Soccer Wire. 2024-05-31. Retrieved 2024-07-01.
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Media offices
Preceded by MLS Cup play-by-play announcer
2002–2005
2008–2009 		Succeeded by
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