EFFINGHAM — The voice that echoes across the Effingham High School gymnasium is changing this school year.
For the first time since 1995, there will be a new public address announcer for boys basketball games, as longtime “Voice of the Flaming Hearts” Sid Kibler is retiring.
Two years ago, Kibler, who was also a spotter for football, gave that up, and now, he is calling it a career after 29 years at the table.
“In my early years, I enjoyed it for the most part because I knew the kids, I knew the parents,” Kibler said. “I enjoyed the game of basketball; I played basketball when I was in high school, so I understood it. So, I enjoyed that part of it really well and then as the years have gone on, I’ve kind of migrated from that because I don’t know the kids; I don’t know the families.”
“I’ve been thinking about it for quite a while,” Kibler continued. “I’m going to say 5-10 years, I’ve thought, ‘I don’t really know the kids anymore; I don’t really know many of the parents,’ and my wife used to go with me very often to all the games, but it got to the point where she doesn’t know the families either and quit attending.
“It got to be a struggle the last four, five years to make myself go.”
Kibler started when his oldest son was a sophomore in high school.
Former EHS Principal Russ Marvel would do the public address announcing before Kibler.
“Russ Marvel, the old Effingham High School principal, used to do the starting lineup announcing at the old high school, ‘The Cracker Box.’ Sound system was horrible,” Kibler laughed.
Once Marvel was ready to retire, Kibler jumped aboard and has done it ever since.
“One day, I went up and asked him and he was more than happy to get rid of it,” Kibler said. “So for the first year or two, I think I just did the starting lineups and then just kind of expanded from there.”
Kibler’s iconic saying before the starting lineups is announcing the team as “The Flaming Hearts of Effingham.”
Those words have stayed with him since the beginning.
“I try to get as vocal as I can with it,” Kibler said.
He added that, over time, he’s also been able to get the crowd involved with the game, especially when the contest is close.
“You try to get more graphic with it, more excited and if the games are close at the end, I try to help get the crowd energized a little bit,” Kibler said.
An ‘ironman,’ so to speak, Kibler said what he is most proud of is the fact that he’s never missed one basketball game.
He’s called 450 in total, leaving big shoes to fill for the next public address announcer in line.
“I’m most proud of the fact that I did approximately 450 basketball games, including tournaments. I don’t believe I ever missed a game in those years,” he said. “I’m a CPA for a living, so in the middle of tax season, which is at the end of the dead of winter, there are many times I’m sitting at my desk and I really shouldn’t go to that game because I’ve got work to do, but I went. And there were many times I didn’t feel the best, but I still went.
“That’s what I’m most proud of.”