It was a long way from the action on the hardwood to the last seat on the Ernestown Eagles bench, where a diminutive-but-dedicated sub once spent much of his final high school senior boys basketball season.

Yet Adnan Virk never bickered or griped about a lack of playing time. He simply made the most of his spare-part status and cheered on future all-Canadian Rob Smart and the other Eagle starters, hollering, yelling, inspiriting almost non-stop.

"I learned to project," cracked the sliver-picker-turned-popular-Toronto-sportscaster. "It was a long way to the end of that bench."

Unwittingly, Virk had begun to polish and refine a vital tool of the sportscasting trade, namely his voice.

As for that career, less than a decade after he graduated from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute, Virk and his stentorian pipes, smooth delivery and easy manner have joined the Big Kahuna of television sports.

As of May 1, he's on the payroll of the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network.

"I've gone from ESS to ESPN," quipped the erstwhile Eagle reser

ve, who was also head boy and class valedictorian in his graduating year at Ernestown.

Virk and his wife, Eamon, and the couple's two-year-old son, Yusuf, will relocate to Bristol, Conn., a small city hard by Hartford and home to ESPN broadcast studios.

"It's been a good process," Virk, 32, said of a three-year strategem that eventually paid off in an anchor position on ESPN News. ( "Don't ask me why, but I think people in Kingston only get the channel with an illega

l dish," he said, noting the irony in the global broadcaster not being available, well, everywhere.)

The process began in ernest in 2007 with Virk hiring an agent, who went to work and soon secured an interview at ESPN for his client.

Virk hopped in his car and 10 hours later had his first peek at Bristol, whose previous claim to fame was the manufacturing of those innovative spring-driven doorbells and the Mum Festival, an annual salute to the chrysanthemum.

Though the interview went well, the company, one of many beneath the Disney umbrella -- was under a strict hiring freeze.

Undaunted, Virk came away encouraged, satisfied that he'd made inroads. "The ESPN guy told my agent afterwards, 'If I had an opening, I'd hire him tomorrow.' "

He returned to Toronto and to his duties at The Score Television Network, where he'd worked since 2003. He made a follow-up call to ESPN last June, but still nothing.

He left The Score and accepted a job with Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment, hosting hockey on Leafs TV and round-ball on Raptors TV.

A couple of months ago, ESPN had two on-air positions open up. Virk estimated that between 50 and 100 hopefuls applied, from which six were short-listed and flown to Connecticut for one final audition and look-over.

Virk, a practising Muslim whose parents hail from the Punjab capital of Lahore in Pakistan, was hired along with a Washington woman. He may be the network's first Muslim anchor. "If I am the first," he offered, "it'll be neat being a trailblazer."

"ESPN is like some monolithic enterprise, so massive and situated right in a little town about the size of Kingston," he added of his new employer, Bristol's largest taxpayer.

"Because I was from Canada, I didn't want to be seen as just a hockey guy," said Virk, who was sure to provide a diverse demo tape of past assignments in the staples of American sport: baseball, football, basketball, golf. "I shamefully dropped names of events," he confessed, then did it again: the penultimate game at Yankee Stadium, the NCAA Final Four, the Masters.

"But you do know hockey, right?" the interviewer verified.

Born in Toronto, Virk spent his formative years in the Limestone quarter, arriving here with his family in 1983. He attended Cataraqui Public School and Ernestown secondary, the latter after the Virks moved to the tiny hamlet of Morven, where the dad, Zakaria, owned and operated Zak's Variety Store for a half-dozen years.

"I taught him and coached him, and let me say that you couldn't find a nicer kid," recalled longtime ESS teacher Tom Turnbull.

"Adnan played with Rob Smart on that Eagles team that went to OFSAA," he added on the seldom- used player whose passion for the sport exceeded his ability.

"He never missed practice, never whined, never complained about anything. And if he did get into a game, that was a bonus for him," said Turnbull.

"He just loved being part of the team," he added. "He has to be one of the nicest, most positive persons you could have on a team, and it's all genuine."

Turnbull finished his recollection with a good-natured dig at his sparingly used guard.

"I'll say this for Adnan, he had the greatest voice from way down there at the end of that bench. No one could touch it."

Contrary to popular opinion, Virk's two-year contract (plus a two-year option) won't land him on Easy Street. Not yet, anyway.

"It's an improvement, a nice boost, but it's not millions like some guys," he said of his six-figure stipend.

"If you do well and they like you, it's a little different with the second contract. Things can change, money-wise."

Either way, it's a win-win setup for the youngest of Zakaria and Taherah's two sons.

"Let's face it, ESPN is the Mecca of sports television, the worldwide leader," said Virk, only the fifth Canadian sportscaster hired by the conglomerate.

"This is an opportunity that comes along maybe every 10 years. I'm going to make the most of it."

Which is exactly what he did 14 years ago during that swan-song season with the Eagles, way down there at the end of the bench.