Witz Weekly: Recent Episodes
Christopher Markowitz
Witz Weekly is Chris Markowitz’s weekly podcast, featuring interviews with influential people from his community.
Carly Helfand is a scouting assistant for the Super Bowl Champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Carly and I both were sport management major's at Drexel and we met the fall of our freshman year. In this episode, Carly talked about how she took advantage of her time at Drexel to set her self up for future success. She also shared fun football stories, and talked about what it was like to experience the team she works for win the Super Bowl.
Bailey Greenberg is a former Drexel women's basketball player. Bailey finished third all-time in scoring at Drexel, with over 1700 points, and was the 2019 CAA Player of the Year.
In this epsiode, Bailey talked about her college career at Drexel, her travels over the last year, her love of Australia, and much more!
My partner in crime Josh Green joined me on the podcast today, as we strolled down memory lane. Our connection goes way back to youth basketball games and AAU tournaments.
When Kobe passed away last year, Josh and I were reconnected by our good friend Ralph Menar. I hadn’t spoken to Josh in close to 4 years, but we instantly connected over an Idea I had for a documentary.
One thing lead to another, and in the middle of quarantine, Josh and I created Inner Circle Pictures, and began production on “The Maker of Dreams,” a documentary about legendary AAU Basketball Coach Sandy Pyonin.
In this episode, Josh and I reflected on how our paths have intersected over the years, and the "no coincidence" mantra that we have adopted.
Sean Greenberg is a Customer Engineer at Microsoft and 2018 graduate of Penn State University, where he played varsity and club basketball.
In this conversation, we talked about Sean's high school and college basketball career, im Kwik's book "Limitless," travel, finance, crypto currency and much more!
Michelle Sword, aka "Bakes" is an assistant coach for the Villanova University women's basketball team.
I first met Bakes as a freshman at Drexel University, when she was an assistant coach for the Dragons women's basketball team. Bakes is my first ever boss, and one of the most genuine human beings I have ever met.
This was a fun, wide ranging conversation, and we talked about basketball, health and exercise, reading, the importance opf face-to-face commincation, and much more!
Imani Walker played soccer at Drexel University, and now works as a video editor. She also has a passion for music, and currently has three songs on spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/0skr5c1pril9TLdG9kdR80?si=ogtAJzilTTOwti-XelIPKw
In this conversation, we talked about how she started playing soccer, why she chose to attened Drexel, why she's so interested in film and music, her favorite shows and books, and more!
Dave Leno is a an announcer for the Phialdelphia Union, New York Riptide, ESPN, World Team Tennis and USA Field Hockey.
In this episode, Dave talked with me about his college experience, his career path, his inspiration for starting a zoom coummunity for sports industry professionals during COVID-19, and much more! Dave's journey has been remarkable, and his words of wisdom about how to pursue a career in the competitive field of sports broadcasting are worth a listen.
Dan Olear is a former High School and Division 1 Baseball Coach. He played college baseball at St. Joseph's University and New Jersey City University.
In this podcast, we talked about how Dan first learned about Driveline Baseball, his playing and coaching career, his experience as in intern at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York and much more!
Chris Lucey is a Broadcast Associate at MLB Network.
In this episode, we talked about the 2020 MLB season and World Series, Chris' day to day at MLBN, how he became fluent in Spanish, his college experience at Syracuse and much more!
Nicki Jones is the color analyst for DragonsTV's broadcast of Drexel Women's Basketball games.
She joined me on the podcast today, and we chatted about what she has been up since Covid first broke out, her college and professional basketball career, her time at Syracuse for grad school, and her work experience as a professional announcer.
Ashley Hodge is a Production Assistant at ESPN and interned with me at New England Sports Network. In this episode, we talked about her college experience at Clemson, our time together at NESN, what she does at ESPN and much more!
Chazz Finnigan is a nurse at Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals and an amateur body builder. In this conversation, we talked about his career as a nurse, how he got into body building, his work out routine, motivational books/speeches and much more!
Michael Murray Jr. and Brian Chapman joined the pod this week to talk about the New Jersey Baseball Last Dance World Series.
Michael had an idea during quarantine to have a high school baseball tournment this summer and give his senior class one final chance to play together. With the help of Brian and dozens of other coaches and administrators, they were able to organize a 222 team tournament across the state to give High School teams one final chance go play this year.
Michael is the athletic director and head baseball coach at St. Joseph's High School in Metuchen, New Jersey. Brian Chapman is the the head baseball coach of Millburn High School in Millburn, New Jersey.
Ari Bluestein is the play-by-play annoucer for Drexel women's basketball and the CEO of The Sports Fan Base Network.
In this episode, Ari shared why he got into the sports broadcasting industry, how he created his own live streaming company, how he balances multiple jobs and family time, and much more!
Isaiah Horton, aka Z Pluto, joined me on the podcast this week. He talked about how he became interested in rap at a young age, the importance of contstantly writing to improve his craft, how he created his first album, opening for D.R.A.M. at an Ithaca College event, his thoughts on the NBA and MLB, and much more!
Danielle Stein is a sports reporter for CBS 19 in Charlottesville, Virginia. In this episode, she talked about growing up with the dream of being a sports reporter, her college experience at the Univerdity of Maryland, her life as a reporter and much more.
Jourdan Skirha is the Assistant General Manager for the Chicago Bandits, a professional softball in the National Pro Fastpitch league. In this episode, she shared stories about her upbringing in Chicago, her high school and college softball career, her journey to become the Assistant GM of the Bandits and much more!
Patrick Bowlin is a Product and Service Quality Manager at Boeing. In his free time, Pat trains for and competes in triathalons. In this epsiode, we talked about how Pat got into triathalon racing, the importance of being kind to others, adjusting to living in different city's, success habits and more.
Marc Zumoff is NBC Sports Philadelphia's Sixers Broadcaster. He has covered the 76ers since 1983, and has been the play-by-play voice of the team since 1994. We had a great conversation about what it is like for him to be living his lifelong dream of announcing for the team he grew up rooting for.
The Armentani Bros, George, Jimmie and John, are an upcoming DJ group of three brothers from Philadelphia. We spoke about how they got into DJing, memorable performances thay've had, they behind the scenes challenges of being pro DJs, the dynamics of working together as brothers, and much more.
John McGuire is an AAU basketball coach and the owner of Peak Sports Academy in Mountainside, New Jersey. Originally from New Jersey City, New Jersey, Coach McGuire was a school teacher in Elizabeth, NJ from 1999-2014. He decided to make his AAU program his full time job, and grew Hoops There It Is from a 12 player roster in 2011 to a nearly 800 kid program in 2019.
Sussex County Miner hero Maetin Figueroa joined the podcast to talk about pursuing his life long dream of being a Major League Baseball player. Growing up in the Dominican Republican, Martin began playing baseball at age 7. When he turned 14, his mother decided to move him and his family to the United States to give him the best oppurtunity to chase his dream. He was a star player for Elizabeth High School in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and had a decorated college career at the University of Rhode Island. Drafted in the 32nd round of the 2017 MLB Draft by the Houston Astros, Martin has been playing baseabbll professionally for 3 years.
NJ Little Coaching Legend Jairo Labrador joined the podcast to talk about his upbrining, influential coaches, family, the 2019 Little League World Series and the unfortunate news that there will not be a LLWS this summer.