Tulpehocken grad Blaise Fernandez wins Sports Emmy

Jul. 21—Blaise Fernandez has had quite the journey in his young sports broadcasting production career.

Fernandez, a 2010 Tulpehocken grad, went from playing baseball in the Independent Frontier League out of college to being awarded a Sports Emmy in May for his contributions to NBC's production of the Winter Olympics in Beijing.

Fernandez, 30, was one of two production managers who were assigned the Extreme Park venue. This included the events of ski cross, snowboard cross, big air, halfpipe, ski jumping and moguls. Fernandez and his team were in charge of facilitating everything from that setting.

However, Fernandez was not in Beijing due to COVID-19 restrictions, which meant he had to work remotely from a studio in Stamford, Conn.

Fernandez's work hours would begin at 7 p.m. and not conclude until the following morning at 10.

"It was really, really crazy," Fernandez said. "It was really cool to be a part of. It's incredible how many people come together for it."

Those long work days would start with packaging five hours of competition — before grabbing something to eat — then going back to the production truck for four hours of editing. The finished product ended up being 20 minutes of television that aired on USA Network at 5 p.m. Eastern that day.

Even with the long, grueling hours, Fernandez could not be happier with the product that NBC was able to show to the public, which resulted in winning the Emmy in the Outstanding Technical Team — Event category. Fernandez was listed as a technical supervisor.

"You don't really need an award to let you know you did a good job, but it's nice to be recognized, especially on something that big of a scale," Fernandez said.

NBC earned three other Emmys for its production of the Winter Games. The other categories were Outstanding Graphic Design — Event/Show, Outstanding Audio/Sound — Live Event and Outstanding Live Special.

Fernandez said he was touched on seeing other nominees and being able to have the names of he and his co-workers next to that kind of competition, which included the Super Bowl on CBS and the World Series on FOX.

Before all the recent success, Fernandez had a unique journey on his way to this career milestone.

While at Tulpehocken, he broke numerous baseball records for the school with dreams of making it to the major leagues, then moving into a baseball analyst position once he retired from playing.

He held Trojans records for career home runs (21), hits (115), RBIs (103), runs (115), batting average (.441) and on-base percentage (.549). He was named to the Reading Eagle's Berks Baseball All-Decade first team in 2020.

After graduating, Fernandez attended George Mason on an athletic scholarship, majoring in communications, and continued to have success in baseball.

He finished with a career batting average of .293, 246 hits and 138 RBIs. He also hit 70 doubles, which made him the Patriots' all-time leader in that category.

After that exceptional college career, he enjoyed two years in pro baseball — he played for the Washington (Pa.) Wild Things and the River City (Mo.) Rascals in the Frontier League — before embarking on a behind-the-scenes career in the sports world.

Fernandez decided to contact his cousin, Chris Fernandez, at the time an employee of the Golf Channel, in hopes to get his foot in the door.

That connection helped Fernandez get in touch with the VP of golf operations at NBC, who offered him a job as a freelance coordinator. He worked a lot of golf events, but also ended up part of NBC's production and technical support staff team at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Fernandez received a staff production manager job in 2021, which he continues to this day.

"First eye-opening experience was the level of access we had," Fernandez said. "It's so cool to see everything behind the scenes and to be part of something much bigger than myself. Being able to travel for my job is incredible. I love getting out and going places but I definitely like the idea of just having my hand in something that millions of people get to see each week."

Since being in the business, Fernandez has learned a lot.

"Building relationships," Fernandez said about what is the most important ability to have.

He stated that asking a ton of questions, networking and shadowing others will go a far way in his field of work.

The second thing Fernandez mentioned is "selfishly, the support system I have."

"My wife (Kelsey) is an absolute saint for what she does at home," said Fernandez, who resides in Edenton, N.C. "I can pick up and leave for two weeks, come back and she's excited to see me, ready to open the door and welcome me home with open arms. Just knowing that there's not a whole lot I have to worry about on the home front, I'm very blessed."

Even though Fernandez has accomplished so much, he wants to continue to rise in the ranks.

He said he would like to work high-profile events while having more of a presence at them, too.

"I want to be the face of the company if I can be," he said.

Last month, Fernandez was an on-site production manager for the U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club. This week, he's at the PGA Tour's Barracuda Championship in California

As for upcoming endeavors, Fernandez will be in Toronto for the game between the Blue Jays and Los Angeles Angels on Sunday, July 30, which will air on Peacock.

"I would love to pick up baseball if NBC picks it up on more of a full-time thing," Fernandez said.

Fernandez continued to emphasize how much it means for him to have his support system behind him as he continues to climb the ranks.

"I cannot stress how blessed I am to have the people around me, that's huge," he said. "I don't know how I would do it without my wife, first and foremost, then my family has been so good to me. I can't express how much that meant. ... The whole support system is huge."