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 Americans, Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 United States census, 2000 census, they have declined in ...

sportscaster, who currently works for the

New England Revolution The New England Revolution are an American professional association football, soccer club based in the Greater Boston area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference (MLS), Eastern Conference. It is on ...

. 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 (NHL), Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Conference. The t ...

games on

New England Sports Network New England Sports Network, popularly known as NESN , is an American regional sports cable and satellite television network owned by a joint venture of Fenway Sports Group (which owns a controlling 80% interest, and is the owner of the Boston ...

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, United States. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim ...

and the

Boston University College of Communication __NOTOC__ The Boston University College of Communication (COM) is the communication school of Boston University (BU), a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1947, it was the first university in the United States to of ...

, Funayama got her start at Adelphia Cable 10 in

Frederick, Maryland Frederick is a city in, and the county seat of, Frederick County, Maryland, United States. Frederick's population was 78,171 people as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Maryland, second-largest ...

. In August 2004, she joined

WMUR-TV WMUR-TV (channel 9) is a television station licensed to Manchester, New Hampshire, United States, serving as the American Broadcasting Company, ABC affiliate to most of New Hampshire. Owned by Hearst Television, the station maintains studios on ...

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) American League East, East Division. Founded in as one of the Ameri ...

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, Sports journalism, reporter, and YouTuber. Daisuke is nicknamed i ...

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 Athl ...

. 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 Netwo ...

. In June 2013, NESN announced that they would not renew Funayama's contract. She was replaced by Jamie Erdahl. Funayama worked as a reporter for

NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division for NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, that is responsible for sports broadcasts on their broadcast network NBC, the Cable television, cable channels NBC owns, and on Peacock (streaming service) ...

at the

2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

. 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 thro ...

(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 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)