Meet the voices behind the biggest calls of North Catholic football, basketball and other games: Merda Adams
“Sidney Crosby, skates up ice along the near-side boards, loses the defenseman, forehand-backhand, he scores! Crosby gives the Penguins a 4-1 lead.”
That or a call like it came bellowing out of Brody Mardis’ bedroom many nights. Not from him — from his sister.
Callie Mardis has been seemingly destined to be a sportscaster since she was young.
Big brother Brody had her call his personal play-by-play as he performed knee hockey highlights in his room. He pretended to be his favorite players — Sidney Crosby, Wayne Gretzky, others — while she provided the soundtrack.
She started her own YouTube channel when she was about 12 years old so she could call his travel hockey games.
Now, she’s the voice of North Catholic football.
Tune into the North Catholic Sports Network YouTube channel on Friday nights during home games, and the senior is likely shouting during the latest big play from quarterback Joe Felitsky or running back Logan Schade.
“I want to go into sports broadcasting,” Mardis said. “I’d love to be one of the voices of play-by-play on TV. I know not many women are really present on that.”
Mardis calls play-by-play for Trojans football games, volleyball and hockey. The senior is joined most nights by junior Colin Campbell and sophomore Jack Davison.
North Catholic is one of two Butler County schools that has student-run football broadcasts. Most schools have livestreams that rely on Hudl or NFHS technology to broadcast their games to fans, some with commentary and some without. A few schools, like Butler and Knoch, have local radio stations calling their games. And local TV stations pick up a handful of games every year.
But North and Moniteau are the only student-run livestreams, and North is the only one with a female lead voice.
“I make jokes I’m nowhere near as good as Callie,” Campbell said.
“I think Callie is so good at dissecting the game. ... When there’s a time where it doesn’t seem like there’s anything to talk about, (she keeps the conversation going).”
There’s a polish and professionalism to the broadcasts with Mardis and Campbell on the call. North Catholic has a work-study class during ninth period in which students can contribute to the school’s athletic website by writing recaps and stories, produce a podcast, manage social media accounts and broadcast sporting events.
Campbell said one of their classmates puts together information packets during the week ahead of the Trojans’ next football game, and the three broadcasters study them in preparation for the next opponent. Mardis typically prepares the opening script and early talking points to insert around game play.
“That’s kind of the beauty of them having this ninth-period work-study,” associate athletic director John Hoffman, who oversees the program, said. “They can talk over different things.”
Campbell, Davison and Mardis grew up playing and watching sports and all joined the broadcasts at the end of their freshman years.
Davison played baseball, soccer and basketball and now runs cross country and track. He’s also in speech debate and forensics and hopes to be a sportscaster like NFL Network’s Scott Hanson, whose “job seems so fun sitting there every Sunday,” Davison said.
Campbell doesn’t plan to pursue a career in broadcasting, but he plays golf and basketball and played other sports when he was younger.
Mardis was into dance, soccer and more growing up and now is a golfer for the Trojanettes. But broadcasting is her passion.
She used her grandmother’s laptop and her parents bought “random” cameras so she could call her first actual hockey games for her brother’s travel team.
“I had no idea what I was doing,” she said, but her brother and his teammates loved hearing their names and her calls when they studied film after games.
Mardis started in North’s media program alongside former students Ryan Berry, who is studying at St. Bonaventure to work in athletic departments one day, and Alex Brown, an Alabama student studying to be a broadcaster. Her first on-air call was North Catholic baseball’s WPIAL championship game as a freshman with Campbell.
Her first football game as a sophomore, handling sideline duties, was when she officially fell in love with broadcasting, she said.
She wants to do play-by-play in the NHL one day, hopefully for her beloved Pittsburgh Penguins. She has shadowed Mike Lange, Paul Steigerwald and Phil Bourque with the Penguins and has built a network of broadcasters she seeks advice from.
“She’s really blossomed in the last year given the ability to be the full main voice now,” Hoffman said. “She’s always had a strong voice and idea of what she brought to the broadcast, but now she’s taken the wheel a little bit.”
It’s apparent she, Campbell and Davison have good on-air chemistry. They get compliments from teachers, friends and the community. It helps they’re friends outside of the booth, too. Mardis said she is also “lifelong friends” with the graduated Brown and Berry.
“This is just the key in my eyes to a good broadcast ... when you can just talk to a person like a regular (conversation),” Campbell said. “Alex and Ryan, they were so good at that. They were best buds. ... Me and Callie really just learned off of that and modeled them.”
The trio has one more regular-season home game to call, Oct. 17 against Avonworth, but possibly more if the Trojans, who dropped a second straight Friday night to fall to 5-2, host a playoff game.
Volleyball is closing in on the postseason, as well. The puck drops on the hockey season this week, and basketball will be around the corner soon.
Jake Merda Adams is the sports editor at the Butler Eagle.
-
From left, North Catholic student broadcasters Callie Mardis, left, Jack Davison, center, and Colin Campbell, right, sit for a portrait before a football game against Central Valley on Friday, Oct. 3, 2025, at J.C. Stone Field. Matthew Brown/Butler Eagle
-
North Catholic student broadcasters Jack Davison, left, and Callie Mardis, right, do a practice run of the broadcast before a football game against Central Valley on Friday, Oct. 3, 2025, at J.C. Stone Field. Matthew Brown/Butler Eagle
-
North Catholic student broadcasters Callie Mardis, left, and Jack Davison, right, test their headsets before a football game against Central Valley on Friday, Oct. 3, 2025, at J.C. Stone Field. Matthew Brown/Butler Eagle
-
North Cathlic student broadcasters Jack Davison, left, and Callie Mardis, right, talk in the press box before a football game against Central Valley on Friday, Oct. 3, 2025, at J.C. Stone Field. Matthew Brown/Butler Eagle
-
North Catholic student broadcaster Jack Davison calls a play-by-play during a football game against Central Valley on Friday, Oct. 3, 2025, at J.C. Stone Field. Matthew Brown/Butler Eagle
-
North Catholic student broadcasters Jack Davison, left, and Callie Mardis, center, talk with associate athletic director Jon Hoffman, right, before a football game against Central Valley on Friday, Oct. 3, 2025, at J.C. Stone Field. Matthew Brown/Butler Eagle
-
North Catholic student broadcaster Callie Mardis, center, watches from the press box before a football game against Central Valley on Friday, Oct. 3, 2025, at J.C. Stone Field. Matthew Brown/Butler Eagle
