The award is given to the best undergraduate sportscaster in the nation. Students sent in tapes of broadcasts, talk shows or play-by-plays of themselves while working for their university.

The Sportscasters Talent Agency of America (STAA) ranked the 20 best collegiate broadcasters.

The top five are considered All-Americans, and the number-one-ranked sportscaster receives the award, according to the STAA website.

Twork was up against sportscasters from major universities like Rutgers and Syracuse.
He has also received other statewide awards but said the Jim Nantz Award is the one he is most proud of because it is a national-level award.

Twork said the award was never his goal.

"I don't think I really was ever thinking about the award as much as I was trying to be the best broadcaster I could be," he said.

Twork decided he wanted to become a sportscaster at an early age after he realized he was not as athletically talented as others. Since he loved television and radio, he decided that sportscasting was a way to link his love of sports and broadcasting.

Twork said his work as a sportscaster started when he was a sophomore in high school.

He created a website that allowed him to broadcast his coverage of basketball and football games.

At Eastern, Twork worked as a sideline reporter for football and as a broadcaster for baseball and women's basketball.

Twork is now studying as a graduate student at Illinois State University and will get to broadcast baseball and a few other sports.

"I'm also going to get to do some volleyball games. From what I understand, it's going to be a fun game to call because it's so fast paced," he said.