SAM CANALES

Sam Canales is a play-by-play broadcaster who has called games across radio and television for Santa Clara University Athletics, most notably filling in as a play-by-play voice for Santa Clara Athletics on ESPN+.

Sam's broadcasting career began at 103.3 KSCU, Santa Clara's student radio station, where he spent three years covering basketball, baseball, soccer, softball, and hockey, including West Coast Conference tournament games and the Men's Basketball team's first NCAA Tournament appearance in 30 years. During his tenure, Sam also hosted a weekly sports talk show and served as the station's Sports Director, overseeing a six-person broadcast team responsible for scheduling, travel logistics, and game-day operations.

Sam's curiosity about the industry extends past the booth. He built software that automates spotting board creation for broadcasters across college and professional sports. In summer 2025, he interned with the National Football League's Broadcasting Department in New York, supporting programming and gameday-related projects. His work included compliance screening for the 2025 Pro Football Hall of Fame Game broadcast on NBC, a 412-graphic summary of broadcast graphics used across the NFL's seven network partners for a league-wide branding review, and an AI implementation presentation adopted into the department's daily workflow.

A native of New York, NY, Sam graduated summa cum laude from Santa Clara University in June 2026 with a B.S. in Economics and a B.A. in History.