Visually impaired student calls games in color

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Rowan University first year student Allan Wylie helps fans hear in color.

Wylie can't see the game, but he can sense it. He can hear it. He can practically smell it. And he brings all his senses into play as a color commentator for Rowan University and Delaware Blue Coats professional basketball games.

During the Blue Coats season home opener versus the Toronto Raptors 905 Nov. 9, Wylie called the game courtside beside play-by-play announcer Aidan Dougherty. The broadcasters, both active in Rowan’s Sports Communication & Media (Sports CaM) major, are among some 45 Rowan students interning with the Blue Coats this year through an ongoing partnership with the team, the G League affiliate of the Philadelphia 76ers. Of the 45, Wylie and Dougherty are among just four who are calling games.

Viscerally connected to the Blue Coats/Raptors 905 match, Wylie and Dougherty donned headsets and called plays just feet from the action, the squeak of sneakers and swoosh of the ball racing by them as players from both teams, eager for a shot at the NBA, jostled and elbowed their way to the rim.

Speaking moments before the game, Wylie said having never been sighted he’s always relied heavily on his senses of hearing, taste, touch and smell and uses those inputs to tell stories for viewers and listeners.

“My love of sports started when I was a baby,” said Wylie, 18, of Westlake, Ohio. “I’d listen to the Cleveland Indians, now the Guardians. At eight or nine I started following college sports, and then the (Detroit) Lions. My favorite sport has to be football.”

Wylie said his love of sports deepened over time and, as he entered high school, he was hooked. He became a serious student of the game, studying stats and plays and strategies, learning who was the hardest hitter, the fastest runner, the greatest thrower, and soon found he could distill all that information and recall it in the moment, live on the air.

Color commentators like Wylie provide real time analysis and background on plays and players, taking cues on the game’s action from their broadcast partners.

“The unpredictability and drama of sports are part of the draw for me,” Wylie said. “It’s the possibility of a 16-seed beating a number one in March Madness or the Browns going to the Super Bowl, which hasn’t happened yet.”

For Wylie, the small matter of not actually being able to see games is no deterrent to calling them.

“It never was, because there’s so much about sports that you can sense, hear and feel,” Wylie said. “There’s the ball hitting the catcher’s glove. The crowd cheering – or booing.”

How he does it

Wylie, like most good sports analysts, prepares deeply before events he calls by immersing himself in background on the teams, their plays and players.

Using a BrailleNote, a computer designed for people with visual impairments, Wylie researches all manner of information, from current and past stats to where players went to high school. Some analysts, like Eagles play-by-play broadcaster Merrill Reese, study 40, 50 or more hours before each game.

“I study a lot,” Wylie said. “Not as much as Merrill Reese, maybe, but a lot.”

He said the other component for broadcast success is connection with the play-by-play announcer.

“It’s all about the chemistry,” he said, “and when I’m in that moment, it’s awesome.”

Dougherty said he and Wylie (below, right) auditioned for about eight minutes before being paired as a broadcast team, and they meshed immediately.

“Allan’s analysis was short and simple, so there was good contrast,” he said. “When you call a game with someone, chemistry is key. You need to sound like a team.”

As for the experience he, Wylie and the dozens of other Blue Coats interns get by working the games, Dougherty said it’s invaluable.

“At most other universities, students call college games only. The Blue Coats are one step from the NBA, and I feel like we are too,” he said.

From the Midwest to Rowan…

Wylie decided to attend Rowan after participating in a summer broadcasting camp run by Neil Hartman, an Emmy award-winning sportscaster who now serves as senior director of Rowan’s Center for Sports Communication & Social Impact, which is affiliated with the Sports CaM major. Hartman helped negotiate broad internship opportunities with not only the Blue Coats but the Wilmington Blue Rocks, a minor league affiliate of the Washington Nationals baseball team, as well as Cage Fury Fighting Championships, a mixed martial arts feeder for the UFC.

“I was only a sophomore in high school but on the second day of camp, Neil pulled my dad aside and said he wanted me to come to Rowan,” Wylie recalled. “What cinched it for me wasn’t just the Sports CaM program but the support offered through Rowan’s Office of Accessibility Services.”

… to the big screen

Wylie’s ability, magnetism and uncanny sense of place and timing in calling games has landed him in national and local media, including a piece last year in The New York Times’ sports section, The Athletic. CBS Evening News taped a segment about Wylie on campus this month that it expects to run Jan. 3.

Meanwhile, filmmaker Sam Russell of East Side Drive Films is making a feature-length documentary about Wylie.

"We were introduced to Allan as we explored doing a film about young sports broadcasters and were blown away by the depth of his sports knowledge, charisma and skill in the booth,” Russell said. “That Allan is able to do this without the benefit of sight is truly remarkable. Our film will track Allan's journey as he pursues his dream of becoming a professional broadcaster, which he is well on his way to achieving."

Hartman said he speaks with or texts Wylie’s parents a few times per week, keeping them apprised of how their son is doing in and out of the broadcast booth. After driving him to the Blue Coats game, Hartman guided him around the stadium, walking him up dozens of steps so Wylie could give an interview.

On game night, he said, Rowan students work virtually every position in the building including in television and radio production, as print beat reporters, and in game operations, social media, statistics and sales.

“They’re given every chance to excel, and because of this experience our students are getting hired full time,” Hartman said.

As for Wylie, Hartman said, “he’s a young man who was determined to not let his lack of sight deter him from doing what he loves. He’s had no sight from birth, and for him this is normal.”