Naoko Funayama (

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

: 船山直子, ''Funayama Naoko'') is a

Japanese American are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 census, they have declined in number to constitute the sixth largest Asi ...

sportscaster, who currently works for the

New England Revolution The New England Revolution is an American professional soccer club based in the Greater Boston area that competes in Major League Soccer (MLS), in the Eastern Conference of the league. It is one of the ten charter clubs of MLS, having compet ...

. She previously served as a rinkside reporter for

Boston Bruins The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston. The Bruins compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The team has been in existence since 1924, making t ...

games on New England Sports Network.

Career

A graduate of

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a col ...

and the

Boston University College of Communication __NOTOC__ Boston University College of Communication (COM) is a communication school at Boston University. It was founded in 1947 as the School of Public Relations. The College of Communication is the oldest public relations school in the United ...

, Funayama got her start at Adelphia Cable 10 in

Frederick, Maryland Frederick is a city in and the county seat of Frederick County, Maryland. It is part of the Baltimore–Washington Metropolitan Area. Frederick has long been an important crossroads, located at the intersection of a major north–south Native ...

. In August 2004, she joined

WMUR-TV WMUR-TV (channel 9) is a television station licensed to Manchester, New Hampshire, United States, broadcasting ABC programming to most of New Hampshire. Owned by Hearst Television, the station maintains studios on South Commercial Street in dow ...

as a sports reporter, producer and anchor. Funayama joined NESN as a freelance

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight ...

reporter in April 2007. In her first year with NESN, she covered Red Sox pitchers

Daisuke Matsuzaka is a Japanese former professional baseball pitcher, who pitched professionally for 23 seasons, 16 of them in NPB, 7 in MLB. He is currently a baseball color commentator, critic, reporter, and YouTuber. Daisuke is nicknamed in Japan and "Dice ...

and

Hideki Okajima is a Japanese former professional baseball pitcher. Okajima pitched for the Yomiuri Giants, Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, and Yokohama DeNA BayStars of Nippon Professional Baseball, and the Boston Red Sox and Oakland Athle ...

. Funayama captured the attention of NESN after she helped Matsuzaka's struggling translator during Matsuzaka's introductory press conference. Funayama joined NESN full-time in September 2008 as the Bruins in-game reporter and host of ''The Buzz'', a Bruins countdown show formerly hosted by

Hazel Mae Hazel Mae Barker (born April 7, 1970), known professionally as Hazel Mae, is a Filipino-Canadian sportscaster. She was the former lead anchor for the New England Sports Network's SportsDesk news program and most recently the anchor on MLB Networ ...

. In June 2013, NESN announced that they would not renew Funayama's contract. She was replaced by

Jamie Erdahl Jamie Erdahl (December 3, 1988) is an American reporter for NFL Network and CBS Sports. She currently serves as one of the hosts of Good Morning Football on NFL Network. She was formerly the lead sideline reporter for the '' SEC on CBS'', teaming ...

. Funayama worked as a reporter for

NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division of the broadcast network NBC, owned and operated by NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and subsidiary of Comcast. The division is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and its d ...

at the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

. Funayama can currently be seen on

NBC Sports Boston NBC Sports Boston is an American regional sports network owned by the NBC Sports Group unit of NBCUniversal, and operates as an affiliate of NBC Sports Regional Networks. The channel broadcasts regional coverage of professional sports events thr ...

(formerly Comcast Sportsnet New England) and freelancing at

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Funayama, Naoko American people of Japanese descent American television reporters and correspondents Boston Bruins announcers Boston University College of Communication alumni Boston sportscasters Living people National Hockey League broadcasters Television anchors from Boston Williams College alumni Place of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people)