By Steven Luker
My 2023 year recap as a Bleacher Brothers employee
January 2023 recap
At the beginning of the year in 2023 as a normal person who I am myself and PlayactionReal produce another great series of Retro Ads Monday and streamed it on NoFilter at the beginning and we let that show ride all the way until Thanksgiving week and then at the end of the year in December we decided together to shut it down and pack it in. The show lasted from October 2022 to November 2023 so about one year and eleven months.
February 2023 recap
During the month of February I was able to attend some junior college basketball games and talk to a really great friend I met the year before when the junior college in my area was playing a school call college of the Desert I ran into a good friend of mine, Pooh Richardson, a former Minnesota Timberwolve player. During this month also I watched a junior college basketball playoff game where the other team Cuesta College had a ton of tall players at the time.
March 2023 recap
The month of March was something special for me. I was able to witness my second ever snowfall when it was snowing down on my level for a while and was able to stick on the ground. This was a month that was something I never believed that happen with snow.
April 2023
During this month I went out to visit to watch some of my great friends’ college softball team for the first time and went to my first softball game of the season. This was a time where I was not smart and let my phone die on me and had my family worry sick if I was ok and what not. Luckily I was safe during this. I learned a lesson to always keep your phone fully charged regardless of what you do with it.
Also during the month of April I started my Bleacher Brothers writing career and I have been doing it ever since then. The first article I wrote for the Bleacher Brothers website was a game recap of the Los Angeles Lakers against the Minnesota Timberwolves game recap of the NBA Play In Game for the Playoffs.
May 2023
During this month to start the month I traveled and took the train from where I lived to go to Fullerton for Cinco De Mayo weekend to help out during a playoff series and was the same team I was out watching during the month of April. During this time I packed a charger phone case that charges and a power block to play it safe. This was a time I learned a lot of needed things and worked on some stuff outside and shared things I do out of a sport.
Also during this month of May my dad and I did a RedBull Pitstop challenge with a cutaway F1 car and we both experienced something new and learned how to do something new and how fast you have to do a tire change for a F1 car.
June 2023
The month of June came around and I was still waiting for the lottery for the Banana Ball tickets in my area to see if I won. I luckily won the lottery and I was able to buy some tickets to watch the Savannah Bananas during the month of July during their California tour.
July 2023
The month of July was a full on special. I went to the San Diego Padres Low A team to watch some baseball and watch the prospect that everyone was talking about the Ethan Salas player. Also during this game it was a ring night when the Low A team won the championship the previous season and they handed out replica rings.
Also during this month is around the same time as the Banana Ball game. I realized to myself what do I want to do with myself while writing and do I just want an associates degree or something better. This was when I was like let’s go in the Bachelor of Science
Sportscasting so I enrolled at Full Sail University at the Dan Patrick School of Sportscasting. Within this time of writing this I am entering month number eight and I have applied the things I have learned with this school to writing and learning new things.
Also during this month I went to the Savannah Bananas game in my area and watched something new and I felt the game was something great to see. I did an article on the Bleacher Brothers website with my honest review of the game and what it was like and if it was worth it or not.
August 2023
This is the month I decided to go back to my local high school and help out with the football games with whatever they needed. During this I learned so many things and was able to learn how the whole process of letting in fans into a home side of the field to watch a football game and make sure everyone had a ticket or something to show their admission to get in the game.
September 2023
During the month of September for me I was starting to keep working on some writing for Bleacher Brothers and step up my game with writing game recaps for the Golden State Warriors and the Vegas Golden Knights once they had the games finished I started the recaps about like eleven games into the season for both teams.
October 2023
The month of October started a new chapter for me where I asked Angel Martinez of Broad St. South to do a show on the Radio and this was the time I wanted to get my feet wet into the internet radio side of things. This was perfect and I felt if I practice doing stuff on the radio I can showcase to my instructors at school what I am doing.
Also during this month I started doing football games at my local high school over the radio and worked on another thing to prove to my instructors that I am finding things to make myself better. Speaking of local high school football I had the opportunity to flip the coin and was able to keep the coin that was flipped.
November 2023
The sad ending of Retro Ads Monday on NoFilter network has reached its end point and was just ending at the end of the month as I moved onto something better and changed the things I did. The show just was slowly dying and tough to make it to watch since living in the past playing the same stuff over and over made it extremely difficult to find some new content for the show.
During this month I want to say this much. I learned how to brand myself as a person and what things I can do and work on. I recently finished a personal branding class in the middle of December but started late November.
This also was a special month for me. I actually ran into a bus driver I have known since going to Junior College. I ran into him for the first time since COVID and was shocked to see him filling in for a run. This was something special and it was a great experience catching up with him sharing things I have done.
December 2023
New Chapter and a brand new beginning. This is the month we went and decided to remove retro ads Monday to something new for me. This was news for me when it was announced that the Bleacher Brothers show was moving to the Tony Bruno Sports Network. I decided to jump on board with the move because I want to build my brand more and work on more Internet radio and this came to help a lot. As I took on a role I like and I was on the update desk giving score updates for fans with any sports action that is going on and sharing any news that breaks.
Overall last year was full of special things and tons of things I can cross off the list of things I have done and continue to shrink down the bucket list. There have been a lot of cool things and sometimes there was a challenge but I overcame them. Also I feel I have called two Draymond Green suspensions and fines in my articles.
2024 plans & goals
The year 2024 I feel my plans are to keep working with Bleacher Brothers writing articles for them and being a producer for the show and give the sports score updates. I also want to keep working on getting my degree and have at least a Bachelor’s degree under my belt and have my degree in August 2025.
Some of the goals I have for 2024 is I want to be part of the Super Bowl Radio Row crew for Bleacher Brothers and I want to try to attend some events and try to see if I can get media credentials at some events that are in my area and try to cover them and write about them. Lastly , I want to keep myself healthy. I want to be able to share things with people and grow my brand and help anyone that needs it.
I feel I have made myself a better person and proud of myself and I feel I want to thank especially AJ Johnson for letting me have this opportunity. It means a lot to me. I also want to thank PlayActionReal for being such a loyal co host when we did the Retro Ads show. I want to thank Angel Martinez for giving me the start of internet radio. Lastly I want to thank my family and friends and the whole Bleacher Brothers Family that I am able to share my writing and stories I have written and make people read. To this 2024 season let everything happen.
