Enfield Native Hired To Broadcast Olympic Games From Tokyo

ENFIELD, CT — The answer is 10,796 kilometers, or 6,708 miles. That is the distance between the former Enrico Fermi High School building, where Leah Secondo began thinking about sports broadcasting as a profession, and Yokohama Stadium in Japan, where she will reach the pinnacle of her amazing career by calling softball competition later this summer during the Games of the XXXII Olympiad in Tokyo.

The longtime Enfield resident, who now lives in Florida, has been hired by Spain-based Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) to announce women's basketball, including 3-on-3 games, as well as softball at the Tokyo Summer Olympics. OBS produces the live television, radio and digital coverage of the Olympic and Paralympic Games for over 200 countries, including the opening and closing ceremonies.

News of Secondo's selection came as a bit of a shock to the award-winning broadcaster, who first submitted her resume to OBS four or five years ago.

"I got an email out of the blue in March of this year," she told Patch in a phone interview Monday. "At first I thought it was a joke, but then I reached out and found it was no joke. It's the goal we all strive for to get this opportunity. It's been a dream for many years."

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, all of Secondo's interviews were conducted via Zoom.

"That's the way of the world now," she said.

She said she was originally hired just for basketball, but OBS expanded her assignment to include softball after seeing her wealth of experience calling the sport.

"Leah was selected among many other candidates for the role of the commentator for the world feed in softball, basketball and basketball 3-on-3," OBS senior programming producer Kostas Kapatais said in an email to Patch. "Her voice will be heard around the world, since more than 170 broadcasters will receive the world feed on those sports, including NBC, CBC Canada and AMX for Mexico and all Latin America. What impressed us was Leah's passion, professionalism, attention to detail and flexibility. The Tokyo Olympics will be a unique Games, where nothing is given, therefore having dedicated professionals with patience and stamina was our goal. In Leah, we found one of those."

Secondo has broadcast games from the West Coast, but this will be her first work trip overseas.

"It's the ultimate opportunity," she said. "I'm excited, honored and nervous. Nervous is good; it means you have your edge. You hope to get an opportunity to work on that stage, and it's happening. It's still hard to grasp."

Secondo said she will call preliminary round games by herself, then will be paired with a partner for medal round play. She said she has "an extensive softball schedule," including the medal rounds and including some games played by the U.S. team. She will also call women's basketball games thr0ugh the medal rounds, and will also do some 3-on-3 women's basketball, which is a new sport added this year.

She studied communication and journalism at Southern Connecticut State University, and humbly began broadcasting high school games for the Continental Cablevision public access station in Enfield. She began her professional broadcasting career in 1984 at WGGB-TV 40 in Springfield, Mass., becoming the first woman sportscaster hired at any western Massachusetts television station. In 1990, history repeated itself in Connecticut, when she became the state's first female sportscaster at WTNH-TV 8 in New Haven.

Secondo has been inducted into three Halls of Fame: the Enfield Athletic Hall of Fame in 1996, the New Agenda Northeast Women's Sports Hall of Fame in 1997 and the Connecticut Field Hockey Hall of Fame in 2009. In 2018, she received the President's Award from the Connecticut Sports Writers' Alliance at the 77th Gold Key Dinner.

To register for free Enfield news alerts and more, click here.