'Celebrity' announcers part of historic Baraboo-Reedsburg football rivalry (2024)

It's an exercise in community, but the glue that binds these communities together aren't just the players— they're also a priest and a middle school science teacher.

When they aren't preaching or teaching, Father Dave Mowers and Brian Bestor are sitting on the sidelines in creaky boxes with microphones and scripts. The two men are public address announcers for Baraboo and Reedsburg high schools, and even though their teams are fierce rivals, both said they see football as more than the sport.

"It has been and will always be the place to be on Friday nights, whether you're 6 years old or 76 years old," Bestor, of Reedsburg, said. "It's just a community party, and by playing a small role in that energy, that's what makes it special."

Mowers, a priest at Trinity Episcopal Church in Baraboo, sees it similar.

"It's always a good time," he said. "I especially love the games against Reedsburg."

In the world of PA announcing Reedsburg's football games, Bestor is a veteran.

The science teacher, a longtime steward of what he calls "the best weekly gathering place," has been announcing from the sidelines for 25 years. And he's "just goofy enough" to do it well.

Bestor said he sees his job during games as more than just being an announcer. He's the one helping the celebration. High school football games are the ultimate showcase of Reedsburg's community spirit.

"It brings people together, and we all cheer for the same cause," he said. "It's just so interwoven into the community."

As part of his nightly routine, Bestor goes the extra distance past just announcing the field's plays. He and his spotter, Mark Gronley, also play games with the fans, DJ and of course celebrate when Reedsburg wins— especially when it beats Baraboo.

But his love for sports and his dream of making them as fun for fans as possible goes back further than just the 25 years he's been doing PA announcing. It goes back even to his childhood, he said.

"I have so many incredible memories of being a youth and going to sporting events, so any chance I can add to that, or help be part of that for other young kids ... that's the part that probably excites me the most," he said. "It keeps me motivated to keep doing this."

For his family, the Friday night lights have become a tradition. Both his sons are football players, and the familial ties to the sport have made his daughter a "super fan."

"Sharing football has always been a big deal on Friday nights for us," Bestor said. "It's a party at Millennium Field, and I do everything I can to try to make it even more fun for everyone else."

Football means a lot to Bestor's seventh grade students, too. Not least of all because it's their teacher in the press box.

Sometimes during games, he'll will give shoutouts to some of his students or classes. If they've finished a particularly interesting project or performed well in the class, they might expect to hear their teacher celebrate them over the speaker system at halftime.

That's just one small part of his job as the glue of the community.

"I feel so fortunate people come out and they still love being part of that, whether they're a parent, a sponsor, a student or really just anyone," he said. "Every other week, it's a celebration of what we think is all good with the world: competing, hard work, commitment and having lots of fun."

Of course, being from Reedsburg, Bestor can't hide his fandom.

"We're all still homers, right?" he said. "So when we score, we're dancing around, we're high-fiving. And those are the things that really make it as much fun as it is."

Football binds the community together in Baraboo, too. And a kid from the "corn country" of Kirkland, Illinois, is its shepherd from the sidelines.

Before he became a priest, Mowers had a love for sports. Without cable, he grew up listening to baseball play-by-play on the radio, memorizing the broadcasters' speech patterns and eagerly waiting for the next game.

Mowers said he started PA announcing in high school, a job that he carried on when he went to Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota.

"It's been more than 20 years now that I've been at it, and I've done a little bit of everything," he said.

When he finally applied to be the priest of Baraboo's Trinity Episcopal Church in 2017, the interviewers asked him how he planned to represent his congregation.

"I think they probably were wanting me to say I was going to join the rotary club or something," Mowers said. "But that's not really my jam, so in my first week in town I went down to the high school to meet the principal."

Within a year, he was announcing for Baraboo football.

Mimicking the signature speech patterns of the broadcasters he grew up listening to, Mowers has made his distinctive voice— deep and bubbly— the defining trait of his PA announcing.

"It's time for Thunderbird football!" (with the "time" drawn out for a long time, of course) and a three-piece repetition of "Touchdown Baraboo!" have become the priest's signature lines, which have made him a local celebrity.

"My third year doing football, here I was at a meeting for a homeless shelter that I'm part of here in town. And I walked into this lady's house and her, like, fifth-grade son was there," he said. "And I walked in, and he just looks at me and goes 'Touchdown Baraboo, touchdown Baraboo, touchdown Baraboo,'

"And I was like 'Whoa, that's actually kind of wild.'"

When most people think of a priest, they probably don't think of a local celebrity announcing at football games. But Mowers said his two jobs are inextricably linked.

In fact, announcing is part of his ministry. He even wears the collar in the press box.

"If you're going to be a successful spiritual leader, you have to love the people, and that means you have to love what the people love," he said. "Just to show people that you care about them, and you care about what their kids are doing at school, and you care about who made that last tackle and ran up the middle, it's all part of gaining people's trust."

The skills he's learned as a priest, too, have made his announcing better, he said. The cadence and rhythm of preaching every Sunday, plus the personability of being the guide for a whole congregation, has made him more comfortable with riling up fans and keeping the game alive.

Of course, when it comes to keeping the fans engaged, "winning solves a lot of problems too," he said.

"Because it's one school district with one high school, the eyes of the town are really on what happens on Friday nights," he said. "Football is still king."

And nothing beats throwing down with rival Reedsburg.