Live Oak — corey.davis@gaflnews.com



LAKE CITY-Entering its 21st year (20th statewide) the Beef O‘ Brady’s High School Football Scoreboard Show is celebrating a milestone this season.

As a thank you to all of his loyal supporters, host Steve Berrey is going back to some of his favorite stops on the statewide tour.  Among the 11 scheduled 2010 stops is the Old Oaken Bucket rivalry November 12  between Suwannee and host Columbia.

It’s one of the state’s oldest rivalries and I can’t go to it at Suwannee (no Beef O Brady’s there),” Berrey said. “It’s been a while since I have been there (three years), so I wanted to say thank your for 20 years. I have been there once but never been to the Old Oaken Bucket game, but I’m really looking forward to it.”  

Newly hired Suwannee Athletic Director Hunter Abercrombie shared his thoughts on being selected as a stop this season.

“Obviously it’s a statewide show with high recognition, most people listen to the show. It’s a huge honor to be selected, that shows how good the Suwanee/Columbia rivalry is. There’s what 11 weeks and 22 teams that are selected, so to be picked up says a lot about the rivalry,” Abercrombie said. “I think the reason it got chosen was it has a lot of tradition and is thought of highly on a state wide level and both teams have Division I-A prospects this year.”             

Berrey attends each game on the stop and leaves at the end of the third quarter to start setting up for the show later that night. The show is the only statewide high school football call-in program. Over 20 radio stations, including 98.1 FM, broadcast the show every Friday night from 10-12 p.m. during the football season.

Fans are invited to join Berrey at the Beef O Brady’s at 857 Southwest Main Street in Lake City immediately following the game.

Beginning at 10 p.m., Berrey will begin getting calls from people all over the state with scores from fans, media and coaches from the games they all attended. In addition to getting scores, Berrey also tries to line up interviews with coaches and provides his analysis of the Game of the Week.

Berrey continues to do the show to promote high school sports, high school football in particular. The fan base has remained pretty consistent as there are a lot of great fans that listen every week.

“I do this because I love to do it and I also love it cause Miss Minnie from Live Oak calls every week,” Berrey told Michael Langston from FlaVarsity.com.

“Stan from Fort Myers calls in every week, I have got to meet Stan and he’s gotten to be a good friend. The fans really make it all worth it,” Berrey said. “Also high school football fans are great. You look at the fan bases, like a listener in Tallahassee that has no children, but he and his wife will come out and sit and listen to the show. This happens all over the state, just the love for high school sports.”