Andy Pantini provides the roar for Linn-Mar athletics

MARION — The voice is unmistakable.

If you have attended a Linn-Mar sporting event over the last 40 years, there is a good chance you have heard Andy Pantini describing the action.

Pantini's talents have spread to other areas over the years. He can be heard announcing Coe football, Cedar Rapids RoughRiders hockey and Cedar Rapids Kernels baseball, but his No. 1 priority has always been announcing for Linn-Mar. He builds his work schedule as a Customer Service Specialist for U.S. Cellular around the Lions schedule for football and wrestling.

It used to involve so much more.

"When I first started at Linn-Mar, I was doing almost all the sports, football, boys and girls basketball, wrestling, the Lion Relays (track) and girls softball in the summer," he said. "I also used to do the Marion and Linn-Mar Marching Invitationals."

Pantini, 59, got his start as an announcer before he had even completed his athletics career at Linn-Mar.

"I actually got started in 1983 while playing baseball at Linn-Mar," he recalled. "Linn-Mar was the host school for the Metro Baseball Tournament which was held at Old Veterans Memorial Stadium. We played the first game of the day and my parents were taking tickets so I went up the press box and started running the scoreboard since no one else was doing it.

"It kind of progressed that by the later games, the coaches were bringing me lineup and I started doing the PA," continued Pantini. "(Former Linn-Mar Athletic Director) Paul Stoppels kind of liked what I was doing so when the position opened up at Linn-Mar, that was why he asked me."

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That opening came three years later in 1986. Dave Etzel was the voice of Linn-Mar football from its inception when the high school opened in 1959. Prior to the start of the 1986 season, Etzel decided to step away from the job. Stoppels remembered Pantini's good work from the prior years and offered him the job.

"He simply asked if I would be interested in taking over," Pantini said. "Back then, they still had a Soap Bowl instead of Week 0 scrimmages. I met with Dave, he gave me a few pointers, and I basically took over from there."

Pantini's first official game was between Marion and Linn-Mar at Armstrong Field, which was the final time two teams met on the gridiron.

"I like to say my first game was the last one ever (between the two schools)," he said.

As for his announcing style, he said much of it came from listening to Father Bob Holzhammer, who was the voice of Iowa football and men's basketball for many years, and Bob Sheppard, the longtime voice of Yankee Stadium.

"I’ve always tried to remain as neutral as possible," he said, "but there’s always a little bit more emphasis when you’re announcing things for the home team."

Announcing has always been a family affair for Pantini. His parents, Tony and Shirley, were fixtures at Veterans Memorial Stadium doing work behind the scenes for the Kernels. Tony was his spotter in the press box for football games. When the scoreboard operators at Linn-Mar stepped down, his wife Lorilynne took over and ran the clock.

"They helped out as long as they could," he recalled, "but they had to step back when they started having more health problems."

All three have since passed. At the start of each football season, Pantini takes a photo of an empty chair in front of the scoreboard controller in the press box at Linn-Mar Stadium and posts a message of tribute to his wife, who died in 2018.

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As for memorable events, Pantini recalled announcing at the 2002 Iowa Girls State Basketball Tournament as one of his favorites.

"That year was the last year for (IGHSAU Executive Director) Dr. E. Wayne Cooley, who I got to know and really liked and admired," he recalled. "It was a great opportunity to announce in a building (Veterans Memorial Auditorium) where I’d watched tournament games as a boy."