A Big Name in Sports Broadcasting, Dave Smith, to Emcee at Heart of the City’s Soccer to Success Gala

(Lake County, IL): Heart of the City is excited to announce that professional sports broadcaster and radio host, Dave Smith, will be the 2022 Soccer to Success Gala Emcee on Saturday, August 13, at the Genesee Theatre in Waukegan.

With over 20 years of experience, Smith received his degree in Communications for Broadcasting in 1997 while attending Olivet Nazarene University. He has been the PA Announcer for the Chicago Bulls (2002-2017) and ONU (1992-2022), and the evening host for WFAV. 

Smith was inducted into the ONU Athletic Hall of Fame in 2018 for announcing both men and women’s basketball. He is now at Illinois State University announcing for the Redbirds.

“Heart of the City is an amazing program directed towards helping kids to build life changing characteristics through a love of sports,” said Smith. “I have a 10 year old son that just recently started playing soccer and it’s helping him learn teamwork, sportsmanship, and helping him gain personal confidence…the same traits Heart of the City strides to teach with their kids.”

Heart of the City serves over 500 youth from underfunded communities with after school, recreational, and travel soccer programs. Eliminating the financial barriers of playing sports, Heart of the City subsidizes the costs of the programs so they are accessible to all. With a youth developmental pathway and college and career readiness support, student athletes gain experiential opportunities and life skills that help them have a brighter future.

Celebrating Heart of the City’s fifth anniversary and its recent high school graduates, the Soccer to Success Gala will be a fun and impactful evening of fine dining and drinks, a spectacular live and silent auction, and raffles to raise awareness and funds for soccer and education programs that empower student athletes on and off the field. 

Sponsors for the Gala include New City Moving, Medline, Miraflores Films LLC, the College of Lake County, Rosalind Franklin University, GCM Construction, Waukegan Community Bank, Old National Bank, the Waukegan Park District, and the Xcel Group.

For more information, visit the Soccer to Success Gala website at www.heartofthecitysports.org/gala to purchase tickets or become a sponsor.