- April 18, 2024
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Matt Graifer sipped a cup of hot tea in a corner booth at the Palm Coast Panera Bread to soothe his vocal cords.
The night before, on Aug. 20, he emceed a mixed martial arts event in Tallahassee. In a few hours he would head to Daytona Beach to do his regular gig, emceeing the between-inning promotions at the Daytona Tortugas baseball games.
"This is a chance to work in front of 100,000 people. It's a tremendous platform."
— MATT GRAIFER, the Young Professor
And on Saturday, Aug. 27, he will be back in Daytona for the biggest event yet in his fledgling entertainment career. He will introduce the drivers at the Coke Zero Sugar 400 NASCAR Cup Series race at Daytona International Speedway.
It could be the break the Young Professor has been working toward since he scribbled an affirmation on a piece of paper five years ago to "start announcing in wrestling or sports." Within six months, he saw an ad from a small wrestling school in Daytona looking for a ring announcer. He called and was told, "You need to be available on Saturdays, and you can't suck."
They liked him and asked him back, and he began to get other jobs, emceeing for the Jacksonville Sharks (an arena football league team), announcing for MMA and boxing events and going on the World Tour with the Savannah Bananas baseball team. Then came the Tortugas job, and that led to the call from NASCAR.
"We were looking to bring in something new, some fun and excitement, something extra to the driver introductions," said Jessica Valo, the event experience manager for NASCAR Southeast, working out of Daytona. "I always like to try to find someone local if we can create a community tie. And we have the Daytona Tortugas right down the street. So, I thought that might be kind of a good place to start, and then we saw what Matt was doing there and other teams that he's worked with and just his excitement and everything he brings to the table, we thought that it would be a lot of fun for our fans to see."
When the Tortugas called Graifer to tell him about NASCAR's interest, he was at a waterpark with his family, and his phone was locked in his car.
"I get back to my car and Christina, who I work with at the Tortugas, said, check your email. So I jump in and it was from NASCAR saying, we want to talk to your guy, that Young Professor, about doing some driver introductions at the 400. Do you think he'd be interested? And I said, send them my information immediately."
"All of his different outfits and his excitement and just his demeanor when he's hosting was something that we thought would fit perfectly with what we're trying to do at our race."
—JESSICA VELO, event experience manager, NASCAR Southeast
To Graifer, being an announcer and an entertainer go hand in hand. He owns about 50 sports jackets and suits, all in bright colors and patterns, each even louder than his deep, rich baritone. He adopted the "Young Professor" stage name, because, he says, no one remembers Matt.
Graifer chose the professional persona because he was once a 25-year-old professor at Keiser University. Now 36, he just began his third year as a social studies and psychology teacher at Matanzas High School. His students call him Professor Graifer. His wife, Shanna, is also a teacher at Matanzas. They have four children, ages 8 to 16.
Graifer won't talk about the money he makes as an emcee, but he says, "As I get better, it's getting better."
"I'm still teaching," he added. "So, that's my real income. But at some point I would love to be able to entertain full-time, host and announce, but I think only until you get to a certain level is that possible."
For the first time, he will be working in a major-league sport.
"This is a chance to work in front of 100,000 people. It's a tremendous platform," he said.
The wild suits Graifer wears, is what clinched the interest of Velo and her team, she said.
"He said, 'Hey, I also have a checkered flag suit. Is that something that you would want me to wear?' And I said, 'Absolutely, of course,'" said Velo. "That's exactly what we're going for, exactly what we want. So yeah, just all of his different outfits and his excitement and just his demeanor when he's hosting was something that we thought would fit perfectly with what we're trying to do at our race."
At the Daytona 500, and in past races at the speedway, drivers were introduced on stage in front of the grandstand by a PA announcer offstage.
"We were just looking to do something new where an announcer could be on stage and interact with the drivers," Velo said.
Graifer has been given information about each driver that NASCAR would like him to include in his intros, but he won't have a script.
"He will be able to add his own flair," Velo said. "And he is going to do some research on the drivers and be able to include some of those extra pieces that he would like to include."
The driver introductions are scheduled for 6:55 p.m. and should take about 15 to 20 minutes, Velo said.
"This is the first time that we've been doing it like this," she said. "We're really excited to have him here."
Graifer reflected on how his announcing career has taken off since he started doing trivia nights locally in Palm Coast.
"I mean, this is the top, right?" he asked. "This is a major league sport, which is one of the things as my goals started developing and I started to see where this can go, working in a major league sport has become one of the goals."
As Graifer got up from the booth, a man who had been sitting in an adjacent booth listening to Graifer's interview with The Observer, handed him a paper napkin on which he wrote on in pen, "Good luck with getting your dreams."
