Blind sportscaster calls Delaware Blue Coats games: “I love everything about sports”
By Nikki DeMentri, Bill Seiders
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PENNSYLVANIA (KYW) — Color commentators are tasked with painting a picture during sporting events, but imagine doing that without sight.
In South Philadelphia, moments before tipoff for the 76ers game against the Orlando Magic Wednesday at the Wells Fargo Center, Allan Wylie was taking it all in. At this game, the Rowan University student gets to witness one of the best in action.
We’re talking about Tom McGinnis — the tenured radio voice of the Sixers.
“It’s just like any of us that grew up wanting to be a sportscaster – you gotta find a way,” McGinnis said, standing next to Wylie.
Doing this — calling games — Wylie knows a thing or two about it. He’s a color commentator himself.
“As somebody who describes games, you’re trying to do it so someone who can’t see can feel in their own mind, envision what it is,” McGinnis said.
And that is exactly what Wylie already does: The 18-year-old is blind.
“Yeah, I’m born blind, raised blind, but have been told ever since Day 1 from my parents, just because you’re blind doesn’t mean you’re not like a normal person,” Wylie said.
His love for sports started young. His training ground began with his dad.
“I love everything about sports,” Wylie said. “He (his dad) would take me to different games and I’d start asking questions about plays and I’d ask him, you know, in football, what does the pocket look like? And he’d showed me, it looks like a ‘U.'”
“I figured this out when I was watching college football and I was listening to the broadcasters. I’m like, you know, I may not be able to do play-by-play, but I can do color commentary,” Wylie replied.
Painting a picture in his head.
“Really anything I can get my hands on, I watch,” Wylie said. The Great Lakes native hones in on the crowd, the players, refs — and of course who’s next to him in the booth doing play-by-play.
“So if you just listen a lot, and you write your notes down before the game, and you go over them before the game, you should be OK,” Wylie said.
This season, the college freshman is on the mic for some Delaware Blue Coats games.
“Everyone was accepting of me. They knew that I could do the job that basically anybody else can do, the only difference is I can’t see,” Wylie said.
Add the experience color commentating for the NBA G League team to a growing resume. He’s been in the booth already — as a high schooler — for the Lake County Captains — and the Cleveland Charge, too.
His advice — “No matter what, if you have a passion for something and you love something, work hard enough, you’re gonna get it.”
“I still don’t think I’m that special. I’m just another college kid trying to make a living doing something, doing something he loves,” Wylie said.
That love is easy to see on his South Jersey campus and beyond.
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