'Mr. Tommy is truly the best': Meet Tommy Jefferson, the voice of Brookwood softball

It was a windy March afternoon. Tommy Jefferson, the 'Voice of the Panthers,' was doing what he has done for more than a decade now, announcing softball games at Brookwood High School.

Jefferson is not from Brookwood, nor did he attend Brookwood High. Instead, he's from McCalla and attended rival high school McAdory. His wife, Amye, is a Brookwood native and graduate, and once the two married, they bought a home in the Brookwood district. Their daughter, Lindsye, is a 2016 Brookwood graduate, and son Will is a 2019 American Christian Academy graduate.

It was not until 2013 that Jefferson, a programmer, began announcing softball games at Brookwood. It was Lindsye's freshman season, and the team was playing an away game where Lindsye got her first taste of having a PA announcer. She came home excited, telling her parents about the experience, getting her father thinking.

"That got me interested, her experience with the PA stuff, so I was like 'We need to do that,'" Jefferson said.

Jefferson was always involved with Lindyse's softball career well before he took to announcing, always wanting to provide his daughter and her teammates the best and most memorable experience possible.

He took pictures and created motivational highlight videos for Lindsye's middle school team. In 2011, Jefferson took it a step further, with a friend helping him get touch with Curt Bloom, a hall-of-fame broadcaster and the former voice of the Birmingham Barrons. Jefferson eventually met with Bloom, where he got him to announce the girls' names, numbers and positions as part of the videos he created.

Jump back to 2013 when Lindsye expressed her interest in wanting an announcer at Brookwood games. Jefferson wanted to deliver, but a self-proclaimed introvert, he was not necessarily sure it was his voice he wanted to hear over the loudspeakers.

"It's really crazy, because I'm a really shy, introverted person," Jefferson said. "So, this really (has been) way out of my comfort zone."

He began by playing the girls' walk-up music and music in between innings, but through working with Bloom, he was able to get recordings of him announcing the girls' names, jersey numbers and grade, so that Bloom's voice would be what everyone heard.

That changed later in 2013, when the girls' numbers began to change based off the color jerseys they were wearing.

"I did not have any other way to do it (besides do it myself)," Jefferson said. "It wasn't right to have some girls' names announced and others not. And it wouldn't be the right number."

Jefferson now has an arsenal of equipment he uses: three iPads, a laptop, a mixer, microphone and two speakers. He had a few broadcasters he listened to over the years to provide inspiration, such as Bloom, but now, Jefferson has put his own spin on things.

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He has playlist of songs he plays depending on the mood of the game, such as Journey's "Don't Stop Believing," which he played in the middle of the ninth inning, when Brookwood was attempting to come up with an extra innings comeback in a game against Northside. He also created the Brookwood Lady Panther fourth inning forecast with the voice of ABC meteorologist James Spann. Jefferson emailed and asked Spann if he would do it, to which he obliged.

"I am usually more focused on looking at the crowd, the energy of the players," Jefferson said. "So, I have a whole list of different things (to use)."

Despite Lindsye's graduation from Brookwood in 2016, Jefferson has remained the announcer for all Brookwood softball games. He continues to do everything he did when Lindsye was playing, all to provide the best possible experience.

"I am the Brookwood announcer, but it is for everyone that steps on the field," he said.

Lindsye went on to play softball at West Georgia and now teaches biology at Whitewater High School in Fayetteville, Georgia, where she is the softball team's pitching coach. Despite the 3.5-hour distance between Brookwood and Fayetteville, Jefferson still makes the drive to every home game, not to announce for Lindsye, but instead, the girls she is now coaching. In Georgia, high school softball season is in the fall, making it perfect for Jefferson to announce games.

"He views every single player like it's me," Lindsye said. "He would want me to have the best possible experience, so he wants them to have that experience as well."

Jefferson also has found himself announcing at Brookwood basketball games, something he started to do in 2021. He has even seen himself announce at Alabama softball's Rhoads Stadium in April 2023, announcing a county tournament hosted by Northside. It was an experience Jefferson deemed unbelievable.

Now, a sign that reads "Tommy Jefferson, the Voice of the Panthers," hangs by the entrance of the Brookwood softball stadium and in right field, forever highlighting Jefferson's impact on the program.

"We travel all over this state playing softball, and no one's PA person matches what Mr. Tommy does," Brookwood softball coach Danel Clark said. "He puts so much time and effort into making our home games a great experience for all ... Mr. Tommy is truly the best."

Anna Snyder covers high school sports and University of Alabama softball and football recruiting for The Tuscaloosa News. Reach her at asnyder@gannett.com. Follow her on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, @annaesnyder2

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Brookwood softball: Meet Tommy Jefferson, the 'Voice of the Panthers'