Stories from the Booth, Vol. 2: Cameron Churilla

The second broadcaster that I was able to meet and interview is incoming Senior at South Florida University, Cameron Churilla. 

Cam Churilla

Cameron “Cam” Churilla is a student entering his senior year at the University of South Florida. Churilla said he recognized in his senior year of High School that he wanted to pursue sports broadcasting. He says that rather than specializing in one sport, he would rather be a “jack-of-all-trades”, doing multiple sports for the same network. He is looking to be as versatile as he can in learning all sports, so he is available to do anything he might be asked to. His main two sports he would enjoy broadcasting are football and hockey, but is open to doing any professional sports available to him. 

Juco Edits Podcast

Cam and one his best friends, Aidan Marks, host a podcast called the Juco Edits Podcast. Marks is a student at Kansas State University, and invited Churilla to be a co-host on his podcast. Churilla has been featured in 6 episodes and has been able to interview baseball players from Mississippi Valley State, Purdue, and a few other notable colleges. However, Churilla’s favorite episode is one in which they had Kansas State’s Volleyball Coach, Coach Mansfield, on the podcast. 

USF Club Hockey Regular Season 

Churilla’s way into broadcasting was, as he says, ”an out of left field thing.” On January 21st, 2025, “a random Tuesday”, he was sitting in his communication ethics class when one of his classmates named Vashish  came up to him. Churilla was wearing his favorite hockey team’s shirt and that sparked up a conversation. Vashish then asked him if he was doing anything on Friday, to which Cam responded that he didn’t. Vashish  then asked, “Do you want to broadcast a hockey game this Friday?” It turns out that he was the play-by-play broadcaster for South Florida’s club hockey team. He had been looking for a color commentator for a while, and Churilla jumped on the opportunity. Cam was his 3rd color commentator, as the other two didn’t stick. 

Churilla didn’t know hockey too well, but did his research and was ready to go on the 24th. South Florida was taking on UTampa in South Florida. Churilla loved the broadcast and USF won 9-8. When talking about the game, Churilla said, “I was super excited to be able to cover where I go and to see an exciting game. I mean, 17 goals in a hockey game, you never see that.” He would be back in the booth with Vashish on the 8th of February to broadcast another Regular Season USF Hockey game. They took on UCF and were able to take care of them 10-4. But then, the regular season came to a close. Turns out the season had started in September, and he hadn’t known Vashish, or even that his school had a Club Hockey team. However, USF had gotten into the College Hockey South Conference Playoffs, so Churilla would have another opportunity to shine in the booth. 

USF Club Hockey Postseason

Churilla broadcasted their 1st game against Vanderbilt, in which they were able to handle them 3-2. The next game however would not feature a team he was used to broadcasting. Miami was taking on Clemson, and the Miami broadcaster had shown up without a color commentator. Cam had grown up watching and supporting the Hurricanes, so he went over and said, “If you need a color commentator, I can be your guy.” The Miami play-by-play broadcaster was happy to have someone beside him, so Churilla got to get some extra reps in the booth. Clemson took home the victory 6-5, but Cam said it was an amazing experience being able to, "Broadcast the team I grew up watching.” Then, his USF team played Clemson in the semifinals and defeated them 5-3. 

So then, they were in the D2 College Hockey South Conference Finals against Middle Tennessee State. Vashish and Churilla wouldn’t be in the booth for the championship game; they would be down on the ice. They were assigned the sideline reporter role for each team, as Vashish represented USF and Churilla took on the duty for Middle Tennessee State. He would go in the locker room and ask players and coaches their thoughts on the game and their individual performances so far. Middle Tennessee State picked up the win 4-0, but Churilla got some exciting news the week after. The Club President told him and Vashish that they would be returning full-time as the play-by-play and color commentator for USF club hockey next season. 

Future Plans & Mentorship

Cam is taking a class called Z News that is one of South Florida’s news companies. It is a student-run news class that Cam is part of, and he will be a sportscaster for the channel this upcoming school year. Churilla is also taking a cohort with sportscaster Rich Hollenberg. Hollenberg is a four-time Emmy Award winner, and has been with ESPN for about 18 years. He mainly works with the Tampa Bay Rays as a partnership for ESPN. He found Churilla on a LinkedIn reel of him and they set up an interview. Churilla was able to learn a lot from Hollenberg, and will continue to learn from him in the coming months. 

Churilla credits his sports broadcasting journey to his overall success in life. “I went from being a lackluster student at a Junior College to being an A/B student who made the Dean’s List,” he said. 

Thank you to Cameron Churilla for being a part of this article. 

For more from Cameron check out his LinkedIn, or his website