East Brunswick teens aim to score big with sports podcast
EAST BRUNSWICK – Four township teenagers say they are teammates for life.
They have played sports all their lives, but now they also can't stop talking about and sharing their love of sports.
“Teen Sports Talk” is a sports podcast hosted by two sets of brothers - Rohan and Viren Patel and Roshan and Yashesh Shah.
The teens are neighbors who have known each other’s families since before they were in elementary school. They grew up in East Brunswick playing and watching sports with each other, and in November 2021, they decided to share their love for sports through their own podcast, "Teen Sport Talk."
The teenagers discuss trending sports topics, predictions for upcoming games, comparing statistics, reviewing draft picks, and more. They have also interviewed two pro football players - Dontae Strickland, who played for Arizona Cardinals in the 2019 preseason, and Andrew Inzer, who was on the practice squad of the Super Bowl-winning 2001 New England Patriots.
The idea for the podcast was created during a late-night hangout.
“We were at a sleepover at Roshan’s and Viren’s house,” Rohan said. “We were just eating an ice cream on the table at 1 a.m., watching some sports highlights, and we were like, ‘Let's do something creative, something crazy.’ So, we just came up on this idea and were like, ‘Oh, what if we started a podcast?’ "
“We did a lot of research and found that Spotify was a really easy way for us to start up a podcast,” Rohan said. “So, we were like, ‘Alright, let's try this. Let's see where it goes’.”
A year and a half later, the group has produced 21 episodes. After taking a hiatus in the spring to focus on schoolwork, the four high schoolers are back for the summer and ready to produce episodes.
The group said that they take a few hours out of their week to get an episode done, including a session where they gather and go over the statistics they want to talk about.
“We'll send a text and say ‘Guys, let's meet up tomorrow, get some ideas’,” Rohan said. “Then we'll come around sit around the table. We'll usually do some background stuff, get some notes out, get some important stats that we want to mention. And then we'll we just record.”
The group believes the free-flowing structure to their podcast is what makes their discussions so productive.
“I feel like the best thing about our podcast is that we don't write a script,” Rohan said. “You see the stats and you just talk. It's more of a conversation than just a reading a script on TV.”
In addition to their free-wheeling discussions, the group has also enjoyed the opportunity they had to talk to pro football players. Roshan described what interviewing Inzer was like.
“It was actually really cool to hear his thoughts. We asked him a bunch of questions like, ‘How was it playing with Tom Brady? How's it playing in like a Super Bowl team environment, arguably one of the best teams and in the franchise’?” Roshan said. “And he was very open about his answers, and we got great information.”
Yeshash talked about what it was like interviewing Strickland.
“I really had a fun time talking with him. I wanted to hear his experience beating Clemson, because that was a very big upset,” Yeshash said. “I feel like that was our first like real big interview that we did,” Viren said. “We were all very excited, just jumping around, waiting for the call.”
For the four high school students, the biggest challenge is getting people to know about their podcast. They quickly realized that sending the podcast to family and friends would not be enough.
“I feel like we've learned a lot about trying to advertise and how hard this can actually be, starting it from the ground all the way up,” Roshan said. “And we're still trying to get out of it, trying to get it up and running. But I feel like this is an important life lesson. It's teaching us a lot of skills that we might need in the future.”
To expand their reach, the group has made an Instagram account for the podcast and is planning to create content about different sports topics soon. They hope this will drive traffic to their Spotify page.
The group admits that with schoolwork and sports, it can be difficult to find a time they can all come together to make an episode.
“We all have a lot of things to do, so sometimes the scheduling can be hard, but we make it work,” Rohan said. “What we've started to do now is if one person is out, the other three will go ahead and make the episode.”
The group is looking forward to football season, as they believe they can get the most content out of it.
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“There's always news. There are always predictions. There are always fantasy recommendations that we give,” Rohan said. “And we love talking about football. The season is probably one of our favorite times to do episodes.”
But even beyond the fall, sharing their love for sports is something that these young men want to do far into the future.
“It's something that we want to continue as much as possible because we love doing it,” Rohan said.
Sal DiMaggio is an intern reporter at MyCentralJersey.com. He covers features, news and more. Email him at sdimaggio@mycentraljersey.com.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: East Brunswick teens aim to score big with sports podcast
