Rob Kennedy officially has two jobs. By day, he teaches high school U.S. history and government in Monmouth, Maine. By night, he calls play-by-play for Dartmouth College hockey, a role he’s held since 2016.
But because Monmouth is more than 200 miles from Hanover, a third job takes up nearly as much of Kennedy’s time: driving.
Kennedy commutes three-plus hours each way to and from Dartmouth home games, and sometimes significantly more than that for away games. Just last weekend, he drove nearly seven hours each way for a road trip to St. Lawrence and Clarkson in upstate New York.
He does most of these drives in the dark, frequently in less-than-ideal weather conditions. But he doesn’t see himself getting tired of it anytime soon.
“As long as Dartmouth sees fit to keep me around, I don’t see myself going anyplace,” Kennedy said. “I knew it was a good fit from the first game I called there, and it never gets old for me to walk into Thompson Arena. It’s a great place to be, and I feel blessed that I get to do it.”
Kennedy grew up in southern Maine, near Portland, and attended St. Michael’s College in Colchester, Vt. He served as sports director for the radio station at St. Michael’s but chose to pursue a career in education after graduating, getting his first teaching job in St. Louis in 1994.
After returning to his home state in the early 2000s, though, Kennedy also returned to sports broadcasting. He got his start at Colby College in Waterville, then went onto gigs at radio stations in Augusta and Brunswick. He also called high school sports for a number of Maine television stations, including Fox Sports Maine, Time Warner Cable Sports and Portland’s NBC affiliate, WCSH.
Kennedy was also the TV broadcaster for the Lewiston Maineiacs of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League from 2003 through 2009 and later called men’s and women’s hockey games at Bowdoin College.
“I’d been broadcasting quite a while in Maine,” Kennedy said. “(But) at Bowdoin, there was no chance to travel. I felt like I was part of a team a little bit, but it was hard to get to know the team and the players that much.”
So after more than a decade of paying his dues, Kennedy decided it was time to seek an opportunity in the Division I ranks. Dartmouth was not initially on his radar, but on a recommendation from a colleague, Kennedy emailed Rick Bender, Dartmouth’s director of athletic communications. Bender told Kennedy that the Big Green had an opening for a women’s hockey play-by-play broadcaster.
“At the time, I didn’t have a lot of background on women’s hockey,” Kennedy said. “I thought about it — did I want to drive three hours to cover that team? After thinking about it and talking with my wife, the answer was yes. I’m glad I did, because I gained a whole new appreciation with the skill of women’s hockey.”
Bender had experience with broadcasters who commuted a long way. When he worked at Davidson College in North Carolina, the school employed an announcer who lived more than three hours away in Tennessee. Bender did not realize at first that Kennedy lived in Maine, but he knew it could work as long as he showed commitment to the job.
Kennedy transitioned to becoming the primary radio voice of Big Green men’s hockey for Learfield Sports in the 2017-18 season. On Dec. 16, 2017, Dartmouth overcame a three-goal deficit to upset defending national champion Denver on the road, a victory that Kennedy named as his favorite memory with the Big Green.
This season, Kennedy shifted to the video side, calling most of Dartmouth’s games on ESPN+. Bender said Kennedy has adjusted well — he recognizes that he doesn’t need to call everything that happens on the ice for the TV broadcasts.
“He’s not going to sit around waiting for something,” Bender said. “He’s going to ask if there’s something more he can do. The enthusiasm he has for Dartmouth hockey and hockey in general has been great for the program. As long as he wants to do this, we’re happy to have him on our crew.”
During the long drives, Kennedy usually listens to music or podcasts — particularly the Inside ECAC Hockey podcast with Bernie Corbett and Josh Seguin. He’ll also do some last-minute preparation for the game and think about what he wants to highlight on the broadcast.
With nearly 20 years of play-by-play experience now under his belt, Kennedy is content with balancing teaching and broadcasting and has no plans to leave either job.
“If there was a storybook ending to this, someone from the Bruins or something would hear my broadcast and say, ‘We’ll offer you a job,’ ” Kennedy said. “But realistically, that’s not usually how things work. What this has allowed me to do is have the best of both worlds. I get to teach, which I really love, and I also get to experience some great hockey in a lot of tremendous venues by being with Dartmouth. I’ve got the job that I want, and I don’t actively look for anything else as far as hockey is concerned.”
Benjamin Rosenberg can be reached at brosenberg@vnews.com or 603-727-3302.