DaytonDailyNews.com

You've heard Kirk Herbstreit on ESPN and Alan Abrahamson on anything NBC, especially during the Olympics, since he left the Los Angeles Times for NBCsports.com.

And for the past eight years, on a number of ESPN shows, comes the voice of John Seibel, like Abrahamson a Northmont High School graduate.

If you're counting at home, that's three national sports correspondents (Herbstreit is from Centerville) from the same mid-size Midwestern city.

Abrahamson, who is renown for his Olympics coverage from his days with the Times — is more of a print guy for NBCsports.com than a broadcast guy, but he's on a lot of television shows, especially "The Today Show."

Abrahamson first went to law school, while Seibel took an even longer route to the sports world.

Seibel sounds like a radio natural working the Football GameDay broadcast (4-6:30 p.m., WING-AM 1410) for ESPN. When he graduated from Northmont in 1988, he could hardly project being where he is now.

"I went into the Air Force because I didn't know what I wanted to do," Seibel said. "I didn't want to focus on academics, and I wasn't disciplined."

Not only did Seibel learn discipline, he continued his education at Arizona State, took a job after graduation in St. Joseph, Mo., and soon after moved for a better job to Anchorage, Alaska.

Turns out his best friend — also a former newscaster — was the campaign manager for Wasilla Mayor Sarah Palin. The guy went on to work for an oil company and was as surprised as the rest of the world when Seibel called him this summer to let him know what was going on in places not adjacent to Russia.

As for working in Alaska, Seibel stayed three years and said the cold was not so much different from what he encountered in Clayton, except for a few of those long, long nights.

A head-hunting firm said he could have his pick of jobs in a few major cities, or at ESPN, which was his dream.

"Clayton is just a small little farm town," Seibel said. "I never thought going to Northmont that this would be possible."

ESPN hired him in 2000. He was an anchor for ESPN News, then went to the radio side, where he has worked on several shows.

He still loves the Reds and Bengals, no matter how much they lose, and Northmont.

"We had our 20-year reunion," Seibel said, "and beat Wayne."

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2157 or

mkatz@DaytonDailyNews.com.