(June 4, 2020) PRESS RELEASE — A pair of STAA members comprise the new radio team at the University of South Dakota. John Thayer, the voice of South Dakota women’s basketball for the last seven seasons, is replacing Joe Van Goor as the play-by-play announcer for Coyote football and men’s basketball.
Replacing Thayer on the sidelines is Carter Woodiel who will also be the new voice of Coyote women’s basketball.
“It’s been great to work with and learn from a radio veteran like Joe for the past several years,” says Thayer. “I have really enjoyed my time watching the women’s basketball program develop into a nationally-ranked team that contends every year for a Summit League title.”
Thayer hails from Eustis, Nebraska, and is a 2008 graduate of Doane College where he helped launch the Tiger Sports Network. He worked for stations in Colorado and Nebraska before arriving in Yankton in July of 2012. He became the voice of USD women’s basketball ahead of the 2013-14 campaign and joined the sidelines of Coyote football in 2015.
Thayer served as sports director of KVHT/KVTK in Yankton where he hosted a weekday sports talk show called “On the John”. In 2019, he transitioned to Coyote Sports Properties, the multimedia rights holder and sports marketing arm for USD athletics. Thayer is also the host of YoteCast, the Coyotes’ official podcast that debuted ahead of the 2019-20 academic year.
Woodiel is a 2018 graduate of University of Missouri and is currently the voice of the Sioux Falls Canaries. He has also served the Sioux Falls Stampede and Midwest Communications in South Dakota.
Woodiel brings a young and impressive résumé to the Coyotes’ nationally-ranked women’s program. He was named Bob Costas High School Sportscaster of the Year in 2012, received two awards from the William Randolph Hearst Foundation – one of the highest honors a collegiate journalist can receive – and a Missouri Broadcasters’ Association award in 2015 for his play-by-play work with KCOU-FM in Columbia. In addition, he has won an Edward R. Murrow Award and a Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Award for his work in radio reporting.
Woodiel spent the 2018-19 season as the broadcaster for women’s basketball at High Point University in North Carolina, and has broadcasted basketball at William Woods University, Westminster College, University of Missouri and North Carolina Central University.
(Visit John’s STAA Talent Page and Carter’s personal website).