{"id":252821,"date":"2026-04-30T18:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T18:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/252821\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T18:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T18:49:10","slug":"longtime-orlando-magic-broadcaster-looks-back-on-formative-years-at-liberty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/252821\/","title":{"rendered":"Longtime Orlando Magic broadcaster looks back on formative years at Liberty"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Liberty University alumnus Dante Marchitelli (\u201998) has been sharing his lifelong love of sports in his almost three-decades career as a broadcaster for the NBA\u2019s Orlando Magic. He got his first taste of sports broadcasting on Liberty Mountain.<\/p>\n

A career in sports was a childhood dream for Marchitelli, who grew up just outside of Boston. When he got to Liberty to study mass communications<\/a>, he took advantage of career-building opportunities like being the sports director for the student radio station (now called 90.9 The Light).<\/p>\n

\u201cI got to call baseball games,\u201d he said in a recent interview with \u201cFlames Central.\u201d<\/a> \u201cThey kind of just turned me loose; it was just me. I could bring anybody I wanted as an analyst, (so that) kind of left it all up to me. I\u2019d set up my equipment and (just) make sure we had a connection back to the station.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though he grew up in a Christian household, Marchitelli said he originally did not want to go to church while at Liberty, exerting his independence. But God used that time to draw him closer to Him.<\/p>\n

\"\"While a Liberty student, Marchitelli (top right) worked as a director for the student radio station, now called 90.9 The Light.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I went (to church again), and I\u2019m telling you, we got hooked,\u201d he said. \u201cEveryone on our floor, we just started going together. Even growing up faith-based and hearing it, when you have to make your own decisions and you choose to go on your own, like I did during that time, that to me is when it hit. That to me is when it became powerful and that is when I recommitted. My whole time at Liberty University was learning about God again and just recommitting my faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marchitelli completed an internship with the Magic in 1998 and has remained with the franchise ever since. He said he enjoys the part he plays in getting to broadcast games into the homes of fans and provide entertainment to others in the midst of whatever else is happening in their lives.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cIt\u2019s just a dream come true,\u201d he said. \u201cYou feel like a kid every single day. You show up to work, get a call on a game, and you\u2019re providing a relief for 2.5 hours. Whatever anybody\u2019s dealing with in their day, this is their release. This is their opportunity to kind of get away, cheer on their sports team, and then get back to whatever everybody\u2019s dealing with. We get to play a role in that. We get to tell the stories of these players and kind of be the conduit from the fans to the players, and that\u2019s something we take seriously, and we have a lot of fun with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s the old adage, \u2018If it\u2019s something you love, it doesn\u2019t feel like work,\u2019 and that\u2019s how it\u2019s felt this whole time,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Watch the full interview with Marchitelli below.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFlames Central\u201d<\/a> is a weekly sports program on ESPN+ featuring Liberty University athletics and the intersection of faith and sports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liberty University alumnus Dante Marchitelli (\u201998) has been sharing his lifelong love of sports in his almost three-decades…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252822,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140],"class_list":["post-252821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}