Bay Area to be well-represented in Tokyo Olympics medal hunt, broadcast booths

Kate Scott (L) and A.J. Mleczko are part of the all-female broadcast team for the Chicago Blackhawks v the St. Louis Blues on International Women's Day at the United Center on March 08, 2020 in Chicago, Illinois.
Kate Scott (L) and A.J. Mleczko are part of the all-female broadcast team for the Chicago Blackhawks v the St. Louis Blues on International Women's Day at the United Center on March 08, 2020 in Chicago, Illinois. Photo credit Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

The Bay Area will be well-represented in the medal hunt at the Tokyo Olympics.

UC Berkeley is sending 48 current and former athletes and seven coaches to the games, while Stanford will have 53 athletes. Thirty-two of them will don the stars and stripes, including star American swimmers Katie Ledecky and Simone Manuel.

The same is true for the broadcasters calling the action.

Kate Scott, a Bay Area play-by-play broadcaster and host of "The Morning Roast" at sister station 95.7 The Game, will broadcast men's and women's basketball games that don’t feature the U.S. teams. Bob Fitzgerald, the TV play-by-play voice of the Golden State Warriors, will call the Americans’ games.

Earlier in her career, Scott was a traffic anchor at KCBS Radio. She worked alongside Jeff Bell and Patti Reising, and spoke to them Thursday night in what she called "a family reunion."

"It is an interesting time transition taking place at the moment," Scott said from NBC Sports headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, where she and many broadcasters will call games remotely. The network has previously broadcast remotely, and Scott said there are more remote telecasts than the Rio Olympics in 2016, at least in part, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Berkeley alumnus said she has three clocks in her room: One with the time in Tokyo, another with the time in Stamford and a tertiary one with the time in California. Tokyo is 16 hours ahead of Stamford, and 12 ahead of California.

When will she sleep?

"Whenever I can, really," Scott quipped. "People told me there’s only so many caffeine drinks and pills you can take to stay awake and focus. There's nothing better than just good old sleep and water."

Scott's first game, between the Nigeria and Australia men's basketball teams, airs Sunday at 1:20 a.m. PT on the NBC Sports App and NBCOlympics.com.

Nigeria is coached by Warriors assistant coach Mike Brown, while Australia's starting lineup includes three St. Mary's alumni: Guards Matthew Dellavedova, Patty Mills and big man Jock Landale.

Scott's favorite story, however, might be that of Clayton rower Kara Kohler. Kohler, 30, swam at Clayton Valley High School and walked on to the rowing team as a freshman at UC Berkeley.

In 2012, just three years into her rowing career, she won an Olympic bronze medal in quadruple sculls in London.

"(Now) she's got a real chance to medal as a single sculler," Scott explained. "She's rowing by herself. Walked on in college, and now she's got a chance to potentially medal for Team USA."

Featured Image Photo Credit: Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images