Photo by Stephen Goldsmith

WILMINGTON, Del. -- John Sadak, the play-by-play announcer for the University of Delaware women’s basketball team, has been named 2009 Delaware Co-Sportscaster of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association.

Sadak (at right) is in his sixth season as the award-winning voice of Delaware women’s basketball which is broadcast on The Ticket 1290 AM. The 31-year-old also serves as the play-by-play announcer for Princeton University men’s basketball and for the Wilmington Blue Rocks minor league baseball team, the Carolina League affiliate of the Kansas City Royals.

Sadak shared the award with Delaware graduate and former WVUD FM sportscaster Scott Klatzkin. In addition, News Journal sportswriter Kevin Tresolini, who covers the University of Delaware, was named Delaware Sportswriter of the Year.

A Brick, N.J. native, Sadak announces college football for SPORTSfever TV with the games airing on FSN Pittsburgh, WHYY and Fox College Sports among other stations. His time with STN includes calling the first ever regular-season football game between the University of Delaware and Delaware State in 2009.

Sadak calls college football and other sports for Verizon FiOS1 TV in the New York City market and fills in on the radio coverage of Delaware football, men’s basketball, and as the host of the local sports talk show, In The Zone, on 1290 The Ticket. In 2006, the CAA tabbed Sadak to announce the national broadcast of the CAA women’s basketball championship on Sirius Satellite Radio.

Twice in the last three years the Delaware Press Association has named Sadak the state’s best sports play-by-play announcer. In 2007, he took the organization’s national honor as well.

Over the years, his broadcasts have also been honored by the Philadelphia Press Association, New Jersey Associated Press Broadcasters Association, Communicator Awards, Society of Professional Journalists and College Broadcasters Incorporated.

Sadak’s experience also includes a season in the front office of the New York Yankees as their Assistant Director of Broadcasting & Scoreboard Operations in 2005 and time with both Major League Baseball Productions and the Lakewood BlueClaws minor league baseball team, the South Atlantic League affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies, in 2003.

He has also served as an on-site reporter for ESPN Radio National in Philadelphia covering the Phillies, Flyers, 76ers and Big 5 basketball. Sadak, who resides in Newark, Del. with his wife Colleen, graduated from Rowan University with a bachelor’s degree in communications in 2000 and earned a master’s degree in public relations in 2003.

In the greater Delaware Valley, in addition to his coverage of UD sporting events, Sadak’s 2009 work included radio play-by-play of Princeton men’s basketball, TV announcing of Princeton football and women’s basketball, the nationwide call of the men’s water polo Final Four for the NCAA and television play-by-play of Division II football throughout Pennsylvania among other fill-in assignments.

The National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association and Hall of Fame is the only organization dedicated to the crafts of sportscasting and sportswriting in the United States.

Comprised of approximately 700 members, the organization includes the most accomplished and talented sports media in the industry covering professional, collegiate and amateur sports both in the U.S. and abroad.

Annual voting on the state Sportscaster and Sportswriter of the Year awards, as well as the prestigious Bear Bryant College Coach of the Year award, is conducted by organization members. The Delaware Sportscaster of the Year award will be presented in May in Salisbury, N.C.