Kenzie Fowler wasn’t far removed from her playing career at Arizona when she jumped head-first into a media role. Her alma mater needed a knowledgeable voice to add to their live-streaming offerings available through the internet, and she was the choice. Since that time, Fowler has quickly become one of the game’s top rising stars in the broadcast booth, earning rave reviews for her even tones, expert analysis, and general softball knowledge.
A quietly effective pitcher during her days in uniform for the Cats, even during her playing days, Fowler knew that she would wind up on the other side of the press conference at some point in time.
“I always knew that I wanted to do something in media,” Fowler said. “It was just something that sparked my interest, whether it was photography or having a video camera in my hands… I was always the person that was interviewing my teammates on the road, documenting things during the season, stuff like that.”
Following her graduation in 2014, Fowler went on an internship at the PAC-12 Network. A producer at the network approached Fowler about entering the broadcasting world, specifically as a softball analyst, with her broadcast journalism degree a strong mark in her favor. When she needed to get some game action under her belt, the Tucson native didn’t have to go very far to get her feet wet.
“That fall, I called every Arizona game in Tucson on the live stream on the school website, and I did every non-conference game that I could that was also on the stream,” Fowler said. “I put it together, shipped it off to the PAC-12 Network, and said ‘here’s what I’ve done; what do you guys think?’ and they hired me as an analyst that season.”
Even as her media career was just in its infancy, Fowler quickly made a mark on softball viewers and industry veterans alike. Her smooth style was a hit from the beginning, while her still-recent retirement as a player allowed for added insights into both the Wildcats and their frequent opponents.
During the 2015 Tucson regional round of the NCAA tournament, after extreme heat cancelled a radio broadcast for which she was slated to be the color analyst, Fowler jumped on the microphone for a live stream that was originally scheduled to be voiceless, simply providing a camera for the action. Perhaps unintentionally, she pulled a ‘Vin Scully’ for that game, calling play-by-play while adding commentary and analysis.
While Fowler says that her preparation process hasn’t changed much over the years – if anything, she says she was ‘over-prepared for the live streaming games’ at the beginning of her career – her style in the booth has adapted over time: “Sometimes over the years, I’ve realized that the less information that is in front of me, the better, because I can concentrate on the game and watch a fly ball, that kind of thing, instead of always looking at a piece of paper in front of me. That’s probably the biggest thing I’ve picked up as the years have gone on: be in the game, stay with the viewer.”
After two years as an analyst solely for the PAC-12 Network and Arizona, Fowler called the postseason again, but this time, it was a step up: ESPN – who now broadcasts all sixteen softball regionals every year – brought her on board as a postseason analyst. The 2019 season marked Fowler’s third year broadcasting the NCAA tournament, as she called the Seattle regional for the ESPN family of networks.
Like the majority of softball broadcasters, stepping into the booth is just a side job for Fowler at this point in time. By day, she works as a video production assistant in the Arizona athletics department, putting her degree to work in an added way. The position also gives her freedom to travel for broadcast work when needed during the spring.
Though a majority of her broadcasting to this point has been done in the Pacific time zone and with the PAC-12 Network, many around softball believe it is only a matter of time before Fowler makes the leap officially to the top level of ESPN’s group of analysts: “ESPN has a lot of analyst talent in softball,” opined one media expert. “But Fowler is quickly showing herself as one of the best ‘young guns’ in the softball broadcasting world.”
Keep an eye on Fowler as she continues to rise through the softball broadcasting ranks, and hones her craft behind the mic.
