WHIZ KID: Dan Levin

Whiz Kid’s Name: Dan Levin

Whiz Kid's Age: 19

Whiz Kid's School: UMBC

Whiz Kid's Accomplishment: He has been working as a play-by-play announcer on UMBC’s sports broadcasts for three years and is now an intern in WBAL’s sports department on their newscasts.

Whiz Kid's Key to Awesomeness: He wants to work in sports broadcasting in some form, and already has gotten off to a good start.

Dan Levin always loved sports. He played baseball from a very young age and eventually pitched for Pikesville High School's varsity team before running into injury problems.

But Dan also was interested in being a sports broadcaster.

He started doing the play-by-play of UMBC’s volleyball broadcasts (which are video streamed on the Internet) during his senior year at Pikesville. And his role expanded when he enrolled at UMBC in the fall of 2009.

He works on the volleyball and women’s basketball broadcasts. This year, he wound up calling the game where UMBC’s women clinched the America East regular-season championship at home.

But Dan also started an internship at WBAL a few months ago, working in sports three days a week, learning from people such as longtime sports anchor Gerry Sandusky. Dan has a more active role in producing when working on the Saturday broadcast.

And, occasionally as a contributor to Pikesville Patch, he writes articles about sports.

“I’m learning a lot in broadcasting and writing right now,” Dan said. “I’m having fun, especially at WBAL and UMBC—to experience all this so early is a very good thing.”

He also writes on UMBC’s school paper and will take over as the sports editor next winter. The bottom line: Dan is getting lots of good experience for a college sophomore.

“Everything’s going really well for me, in terms of learning broadcasting [and journalism],” he said. “I’ve been very fortunate.”