Mayne provides voice for Bobcats

What started out as a one-time thing with a bored eighth grader in the stands at a basketball game has turned into a three-year mini "career" for sophomore Hayden Mayne.

If you haven't heard yet, Mayne is the teenaged voice of the Bobcats, calling the games using his cell phone so those who can't make the games can still hear them via Facebook.

For a time, Mayne was the manager for boys basketball and even did some of their video, but his heart lies in calling the games and he's well on his way to sounding just like the professionals you'd hear on ESPN.

"I love to call all sports," he said. "I find volleyball is harder than football or basketball, mostly because I don't really know the terminology. I won't be doing wrestling because I don't know anything about it."

Mayne may be self-taught when it comes to calling the games but he's pretty much the high school athletics guru, not just for the Bobcats, but statewide and even nationally. He keeps track of everything on Max Preps where he can find everything from rosters to stats and even tracks the scores.

He works pretty closely with football head coach Matt McPhie. Its almost time for him to start chatting with the basketball coaches about maybe traveling with the team so he can continue to call the shots from courtside.

With all of the time he spends analyzing the other teams, Mayne definitely has an opinion about the upcoming game between the Bobcats and the Buffalo Bison.

"I don't think they're (Buffalo) as good as they claim," he smiles. "They nearly lost to Burns earlier this year."

He also thinks it's a good time for Mountain View to get knocked out of their seat, too.

So what does he want to do once high school is over?

With this much passion you would think he'd be looking at a career with Sports Center, but Mayne's keeping his feet firmly on the ground, looking instead at a career in Special Education.

"I would like to come back here and teach special ed," he said. "It would make being able to call the games a lot easier if I were in the district."

His advice for anyone who may be thinking about a career calling sports?

"Just go for it," he said. "All you need is a cell phone. You don't need fancy equipment. Get on with a pod cast or Facebook or Twitter."

Mayne said there is no way he could have done this without the help of his friends and family. He's had great support from the football team and from the community with people even stopping him and telling him how much they appreciate it.

If you want to check in with Mayne just go to Thermopolis Sports on Facebook. You can not only hear the current games he's calling, but he also has every game he's called archived on his site.