Living His Dream | The Journey of OKC Thunder Spanish Radio Voice Eleno Ornelas | Noches Éne-Bé-A

Living His Dream | The Journey of OKC Thunder Spanish Radio Voice Eleno Ornelas | Noches Éne-Bé-A

Williams [Applause] William he fight you the seasons that I call for different teams is more than 40 Seasons that I call in sports of course in Spanish and the way that I started thinking about being uh able to broadcast games I was 8 years old living in W is Mexico with my father we always

Used to listen to the games you know World Series in playoffs over the radio because when I was a kid there was no TV no other way to listen to the games and in Mexico it was uh over the radio and I told my father you know I would like to

Have a chance to call one of those plays and he told me that I was crazy and I said why you know I wanted to do it and say no we live in Mexico those games are played in United States so we mov to Al

Paso Texas when I was 14 years old I think well this is United States now I started thinking and about my dream it took me around 20 years waiting for a chance to do It when I last I met a guy on that does Spanish radio he got me a media pass to cover the the Rangers one day Juan Gonzalez was traded he’s from Puerto Rico and then his interpreter was a play-by-play announcer for the Texas Rangers so when he was traded that

Person left with one so there was an opening and I was the only Latino reporter with the Texas Rangers the rang were play in Oakland Juan Gonzalez h a home run and there was a person a reporter also that told me elen you told me that you know how to do play

By play and then when I was in interview with the president on on the year 2000 uh he asked me if I have something recorded to to see how I sound so I I have a play recorded and play for [Applause] him yeah and he listened to it and he told me eleno you know I don’t understand any word that you’re saying but you know what it sounds exciting so you want to work for us and that’s the way I started working as a broadcaster for the Tex [Applause]

Avangers for me it’s really an honor to be part of the that with noes n being able to introduce the lineups in espanol in the Arena V wky Deportes that little kid that was dreaming to go and play as imagine how many games and how many places I I call now when I go to schools and talk to them they they realiz oh really it can happen we can do it and I can show you

Hundreds and hundreds of letters that I have from kids that I visited in schools that never never thought uh finishing school and after I visit and talk to them and give them my my lecture about what I’ve been through and and they really enjoy that’s that’s why I think

Noes n is growing we call those letters in Spanish N I work for the n not the NBA and that’s when people start to realize okay well they paying attention to us because you know you do like Mariachi you do folklore ballet stuff like that that Latinos enjoy and have

Fun so no is very important for for our community not only Mexican I say Latinos because there is a lot of different races here from Puerto Rico Dominican Niar salvad and Mexico now I’m a GU Who would thought that elen would be a boy for somebody you know those kids being able to listen and dream to have the jobs you have to love it you have to enjoy it and then go for it

The Thunder’s Spanish radio voice Eleno Ornelas shares his journey growing up in Mexico dreaming of becoming a play-by-play announcer in the USA. For 40 years now he’s lived that dream, including the last 15 with the Thunder on WKY 930 AM 🎤

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