About
I’m Nathan Boles, a fifth-year journalism, creative media industries and mathematics major at Texas Tech University. I also am pursuing an economics minor and sports media and motion picture production certificates.
Since adding a math major, I am interested in data science, data analytics, and other math-related fields as I look into internships or jobs around these sectors.
In addition to other sports media experience through college, I was the sports director for three years at KTXT-FM, Texas Tech’s student radio station. With KTXT, I had the opportunity to call Tech home soccer, volleyball and softball games; be the liaison between the station and Tech Athletics; produce daily sports updates, live sports; and host and/or produce 3 & Out. I was also the main admin for the @KTXT_Sports Twitter/X account.
Contact: nathanleeboles@gmail.com, natboles@ttu.edu, LinkedIn
I also volunteer during the academic year with MCTV, Tech’s semi-weekly student newscast, mostly by writing, editing and anchoring the sports section once every 1-2 weeks.
Texas Tech Tennis Club has been an important part of my college experience since March 2021. I have traveled to many tournaments, attended practice when possible, and became the secretary for the 2022-23 academic year. I played a small role on the team that qualified for the 2023 USTA Tennis on Campus National Championships in Surprise, Arizona, as we got fourth place at the Texas Sectional Championships. For 2023-24, I took on a bigger role as the treasurer where I managed the finances for the club, and I helped lead the club to get more members and bring more people to tournaments as the year went on. I’ll continue my role for the 2024-25 year.
I had an NFL/NBA/general sports podcast, Flags and Fouls, that I edited and hosted with my friends on this site for almost a year and a half. Although the podcast is on hold, it helped me a lot with problem-solving, editing and learning how to post on social media about a show, even if I was not been able to consistently promote it or even produce it.
Since I was in the fifth grade, and really whenever I realized I wasn’t going to be a professional tennis player, I have wanted to be in sports media. As time has passed, I have opened my horizons to different opportunities with sports media, math, and other things I couldn’t have imagined when I started at Texas Tech.
I graduated from Midland High School in Midland, Texas, in May 2020 and wanted to stay around the Lubbock area for a few more years, somewhere I’ve always been familiar with. Despite wanting to be a sports commentator, I never got involved in media during high school. I played varsity tennis all four years, where I was team co-captain my senior year, and I even joined the robotics team my senior year.
When I came to Tech, getting involved and meeting people was more difficult because of COVID-19, as it was for all of us, but I found a way. I started volunteering with KTXT by recording sports updates, liners, and writing sports articles in the fall of 2020. I started volunteering with MCTV by helping produce and occasionally anchoring the newscast. I called Slaton High football games that semester as a color commentator for KSSL-FM. I have never felt more terrified than the 10 minutes before we were on air for the very first game I called, but I slowly got more comfortable, even as I needed, and still need, a lot of polish on that end.
After that, in January 2021, I started the Flags and Fouls podcast along with a tennis podcast, Making a Racquet, that ran until that summer. In February, I started getting involved with anchoring the sports section of MCTV, allowing me to branch out into something I’ve always thought about doing. In August 2021, I was offered a position in the sports department at KTXT, and the job allowed me to think about the many different things I might want to do. From calling live sports to hosting a studio show to covering other sports on Twitter/X, Instagram and the website as a reporter, to helping with some videos for the station, it was a versatile job that helped open my eyes to the opportunities I have. More than anything at KTXT, I enjoyed getting to call live Texas Tech soccer, volleyball and softball and really dive into these teams. I also really enjoyed hosting The Sparkly Hour with Erica through the summer of 2024, and it has been its own experience that has evolved what the job became for me.
I took a job with Ramar Communications in September 2022 to be a producer for sports radio on Double T 97.3 and 100.7 The Score. I produced parts of sports talk shows like High School Fan Zone and End of the Bench and posted parts of the show on social media. I also produced a few high school football games from the studio and had to assist with setting up and taking down the remote studio stage outside Jones AT&T Stadium for Texas Tech home football games. I left Ramar in November to better focus on my classes and job at KTXT while also being a part of Texas Tech Tennis Club.
In the fall of 2023, I got to call Texas Tech soccer games during the NCAA Tournament. As one of the best eight teams in the nation, Tech got to host their first three games. They fell to North Carolina in the Round of 16, but it was still an experience I won’t forget. After the fall, I transitioned to more of a production role, producing live sports from the studio and taking over sports updates while the rest of the sports department took over calling games, specifically softball. I stepped down after the summer of 2024, and I am now looking at other opportunities as I attempt to expand into supporting my math major. Data science is something that catches my eye, and I feel like I would enjoy giving meaning to data in ways that might not be as easy to see at first. It’s new for me thinking about math more than anything else, but I am excited for what this will bring.