While most kindergarteners make sure their mom packs a fruit snack in their lunch, a young Kate Scott made sure she watched Sportscenter every day before heading to school.

“I don’t know if it was something I saw on ESPN, but I was just enthralled and intrigued,” Scott said. “I watched it all the time and then I started watching Sportscenter.”

A Bay Area sports celebrity, Scott is currently a play-by-play analyst for the Pac-12 Network as well as an anchor on the sports radio station, KNBR 680, in the mornings.

Scott did the play-by-play for the Chico State women’s basketball team when it visited San Francisco State on Dec. 4, which was televised on a local Comcast station.

Even though the game was on a Friday, it was much earlier in the week when she started to prepare for the game, she said.

• Monday and Tuesday: Scott starts her preparation with a conference call between the announcers and coaches to get a feel for which players or key injuries should be focused on. She then prints out anything and everything she can find on the players, such as their hometown and what high school they attended.
• Wednesday: Scott starts watching film on both teams to see the players and their play styles to make it easier to recognize them on the court.
• Thursday: She puts together flashcards, with players’ faces on one side and their names on the other, to become even more familiar with the teams.
• Friday: After memorizing all the flashcards, Scott heads to the venue a few hours early to talk to the coaches and players for any last-minute story lines. At tip-off, it’s showtime.

Even after all this planning, Scott needs to be on her toes.

“You can plan all week, and then everything can be thrown out in the first two minutes after someone went down with an injury,” Scott said. “I just love the unexpectedness and spontaneity of play-by-plays.”

Scott has been doing play-by-plays on and off for four years and was recently hired to call games for the Pac-12 Network. Joining KNBR 680 in 2011, she had to overcome the challenge of being a female in a male-dominated sports industry.

“It’s so rare you hear a women in sports radio, so when I first started, there was a lot of push back,” she said. “A lot of guys have come up to me and said, ‘When you first started, I didn’t like you at all. Then I kept listening and you stood your ground, you really understand sports so you earned my respect.'”

Scott’s passion for sports has always been a part of her. However, her plan was not always to be involved in the sports broadcasting industry. While applying for colleges in high school, she wanted to be a teacher like her mom who teaches special education classes. It wasn’t until an adviser brought up the idea of sports broadcasting that Scott became intrigued by the idea.

“Sometimes you hear that a person is meant to do something when they grow up,” Scott said. “Almost unbeknownst to me, I was supposed to do this.”

Nick Martinez-Esquibel can be reached at [email protected] or @THENickMartinez on Twitter.