Sportsnet challenged its team to rethink how it promoted hockey. Stichiz stepped forward with her ‘fresh, inclusive voice’

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This article was published 02/05/2022 (1618 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Stichiz can trace one of her first heartbreaks back to hockey.

The Ottawa-born artist moved to Florida as a little girl, bringing her love of Canada’s game with her. Hockey and wrestling were her main sporting interests back then, events she would watch with her dad.

She was a Florida Panthers fan when the team reached the Stanley Cup final in 1996, only to be swept by the Colorado Avalanche. With the television on the fritz at home, Stichiz watched the final game at a friend’s house. She remembers racing home afterward, distraught, into her father’s arms.

“I think I was about like eight years old and I remember it like it was yesterday,” Stichiz said last month over the phone from Miami.

Stichiz decided then she wasn’t getting attached to a team again. But the hip-hop artist and radio personality returned to her sporting roots last fall, when she debuted as the NHL promotional voice on Sportsnet. She is the first woman to have that role.

“I never was able to go to a hockey game with my dad, so when this opportunity came about … it was like a full circle moment, that it came from Canada and it was hockey,” Stichiz said. “You can’t make that stuff up. You can’t.”

Hilding Gnanapragasam, director of Sports Creative at Sportsnet, has been thinking about changing the network’s voice for a while and last fall, he challenged his team to rethink the way it promoted hockey, with an eye toward a new and younger audience.

Gnanapragasam revisited hundreds of demo reels he had listened to in the past, and reached out to colleagues for recommendations. He was looking for something less stoic and more fun, more energetic. People on Sportsnet’s radio side recommended Stichiz and he knew he had something when he listened to her tape.

“She doesn’t sound like she’s reading a script,” Gnanapragasam said. “She sounds like she is just living it. It really brings new life because it just didn’t sounds like the way we’ve done promos before.”

Focus groups thought so, too. Sportsnet said its research shows fans connect with Stichiz’s “friendly, inviting, fresh and inclusive voice,” and seven out of 10 viewers said they would like to see her featured in more promos. They got their wish as Stichiz was later heard on MLB and NBA promos.

Stichiz’s agent had suggested she audition. Her pastor had warned her to keep an eye out for something from Canada coming her way. And when the chance came, she was all in. That’s always her approach.

Stichiz thinks of her voice like a chameleon. It can be bold and confident or calm and soothing. But it is always distinctive.

Gnanapragasam said he was looking for the best voice for the job when he hired Stichiz, rather than a female voice specifically. But Stichiz, born to Haitian parents, allows the network to further diversify and be more inclusive.

“I want it to be known like, yes, we can step into these arenas and we can show up and bring our A-game and be just as good,” Stichiz said. “For me, coming from a Canadian-Haitian background, a Black woman, I can come into this space and not just show up but go out and get the job done and, hopefully, be above and beyond.”

Her prayer is that other women also step into such roles.

“I want us to get out of the mind frame that, if it is a woman, our expectation is not as high.”

Stichiz’s expectations are high, and she’s preparing for more.

“I’ve got my tea and my honey ready,” she said. “So let’s go.”

Laura Armstrong is a Star sports reporter based in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: @lauraarmy