The story of Paul Condry, the voice behind Regional Radio Sports Network

Featured image: Paul Condry (right) has teamed with color analyst  Steve McIntyre (center) and stat man Frank Kielpikowski to cover games for a long time.

Editor’s note: Al Lesar worked for the “South Bend Tribune” for 32 years, covering just about every sport there was in Michiana. After retiring in 2017, he gave away his snow blower and moved to Tennessee. He still keeps his finger on the pulse of Michiana and tries to add some historical perspective to what’s happening today.

While the trend in media is cutting back on coverage of high school sports, Regional Radio Sports Network (RRSN) has made it a mission to grow the game.

In a round about way, Paul Condry, the patriarch of the 34-year-old broadcast entity, owes his success to getting cut from the Hobart High School basketball team more than a half-century ago.

Establishing a foundation

Never a great athlete, Condry wasn’t devastated when Coach Jim Lichtenberger cut him. The release came with an offer: Serve the team as a student coach, trainer, and, in general, head of basketball operations.

“The coaches on the staff offered to teach me everything they knew,” Condry said. “It was an amazing experience. I was able to see the importance of athletics in a kid’s life.”

Those invaluable lessons paid dividends down the road. When Tom Workman, who was on Lichtenberger’s staff, became head coach, he hired Condry to coach seventh grade basketball for a few years.

“The seventh graders I had in basketball went on to win Hobart’s first three football State championships (1987,1989, and 1991),” Condry said. “I still keep in touch with 50 or 60 of those guys on Facebook today.”

Hard decision to leave

Life got in the way of Condry’s love affair with coaching. With his family growing, he left high school sports behind and got a better-paying job. This “sabbatical” lasted three years until the lure of his true love brought him back.

“A Crown Point radio station (WWJY) was looking for a sales manager and sports director,” Condry said of his quest in the mid-‘80s. “One of the jobs was high school football play-by-play. I talked the station manager into letting me do Hobart football.”

Covering those State titles made a profound impact.

“Those days are still special in my heart,” he said.

Things changed in 1992. Condry felt management didn’t back him in a personnel situation, so he left. However, after examining options, he came up with an out-of-the-box new path for his professional life.

“So many stations have had trouble selling high school sports,” Condry said. “Over the years, I learned how to do it. Sports can be high maintenance to a radio station. I loved the high maintenance.”

In July of 1992, Condry convinced the station manager to sell him the air time for high school sports. He sent the station manager a check each week, and Condry took care of selling the advertising and lining up the talent.

That’s when RRSN was born.

Changing with the landscape

Today, RRSN is one of the leaders covering high school and college sports in Northwest Indiana and Michiana, or anywhere in the state for that matter.

Take Friday, Aug. 29 for instance: Condry and his crew will have five broadcast teams doing high school football and several will be doubling up doing college volleyball at Holy Cross College, Indiana University -South Bend, and Bethel University

It’s been about 25 years since Condry came up with the idea to take his team’s play-by-play coverage off radio stations and onto the internet.

“I could have just stayed with the radio and left it,” Condry said. “If I was going to do more, I’d have to learn to do more. It was a matter of, ‘Let’s take a look at this and try to adapt as the landscape changes.’”

While still covering several schools in the “Calumet Region,” RRSN has a regular crew at Penn High School football and basketball games. Mishawaka Marian High School has had a football livestream and Condry just signed a deal to have one for South Bend Saint Joseph High School.

Positive approach is constant

What hasn’t changed in Condry’s approach to his play-by-play coverage is the tone he sets on an every-game basis.

“My dad always told me, ‘If you’ve got nothing good to say, keep your mouth shut,’” Condry said. “There are so many great things and great people in this world. Why buy into the philosophy: If it bleeds, it leads?”

While he’s many years removed from his days working with athletes, Condry still considers himself a head coach and mentor to the independent contractors who make RRSN’s broadcasts a success.

In his own three-man unit, he has former Hobart quarterback Steve McIntyre as his color man for the past 25 years and Frank Kielpikowski as his stats guy since it all started 34 years ago. Condry also has his wife Tonya as one of the best fill-ins at any position on the staff.

“I believe in preparation, and I talk about that to everyone on our team,” Condry said. “Faith is the most important thing to me. I think of myself as a coach and mentor to the young announcers we have. It’s not an accident. I’m thrilled to have bloomed where God planted me.”