Frank Zawrazky, hockey’s first openly autistic broadcaster, is much more than a label

Ever tried calling a hockey game?

Every sport presents unique challenges. If you’re doing play-by-play for baseball, you need to fill long gaps with interesting anecdotes. A soccer announcer must let the play breathe and allow the crowd noise to provide the ambience as the players traverse long distances. But hockey? It requires a special gift of the gab. You have to process the fastest team sport in the world with concision. Not only must you know players by their names and numbers, but you have to follow lineup alterations in real time as teams change on the fly. You have to mirror the energy of a constantly frenzied game while still providing your audience with a sense of highs, lows and crescendos.

It’s tough enough for anyone to call a hockey game on any given night, agreed?

Okay. Now try doing it for a game between two teams you know nothing about, playing for a championship, with six hours notice to learn everything you can about them.

That’s what Frank Zawrazky was tasked with doing this past March at final of the Fraser Cup championship, a tournament crowning the winner of the North American 3 Hockey League, a tier-3 junior league.

Correction: that’s what Zawrazky volunteered to do.

The emerging prodigy in Midwestern hockey broadcasting, 22, was on hand for the event that week as the voice of the West Bend Power, a tier-3 team based in Wisconsin. He’d caught wind that a couple teams competing in the tournament didn’t have their own broadcasters, so he made it known he wanted to step in if any of those teams made a run to the Final and West Bend didn’t. Sure enough, that’s exactly what happened, and with his own team knocked out, Zawrazky was asked to call the Final between the Helena Bighorns and the Northeast Generals. He had six hours to sponge up everything he could learn about both teams. He read. He made phone calls. He was determined to put on a show in the final.

If it feels like what Zawrazky did that day isn’t something most people could, that’s because it’s true. He was uniquely equipped to execute his assignment. When Zawrazky was 10 years old, he was diagnosed with ASD-1, a high-functioning form of autism spectrum disorder. Someone with ASD-1 can be extremely independent and articulate, possessing tremendous attention to detail and persistence, but may communicate and read body language differently than others. Zawrazky is the first openly autistic broadcaster in hockey history at the pro and junior levels. And the way his brain processes information was practically tailored for his job.

“It’s a really, really unique ability – I call it hyper focus,” he told Daily Faceoff. “You put the horse blinders on. You are just dialed in. I could sit at a computer, and I’ve done this for three, four, five hours doing my research on our team, the opposition, the opposition’s coaches, the scores. What’s their power play like? NHL comparisons to the power play. It’s that ability to memorize things faster.”

At 20, Zawrazky set the record as the youngest broadcaster in USHL history when he was covering the Muskegon Lumberjacks’ games during the 2022-23 season. This summer, he officially signed on as the voice and director of media for the Omaha Lancers, a franchise he feels is among the league’s most storied. He’s a rising star in the business. But his broadcasting skill set, as perfectly suited as it is to the sport, did not make him an overnight success. Being autistic did not magically gift him with the ability to excel in broadcasting. Quite the opposite: it helped him develop a dogged work ethic and spend years building his skill set via exhaustive research and collaboration.

“As I was taught [growing up] as a wrestler and a martial artist: ‘Frank, you may not be the most skilled martial artist, you may not be the best wrestler, but you want to outwork everyone and everything around you,” he said. “And I think the work ethic is what drives me.”

“Frank is a very dedicated and passionate person who brings a positive attitude with him every single day,” said his agent, Matt Oates. “He is always trying to get better and learn his craft. He cares about people and wants success for everyone.”

It’s clear Zawrazky pretty much oozes hockey from his pores and is devoting his life to it. But how did the sport find him?

As he describes it, he grew up as a Midwestern kid “right in the sweet spot” of Chicago hockey. The Blackhawks dynasty was in its peak years, taking home Stanley Cups in 2010, 2013 and 2015. The AHL Chicago Wolves snatched the Calder Cup in 2022, too. Zawrazky didn’t play the sport as a kid, but many of his closest friends played prep hockey, and he frequently attended their games. He was constantly exposed to hockey and grew interested in understanding the play-by-play elements. That’s when he met a Chicago broadcasting institution and key career inspiration: Pat Foley, voice of the Blackhawks and briefly the Wolves from the early 1980s through 2022.

Zawrazky has been lucky enough to meet other star broadcasters along the way. He quotes the expression, “There are 6:00 p.m. friends and 2:00 a.m. friends,” and the 2:00 a.m. friends Zawrazky singles out as part of his “pillars of wisdom”: freshly retired longtime Bruins play-by-play man Jack Edwards and Washington Capitals stalwart Joe Beninati. Over the years, they’ve been Zawrazky’s sounding board whenever he needs help.

“Frank is a ball of energy and he reminds me of Michael Burry, who was on the spectrum and bet correctly on The Big Short in the subprime mortgage scandal,” Edwards said.” Dozens doubted Burry. He is a billionaire now.”

“The more I learn about Frank, the more I realize he has a very solid work ethic,” Beninati said. “He is a tireless researcher with a special way of absorbing information that will serve him well working in the USHL. Frank is very passionate about hockey and eager to learn more about its history and share that with his listeners and viewers.”

As an example of the pointers the ‘Pillars of Wisdom’ offer Zawrazky: Beninati recommended a book that would help him with the vocal intricacies of calling a game.

“It’s the jaw loosening, the tongue pulling, all these vocal exercises,” said Zawrazky, whose voice even over the phone is already booming presence at his age. “I started doing some of the more intense ones a few weeks ago. And I can already tell that the projection, the cadence, the technique, the energy, I’m able to regulate that more. Because as Joe B says, ‘Frank, you can’t have your hair on fire every minute of every game.’ ”

Zawrazky doesn’t just metaphorically carry everything he absorbs from the greats in his mind. He literally carries around what he learns. Every time he spends a game studying a broadcaster, be it one of his Pillars or another star of the sport like Kenny Albert or Gord Miller, Zawrazky writes down what he learns. He totes what he calls his “encyclopedia” everywhere he goes, keeping track of what he observes in hopes of applying it to his craft.

Not every up-and-comer possesses this level of never-quit determination and commitment to learning. Zawrazky understands that. Growing up with his version of autism, he lived a “normal” life, attended regular classes and made friends just fine, but he knew he was different. His friends would chatter excitedly about Call of Duty, he recalls, but “I would be talking with my teacher and other adults about the Arab Spring [government protest] in Tunisia.” His parents were always supportive of him. They were as eager as he was to understand how autism spectrum disorder works, which of his nonverbal cues were different, the pace at which his emotional maturity developed and more. They felt there would be a time and place to come out about his condition, but they didn’t feel he needed to rush that moment. He knew he could someday be a beacon for the autistic community but also didn’t want that to be his lone identifying trait.

“People have their own preconceived notions of what autism is, and I came out to shatter that mold, but I don’t want to just be labeled ‘the autistic broadcaster,’ ” he said. “I want to be a broadcaster who’s damn good at what he does and also is on the spectrum, who can show people that anything is possible.”

For Zawrazky, life is now about walking that tightrope. On one hand, he’s the Southeast Wisconsin Autism Society Inspiration Award winner, recognized for his worth with the West Bend Power, a trailblazer in his business for people on the spectrum. He understands the responsibility that comes with being a role model.

But he’s also just Frank, a passionate hockey fan and someone who dreams of reaching the highest level of his business someday.

“My goal is the NHL, my goal has always been the NHL,” he said. “But Jack and Joe told me things of a similar vein and I’ll paraphrase: ‘Frank, I’m glad you consider me a role model, but I don’t want you to be Joe. I don’t want you to be the next Bob Costas or Mike Tirico or Al Michaels. I want you to be Frank, and I want you to be the best Frank you can be. That really struck a chord with me.”

It’s a safe bet that, based on his rocket-powered trajectory, the hockey community will be getting to hear and know Frank, unequivocally himself, more and more in the years to come.

_____

Frank Zawrazky, hockey’s first openly autistic broadcaster, is much more than a label

Recently by Matt Larkin