The voice of the Moose
Advertisement
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/07/2015 (3940 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Evan Duncan’s commentary skills have come a long way since he ‘announced’ ball hockey games on the streets in Charleswood.
The 32-year-old grew up loving hockey but didn’t play the sport. He and his sister were raised by a single parent, his mom, and “there just weren’t enough funds to go around as obviously hockey is an expensive sport,” he said.
Determined to stay involved with the game, Duncan pursued a different avenue.
“I picked up announcing as a kid I guess, like any kid growing up, especially as a guy playing ball hockey out on the street, doing my little play by play as we go, I always liked that,” Duncan said.
“Then in high school I started with my high school hockey team doing some announcing at Eric Coy Arena for the Oak Park Raiders.”
He worked for 12 years as the public address announcer for the Charleswood Hawks and further honed his skills for a number of years announcing at various hockey events around the city.
Moving from the Eric Coy Arena to the MTS Centre, Duncan soon became the backup p.a. announcer for the Winnipeg Jets when the NHL team returned.
“I actually announced one of the Jets games a few years back,” Duncan said, referring to a game against the Philadelphia Flyers on April 6 in 2013. “It was the experience of a lifetime.”
Duncan has been reading announcements on a regular basis at Jets games since and also works full-time as a juvenile councillor at the Manitoba Youth Centre.
He listed a few of his favourite announcers off the top of his head to be Bob Cole from Hockey Night in Canada, Curt Keilback from the Jets back in the day and then, later, Kelly Moore. When he heard the Manitoba Moose were coming back to town, he said he was the first one to go knock on their door to try and receive that opportunity. In May of this year, Duncan was told he’d been chosen to become the p.a. announcer for the Manitoba Moose.
He said the Moose coming back will provide the opportunity to take the whole family to a game and give young kids who would love to see a Jets game a chance to watch some future Jets playing with the Moose.
“On a personal note, to be involved with a professional sports team and be able to say that I’m the voice of the Manitoba Moose is like a dream come true,” Duncan said.
He’s confident he’ll be able to bring a lot of enthusiasm to the game as he loves to get the crowd involved and “whoop it up for the fans.”
“I’m very, very excited, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous whatsoever too, because obviously they are going to be playing in front of 8,000 people a night and there will be opportunities where it is going to be a full house,” Duncan said.
While Duncan said the position is amazing in part because he gets to go to work and watch hockey, this job in particular is extra special for him. His grandmother took him to many and more sporting events over the years, and together the two took in more than a dozen Moose games a season for close to a decade.
Duncan is set to debut at the Moose’s home opener on Oct. 15 at MTS Centre.