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Proud Parent James Riley Is Voice of Palisades High Football Program

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

Everyone in the Palisades High football community knows him simply as “Facebook James.” He is the voice of the Dolphins and what began as a hobby has become a passion for James Riley, as fans from far and wide tune in each week throughout the season to listen to his insightful commentary and watch their favorite team.    

“I only had about 10 or 15 viewers when I first started but last year  it was up to 35,” says Riley, who is loyal to the small family he has created online. “The Spoonamore’s mom was watching from Thailand and she was like ‘Can you tell Nathan hi for me, so I had to go find him. Lisa Janney still watches  the games and her son graduated a few years ago. We started a Twitter feed and this year we included TikTok. It’s constantly growing.”   

Riley’s two older boys, Syr and Sy both played at Palisades, his youngest son Savyour is a senior captain this year, his daughter is on the cheer squad and he has a nephew on the JV team, so Dolphins blood runs through Riley’s veins. Syr spent four years as an offensive lineman at Washington State and is now playing out his final year of eligibility at Idaho State. Sy, meanwhile, won the Palisadian-Post Cup Award as the outstanding senior athlete at Palisades and is now a junior linebacker at New Mexico.  

   “What really prompted me to get involved is my love for photography,” he says. “When I first joined the Pali Quarterback Club that was  one of my first duties was shooting the JV games—that and grilling hot dogs and burgers. After that we tried to get Snapchat going and create a  presence on Instagram and Twitter.

When my boys were in Pee Wee I shot all the games and upload the pictures to Facebook.”        

For  years Riley has been perfecting his craft across various social media platforms.

“When I first started going live with video on Facebook my hand  would get tired holding the phone  so I invested in a monopod with a phone adapter that allowed me to do the whole game. I’d look up the hot players from both teams on MaxPreps so I could give some background. You don’t want to be overly critical, but at the same time you want to be honest. My sons have earned two Division I scholarships and this is a wonderful way to give back to the program that’s given my family so much. Even if my nephew [freshman wide receiver Solomon LeHenry] hadn’t come to Palisades I’d have had a hard time not doing this. I started in 2018 when Syr was a senior. I used to record Thursday night and upload Friday. Now I live stream from a studio in my garage.”

Riley has expanded his coverage to beyond Friday Night Lights. He reviews previous games, previews upcoming games, has a JV report and a coach’s corner. He was gifted a microphone (with Dolphins logo) for answering a question correctly on the radio.

“It’s incredible how James is able to stream games and give such fair and accurate analysis,” Pali High  Life Experience Coach Joe Spector says. “And he’s so nice to everyone he meets. The kids all love him.”