Pro hockey: Jackalopes hire Rea to handle radio duties

The Odessa Jackalopes on Tuesday announced that Brien Rea has been hired as the team's new director of communications and broadcasting.

Rea will take over the play-by-play duties on the team's radio broadcasts, and he also will oversee the club's web site.

Rea comes to the team after calling games for the Austin Ice Bats during the 2007-08 season. Austin recently announced that it does not have a rink to play hockey in next year after its lease with Chaparral Ice expired at the end of the 2007-08 season.

"I'm excited about the opportunity with this organization," said Rea, 25. "I'm looking forward to calling a lot of Jackalopes' victories. I'm a high-energy guy, and hockey is perfect for me to call."

The 2005 graduate of Lake Forest College in Chicago also has broadcast football, basketball and softball games.

Rea replaces Bob Hards, who retired in April after 11 seasons of calling Odessa games in the Permian Basin. Hards had been the only man to call Jackalopes games since the team's inception in 1997.

Rea said that he talked with Hards about the position before coming in for an interview with general manager Joe Clark.

"Bob sent out an e-mail to all the media guys in the league saying that he was retiring from calling hockey," Rea said. "It just so happened that Austin was playing the Jackalopes the next night in the first game of the playoffs, so I went up to Bob and asked him who I should talk with. He introduced me to Joe and the rest of the ownership group, and it really is just the perfect situation for me."