Alumni Update: Vinal Molds Position With Giants

BOULDER — If you've been to a San Francisco Giants home game at AT&T Park anytime in the last two seasons, you've almost certainly heard Therese Vinal's voice and very likely seen her face.

You may have even bumped into her as she makes her way around the stadium, meeting, greeting and interviewing everyone from fans to celebrities to players, coaches and managers.

Vinal, a former Colorado volleyball player, is the Giants' in-game host at AT&T Park. She is, quite simply, one of the more recognizable faces associated with the National League club — but not many folks know her name.

"It's a little like being famous and anonymous at the same time," Vinal says with a laugh. "People will come up to me at the park and say, 'Hey, wait — you're the girl on the video board.' But I can still walk around outside the park and nobody knows who I am."

Vinal, who played for the Buffs from 2004 through 2007, graduated from CU with a degree in broadcast journalism and a minor in political science. She first worked for NBC Sports as a production assistant after graduation, helping cover beach volleyball in 2008 (an Olympic year). She then moved on to covering high school sports for a regional network in the Bay Area, then took a job as a weekend sports anchor/reporter for an NBC affiliate in Ohio.

But the Bay Area native couldn't shake her love for her home, and after her stint in Ohio, she found herself back in the Bay Area, working as a content editor/writer for Comcast Sports Net.

"The great thing is that the Giants are intertwined with Comcast Sports," Vinal said. "In 2015, they came up with the idea to have a 'host' for all of their home games, and they also wanted this person to be someone who could do some of their webcasts. They envisioned someone who could speak to a camera and someone who could talk to 42,000 people at the same time."

Early in the process, the Giants didn't find the person they were looking for. They called Vinal's news director and asked for suggestions.

"He told them, 'I think I have the perfect person for you,'" Vinal said. "So I applied, put my resume´ in and got the job.

"Now, when you come to games at the park, anything up on the big video board is usually me running around interacting with fans, conducting interviews with former players, celebrities, things like that. I also do promos, interviews with players and other things for the team. It's a position that continues to be shaped because there was really no precedent. We're just kind of molding it as it goes along."

Vinal isn't hesitant to propose her own story ideas on occasion, and she's helped design the position into one that has quickly become a success.

"We're doing interviews so that everyone in AT&T Park can see them now," Vinal said. "That was one of the disconnects we've been able to address. In the past, if Steph Curry was at the park and one of our reporters for the TV station interviewed him, the people in the park didn't get so see it. Now, I'll talk to him and it fits both outlets."

Adapting to the job hasn't been easy, Vinal said. As a reporter/anchor for television stations, she became accustomed to talking directly into a camera with only a few other people in the vicinity — a camerman and maybe a director or producer.

"In the broadcast studio, you have a physical audience of maybe just three or four people," Vinal said. "Here, you have a physical audience of 42,000 people and you see their reaction immediately. If you hear everyone start booing, it's a case of, 'Oh gosh, what did I just say?' There's definitely a different vibe to it. But it's been a lot of fun and a great learning experience."

Because it's a new position for the Giants, Vinal can't project where the job will take her. But she does know she grew up cheering for the Giants, and it's a franchise she could see herself working for a decade from now.

There are, though, other possibilities in the Bay Area. She also works as a host for Stanford women's basketball games and does occasional work as the public address announcer for men's and women's basketball games and women's volleyball.

And, she has an interest in the Pac-12 Networks, which are headquartered in the Bay Area.

"There's really no previous path out there for someone who was in this job because I'm the first one," Vinal said. "That's sometimes a little difficult because I'm so goal-oriented. But play-by-play is something I'd definitely be interested in someday, and I think I'd enjoy being a team reporter for a major league club. If it's for the Giants, that would be amazing."

But for the time being, she'll continue to hone her skills in her current position.

"I went to CU to get my journalism degree and become a journalist," Vinal said. "I hold myself to high standards in that respect. There have been a lot of wonderful women out there who have trailblazed the way in terms of play-by-play and reporters in our business, and nobody wants to be just a pretty face with a microphone that is being fed information. I think the chance to do play-by-play, to be a features reporter — those would be great opportunities. I just want to make sure I'm as prepared as possible if one of those opportunities comes along."

Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu

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