Portland Timbers announce additions to broadcast team for 2015 season presented by Simple

PORTLAND, Ore. – The Portland Timbers have added radio play-by-play broadcaster Jake Zivin in an expanded, full-time role with the club and Samantha Yarock as a versatile reporter who will feature on Timbers television broadcasts and online video content for the 2015 season presented by Simple, it was announced today.

Zivin enters his second season as the radio play-by-play announcer for Timbers broadcasts on 750 The Game and will assume a new, expanded role as web stream play-by-play broadcaster for the club’s T2 USL PRO home games in 2015. Garnering extensive experience with Major League Soccer – interning in the league’s broadcasting department and working for two years on the production staff for ABC/ESPN’s MLS and U.S. National Team broadcasts – Zivin will be the main play-by-play broadcaster for T2. Zivin joins the Timbers after spending four years at KEZI-TV in Eugene, Ore., including three as the station’s sports director. He began his career in Montana, where he was the sports director at KECI-TV in Missoula. A native of Evanston, Ill., Zivin graduated from Carleton College in 2007 with a degree in mathematics.

Yarock joins the Timbers as a reporter who will contribute to Timbers television broadcasts and online at Timbers.com following time as an on-air talent and content producer for MLSsoccer.com. Before working at MLS, Yarock, whose Timbers online coverage begins at the MLS SuperDraft on Thursday, earned a master’s degree in multimedia communications from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, where she reported and did play-by-play for the university’s men’s and women’s NCAA basketball games. Yarock, who also holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin, hosted and produced segments for GoStanford.com and interned for the sports departments at KPIX-TV/CBS 5 and KTVU/FOX 2 while in the Bay Area.