The Voice of the Raiders: An exclusive look inside Cibola’s PA announcer

Raiders basketball players get a unique boost at home games from one man behind the microphone, who's in the role because of much more than his love for hoops

YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - Those who have attended a Cibola basketball game know what to expect with every Raiders field goal.

Whether it's for a Cibola score or the announcement of the starting lineups, they can always rely on hearing one of the more enthusiastic public address announcers in the Desert Southwest.

The enthusiastic call comes from Dale Ponder.

If the name is familiar, it's because Dale is the brother of Raiders head coach Dennis Ponder, one of the first names Dale would read on the microphone as a kid.

"I started doing my first public address announcing at 10 or 11 years old, just doing simple things like 'now batting, first baseman, number 30 Dennis Ponder,'" Dale said.

After his days in little league baseball, Ponder's voice moved to the hardwood.

Thanks to his high school basketball coach needing a PA announcer for a tournament back in 1997, after a local radio DJ backed out.

"Coach said, 'We have to have a public address announcer, so either that's you, or you're going to have to find somebody.' Well, I'm 17 years old, I don't know anybody, so I grabbed a piece of paper, and that's kind of when I started doing basketball," Ponder said.

Following his basketball PA debut, Ponder then went on to do a variety of sports in his college days at Berea College in his home state of Kentucky.

After graduating, Ponder moved to Yuma in 2002 after graduating.

"It was shortly after 9/11, everybody wasn't doing a whole lot of hiring, my parents persuaded me to come to Yuma," Dale said.

In 2008, Dale joined the coaching staff for the Gila Ridge freshman hoops team.

However, while attending varsity games, he felt something was wrong.

"I found that the environment lacked a lot of energy, so there'd be a scored basket, and you would hear applause from parents and from students, but it just wasn't a whole lot of energy within the building," Ponder said.

For the next ten years, Ponder called games at the Hawks Nest, a role he loved. However, he soon left the nest and flew to the school's rival for a very good reason

"Then, my nephews began attending here at Cibola and playing basketball, and that was something I wanted to be able to do was to announce for them," Ponder said.

Once his nephews started playing at Cibola, his brother Dennis took over as coach.

Now, every Raiders home game is a Ponder family affair, with his nephew and Dennis' son Daniel a senior on this year's team.

"You know we have our family here they come to the games and watch too, so it's fun. It's special to be surrounded by family in these types of situations," Dennis said.

Daniel also loves getting the family name called at Raider Gym, especially with this year marking his final in the black and gold.

"It's really cool, he’s family, so I love looking over at him when he's calling like my name, because it's my senior year and it's my last year hearing it...It's been cool to have him for the past two years," Daniel said.

As far as what inspired his signature "basket by" call, it was drawn from the team he grew up rooting for.

"A lot of influence in fact from the University of Kentucky's public address announcer, I remember attending their games. In fact, when I was in high school, I'd walk into an open gym and would do the whole introduction, 'Welcome to Rupp Arena, basketball in the bluegrass,'" Ponder said.

As for how much longer he thinks he'll stay on the call, that has yet to be determined.

"I don't know if I can put a timeline on it, definitely, probably as long as Dennis is coaching, I don't know if he's going to coach beyond Daniel's time, but definitely want to enjoy this time," Ponder said.