SIDNEY — A 2018 graduate of Sidney High School is appearing in a commercial for ESPN.
Avery Voress was chosen to represent The Ohio State University Marching Band in a college football coverage commercial for ESPN.
Voress has played tuba since seventh grade and marched for four years as a sousaphone player under Sidney High School band director Chris Adams. After graduating from SHS, Voress began attending The Ohio State University and is now a fifth-year zoology major.
During his first year at OSU, Voress tried out for and was accepted into The Ohio State University Marching Band, commonly referred to as ‘the best damn band in the land’ or TBDBITL, as a sousaphone player. In the 2021 season, the rows voted and selected Voress to be a squad leader. Squad leaders are responsible for helping grade music and marching during tryouts, overseeing challenges on Mondays after games and doing music checks with their rows on Fridays before games.
“Squad leaders are responsible for keeping the row together as a family of sorts and making sure everyone has the best experience possible,” said Voress.
The ESPN commercial appearance opportunity was presented to the four squad leaders of the sousaphone rows by OSUMB’s Communications Manager Evan Drexler. Voress was chosen out of the four sousaphone squad leaders based on seniority.
He was flown to Nashville, Tennessee, for four days, filming the commercial took two days. While filming, he had the opportunity to meet ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit, who had nothing but admiration for the OSUMB and the work the members put into each show.
The commercial advertises ESPN’s coverage of the college football season as “the greatest story ever played.” It features players, cheerleaders, band members, students, alumni and fans from colleges and universities across the U.S. The commercial opens showing the different people gathered in a university lecture hall with Herbstreit as he explains what aspects make college football ‘a great story.’
Voress is featured clearly three times in the ESPN commercial. In the opening shot of the commercial he can be seen in his OSUMB uniform seated with cheerleaders from the University of Michigan. At the end of the advertisement, Voress can be seen twice more. Once, rising with the crowd to applaud Herbstreit and again taking his hat off in a salute. The commercial will air on ESPN throughout the 2022 college football season.
“I’m happy to represent TBDBITL, Ohio and even Sidney. It’s an honor,” said Voress about being chosen to be a part of this commercial.
