Cameraman discusses difficulties covering WCWS
Staff Writer
Bobby Roubion spends Monday-Thursday teaching accounting at his local community college. But on the weekends, Roubion is living out every sports fan's dream.
Roubion works as a cameraman for ESPN, allowing him to travel to some of the biggest sporting events in the country. He is constantly on the road covering a variety of sports and this week, he was in Oklahoma City for his fifth WCWS.
The Oklahoman: What are some of the challenges of shooting the WCWS?
Roubion: The long days, the four-game days can be a bit of a challenge, but the company does a really good job of bringing in some extra camera operators so we all get periodic breaks during the day. That helps tremendously. I’m from Texas so I’m use to the heat. It doesn’t bother as much as some of the other people that come down from the north.
How do you deal with the heat?
I try to drink plenty of liquids — drink a lot of water. I take a cooler up (to the tower) with me, with several bottles of water in it when I’m up there at work. There’s nothing over my head, so we put up a couple umbrellas. They provide a little bit of temporary relief from the sun, and between innings you can step underneath it and get out of the sun.
Is there anything you do to protect the cameras from the heat?
Not really. The cameras sit out in the heat whether it’s baseball stadiums, or here, races, they can, as far as I know, take quite a bit of heat.
What are some of the challenging events you have shot?
I work a Little League regional tournament in Waco, Texas, every August. The Longhorn Network actually covers the majority of that and we do the girls softball tournament and the baseball tournament, so it’s almost two weeks in Waco. From a weather perspective, that can be pretty challenging because, like here, Waco can be pretty hot in the middle of August. But, that’s also, like (the WCWS), one of my favorite events.
What are the difficulties of being a cameraman?
A lot of us that do this for a living spend a lot of time in hotels and airplanes, so we’re away from home a lot and miss a lot of things.
Watching my boys in Little League or flag football, you know, sports happen on nights and weekends, so when those things happen we’re working. But, television has provided some wonderful opportunities for my family and me to do some things and spend some good, quality time together that we wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise.