DAVID HARDEN/Arizona Daily Wildcat Communications junior Gilon Eilat auditions for a broadcating position with Fox Sports Net Arizona, yesterday at McKale Center. Eilat was one of about 50 people who auditioned, of those one will be selected.

The UA has more than its fair share of television personalities ÷ from Geraldo Rivera to Steve Kerr, from Sean Mooney to Sean Elliott, from Jennie Finch to Tom Tolbert ÷ but Fox Sports Net Arizona officials were still surprised by the turnout and talent at their student reporter auditions.

More than 50 UA students vied for one campus correspondent slot at the McKale Center yesterday. The contestants have the chance to be an on-air reporter for the Arizona Sports Report and Wildcat Insider on Fox Sports Net Arizona.

"It's not an easy thing to do to come, to come in here and sit in front of four people and do that," said Sean Mooney, one of the judges. "A lot of them I'm sure have never been on camera in a situation like this. I was very impressed with the turnout and the performances we saw."

Along with Mooney ÷ a reporter for the Arizona Sports Report, the UA and host of the Wildcat Insider ÷ fellow FSNA reporter Todd Walsh, producer Brady Clyma and Mark Harlan, UA Assistant Athletics Director for Regional Development and Marketing, served as judges. Walsh hosts the Diamondbacks' and Coyotes' pre-game shows and, does in-game reporting for both. Clyma is a game producer for UA and ASU football and basketball games as well as Arizona Diamondbacks games.

"We had a great turnout here ÷ much better than we had at ASU ÷ so that's pretty exciting," said FSNA public relations director Brett Hansen.

ASU had 42 students show up to the auditions on Tuesday.

Students had a few minutes to prepare for an on camera sports situation about an Arizona team, then responded to questions from the panel and had a written quiz. The judges rated students from one to five on personality, communication skills, sports knowledge and appearance.

Journalism freshman Jason Kleinman felt confident about his audition, but said that getting behind the camera and reporting a hypothetical sports story made him a little nervous.

"It was a little nerve-racking. I didn't have a lot of time to prepare," said Kleinman, whose fictional scenario he reported on in his audition was the Wildcat basketball team losing a close one at home to Oregon.

Adam Green, a journalism sophomore, had the unenviable task of breaking the news that Lute Olson was retiring in his scenario.

"I probably had the worst scenario possible. I had Lute Olson retiring," Green said. "It's not happy times when he retires, so out of all scenarios I pulled that one."

The judges, in addition to a handful of other FSNA workers, will make up a top-five list, then decide with executives in Phoenix who will earn the job based on each applicant's audition tape.

"We expected maybe three to five that really grabbed our attention, and all of us at least had 10 that we thought had possibilities of doing something," Mooney said.

The winner will be announced on next week's Wildcat Insider Thursday at 6:30 and 10:00 pm. The winner's audition tape will run at those times.

"I don't think I did good enough to win, but good enough to enjoy the experience. I enjoyed every bit of it and got a free T-shirt out of it," Green said. "Any time you get a free T-shirt, you're a winner. There were a lot of good people."

"I give them credit. I'm sure it was a stressful week," Walsh said. "It's like a job interview. It's their first taste of what it's going to be like in this kind of business.

"Some of these people, getting up as 19-year-old freshmen, are amazing. There was a girl who I had to ask her twice, ÎAre you really a freshman?' She's well on her way, no matter what happens."

Green also realized how tough it would be under the lights and the camera.

"I didn't think I would be (nervous), but when I got up there, with all the judges and everything and the big microphone and camera, it was real weird," Green said.

Walsh ('86) and Mooney ('81), both UA alums, graduated with the now-defunct radio and television degree, but said they did not get an opportunity like this.

Hansen said the student reporter is not really going to do "the hard news," such as sit-down interviews with Lute Olson. Rather, they will be reporting on topics related to what is happening on campus, such as student reactions and interviews with student athletes in their dorms.

FSNA is the only Fox Sports affiliate to feature a student correspondent.

"We wanted to do something where we could get a student involved in the show in some way," Hansen said.

Mooney didn't know if it was just a coincidence that there are so many former UA students on TV.

"I think that it's a great place to go to school," he said. "When I was there in the early Î80s, it had a pretty good reputation."

Walsh, who used to interview Steve Kerr, a former UA basketball player who now works for TNT, believes that the prominent role of former UA basketball players in broadcasting is due to Coach Olson. In addition to Kerr, the 1988 team now has Sean Elliott and Tom Tolbert on ESPN and ABC, respectively.

"I think it's a testimony to the program and the kind of people that Lute goes out and gets, especially that '88 team," Walsh said. "I used to interview Steve Kerr on the team bus as a joke, and that helped me get a job on radio."

FSNA is the exclusive cable home for the UA, ASU, the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Phoenix Suns and Phoenix Coyotes. It is shown in 2 million households in Arizona and New Mexico and is available to viewers in other regions via satellite.