Donna Moskal’s role as a live sports TV broadcast stage manager doesn’t necessarily translate to the way a stereotypical stage mom might do things. Sometimes, it just looks that way.
Does the broadcaster have his tie on straight? No food in the teeth and hair looking good? Does she need a bottle of water or a cup of hot tea to fend off a cold?
Now, look into this camera, you’re on in three, two, one …
“I’m not sure they like to think I’m mothering them,” Moskal said with a laugh as she kept a rolled-up stat sheet in her right hand while sitting on a break in the Dodger Stadium stands a few hours before Thursday’s Dodgers-Reds contest. “But it’s really not that much different than making sure the kids have their homework done and are dressed nice before they go to school.
“It’s just what a mother does. It’s just what I do.”
It’s what this Santa Clarita working mom of four, the last of whom is about to graduate from high school and give the family three in college at the same time, has successfully navigated for the past few decades.
If Mother’s Day on Sunday is a moment to celebrate and thank those maternal influences in our lives, at least consider picking up a bouquet for those in the sports media business like Moskal, whose MacGyver-esque instincts kick in at home and at work to figure out on the fly how to iron out all that could become a wrinkled mess before the red light goes on.
For most of the year, Moskal manages the booth for the Fox Sports West and Prime Ticket home telecasts of the Kings’ and Clippers’ contests. But in her 24 years of doing this, she’s also had the packages that include the Dodgers, Angels, Lakers, Sparks, Galaxy, college football and basketball, and, just recently, the LAFC, for either a local or national telecast.
More freelance assignments fill out the summer, such as this weekend when Fox Sports Ohio has her handle the Cincinnati Reds’ pre- and postgame shows as the team visits the Dodgers.
Even if the finale of this four-game series falls on Mother’s Day, Moskal is game to go.
What makes it a bit more special is Moskal’s oldest daughter, 24-year-old Kendall, a first-grade teacher in North Hollywood, will also be on the field near her working for the Dodgers Crew. That’s the team’s hired help to corral the kids who run onto the field with the Dodgers’ player at the start of the game, and then orchestrate fan contests throughout the day for the video boards.
The other three of Moskal’s children – Brendan, 22, a junior soccer player at Simpson University in Redding; Brianna, 19, about to transfer to Cal State Northridge to study kinesiology and athletic training; and Derek, 18, graduating from West Ranch High School this month before going to Arizona State with hopes of getting into sports broadcasting – know where Mom will be on this holiday.
Saturday night, Moskal also planned to have her own mother, Patricia Mobilia, who lives in Northridge, come out with her to Dodger Stadium for an early Mother’s Day celebration.
“It’s always been about family for us and that’s what I want to make sure that’s important for all of them,” Moskal said. “Everyone’s into sports, and they think what I do is pretty cool. So they’ve all had the chance to come out to games, run on the field, sit in the dugout, come into the booth. It’s just part of our lives.”
The village it takes
Moskal gives plenty of credit for creating balance in parenting to her husband, Tony, a “very involved dad” who has been in the education business for 30 years. He currently teaches college career seminar and a sports broadcast journalism class at Golden Valley High in Santa Clarita, as well as coaching the boys and girls golf teams.
When the four kids were younger, Tony would take the handoff from Donna once he got home from work at 3 p.m., which was about when she needed to head out to the arena or ballpark. She pre-made dinners with all the instructions, and still didn’t miss her assigned car-pool duties.
“It may not work for everybody,” she said, “but it’s worked for us.”
A triple-OT Ducks playoff game against Detroit might not get her home until 3 a.m., but she would be up by 6 a.m. after most night games to begin the day with the family.
“Her organizational skills are ridiculous,” said Tony, noting he is represented by purple on the color-coded calendar attached to the refrigerator that maps out who, what and where everyone has going that day – from sports games to visits to the allergist.
As the kids have become older, Tony has been able to do more night-time work as a game analyst for high school events for Fox Sports’ PrepZone. His mother, Kathy, is also nearby to help cover.
Only occasionally have things gone a little sideways at the intersection of work and family. Donna recalls having to leave in the middle of a Kings telecast when Brendan had complications from an ACL surgery and Tony had to take him back to the hospital.
Because of the relationships she has with the teams and their personnel over the years, she’s been able to pull off any emergency-type situations.
“We’ve got so much trust and understanding after all these years, it’s all second nature,” said Jim Fox, the Kings’ TV analyst since 1990, just a couple of years before Donna joined the crew.
“And from the times when she’s brought her family up to visit us, you can tell she’s also set some great guidelines and principles for them to live by. Every parent strives to set an example, and she not only has done that, but she’s lets go enough to let them learn on their way as well.”
Kings’ Hall of Fame play-by-play man Bob Miller said Moskal is someone “I truly miss working with” since his retirement in 2016.
“I was always happy to see her in the media room at Staples Center because she always brightened up the room with her cheery and pleasant disposition,” Miller said. “It was a comfort to know we were in good hands with her in charge of that part of the telecast. Donna and her entire family are well grounded, and she amazed me by doing this while raising four kids and keeping up with their school activities.”
All in the family
After playing basketball and softball at Granada Hills High, Donna Moskal put in a year of softball at the University of Oklahoma before earning a broadcast journalism degree at Cal State Northridge, hoping to be an on-air talent like Jayne Kennedy or Gayle Gardner.
An internship at the old Prime Ticket in the 1990s gave her more insight into the business and all it had to offer. After Moskal’s first child was born, Prime Ticket executive producer Pat McClenahan advised her to focus on raising her young family as he helped coordinate freelance stage manager work for her.
She’s managed it well all these years later.
“I still have people ask me, ‘You have four kids?’ said Moskal, recently named Volunteer of the Year at West Ranch High, where all her kids attended. “I’ve always thought of myself as a mom first and my career was second.
“I think now about how raising kids goes in phases, and they need their parents to change with each phase. When my kids were in elementary school, I had one year where all four were together, and it was important to me that I was home when they got home from school. And some weeks were busier than others at work.
“Once they hit high school and sports, they were busier than I was. I tried to work my schedule around them. What I learned most from my mom was the value of the time we have together while they are young. Whether it was them sitting having lunch and me just sitting there too, maybe talking, maybe not, it was just about being present.
“Now it’s a very transitional time. But you know, you’re never done being a parent, no matter how old they are.
Reach Tom Hoffarth at tomhoffarth1@gmail.com and follow him @tomhoffarth on Twitter.
Measuring media mayhem
What smokes
* NBCSN’s daily coverage of the Tour of California, starting with Stage 1 in Long Beach (Sunday, 1 p.m.), brings back Phil Liggett with Paul Sherwen and Christian Vande Velde, plus reporters Jens Voigt and Bob Roll.
* NBC Sports’ annual coverage of the Premier League’s “Championship Sunday” with 10 matches on 10 networks, all starting at 6 a.m., could be highlighted by Arsenal against Huddersfield on MSNBC. Main network NBC takes Liverpool vs. Brighton & Hove Albion, with NBCSN taking Newcastle vs. Chelsea and USA Network handling Manchester United vs. Watford.
What chokes
* At a time when ESPN might want as much transparency as possible in how it will operate under a new president, the network said through editorial board chief Kevin Merida it would no longer have the public editor/ombudsman role, saying it has “outlived its usefulness” since real-time social feedback serves that purpose. Created in 2005, the position was last held by Jim Brady before it ended in March, about the time John Skipper left as the network president. In his last column, Brady wondered if new president James Pitaro would have the same commitment to journalism as Skipper.
* It’s official: The ESPN “Sunday Night Football” team officially consists of Joe Tessitore, Jason Witten, Booger McFarland and Lisa Salters. Could have fooled us. It reads more like the crew for an SEC Network Saturday afternoon telecast from Oxford, Miss., but that’s where this package has gone in losing its luster. Their first game together will be the Rams’ season opener vs. and Jon Gruden and the Raiders in Oakland in a 7:15 p.m. kickoff Sept. 10, the first time in ESPN’s 13-year history of doing a Monday night doubleheader that the A-team takes the later game. No word yet on who the B-team will be.
