If you have been to a Carolina Forest baseball game than you have heard the booming voice of the Panthers baseball announcer, the only high school announcer in Horry County, Dylan Blanton.
“It’s a little bit more juice. I mean he gives me tingles down my spine every time I see him do it, every time he announces for us. It is something that the kids enjoy,” Carolina Forest head baseball coach Joey Worley said.
Dylan has had a love for baseball his entire life, but do to a spinal injury he has had since birth he has been unable to take the field. That setback has not lessened his passion or love for the game, being a team manager for the Panthers and now taking command behind the microphone.
“It’s just a sport that I really get and I’ve always wanted to play baseball when I was young but I know I can’t get a chance to play it with my injury and all. But my next step is to be a sports announcer,” Dylan said.
“Every day he has a smile on his face. I go see him at lunch he is grinning from ear to ear, gives me some knuckles and stuff wants to know what is going on the next day. When is the game? What time is it? I’m going to be there,” coach Worley said.
Dylan was born with a tumor on his spine. At first his parents were not sure if he would be able to walk or talk, but after countless surgeries Dylan was able to talk and able to operate his wheelchair. He is a staple at both Panther games and Coastal Carolina games at Springs Brooks Stadium.
Dylan has a way of putting a smile on everyone’s face that he encounters. Whether that is through the microphone to those in attendance or in the dugout or those that get the opportunity to interact with him daily.
“There is always that inspiration to look at Dylan and say ‘yeah he is going through a lot of stuff to, what we are going through is not that bad,'” coach Worley said. “The life lessons he teaches our guys, the life lessons he teaches our school in general to have that kid around everyday. It’s something that people are not going to forget, a guy like that you don’t forget at all.”
Dylan is now preparing for his next chapter as a freshman this fall at Coastal Carolina University a dream come true for Dylan and his family.
“It’s something I had never really though about could happen” Dylan’s father Mark Blanton said. “It was something that went from never being thought about to being now he is going to be a student at Coastal Carolina. A college student, which is awesome.”
Dylan is going to continue to strive to achieve his goal of becoming a baseball announcer as he will call a game this summer with the minor league Myrtle Beach Pelicans and has his eyes on Chanticleer games in the future and much more.
“Yeah I guess I could call the World Series. Get to go to every game that ESPN does, maybe go to the College World Series with them and announce that.”
