Visually impaired senior does color commentary

By Tessa DiTirro

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    EASTLAKE, Ohio (WEWS) — A Westlake senior knows exactly what he wants to do after high school. His goal is to be a sports broadcaster, specifically a color commentator. The way he’s honed his craft is quite surprising. It’s not by seeing but by listening.

Allan Wylie feels right at home wearing a microphone in a broadcast booth inside a sports stadium.

“That’s already the fourth hit today for Lake County. It is and just another great ground ball there. You think of baseball now, it’s all the home runs and exciting plays, but those kinds of hits are just as important,” Wylie said.

On a gorgeous afternoon for baseball, the 17-year-old got to sit in the broadcast booth with the crew and do color commentary.

“Joe Lampe, nice situational hitting, I thought for a minute that had a chance to get out of here, but good heads up play by Lansing getting that ball on the warning track,” Wylie said.

Allan can’t actually see what’s happening; he’s visually impaired and has been since birth.

“I may have a disability, but I can still do a lot of things,” Wylie said.

Listening is the way Allan experiences sports.

“I’ve listened to sports, baseball with Tom Hamilton, basketball when Joe Tate was calling, I was like 2 or 3 years old, and I ended up staying up later than my parents would’ve liked me to, but you know, whatever,” Wylie said.

Wylie said, “In a way, I could see it without having to really see it with my eyes because they were painting a picture of it for me.”

The sports enthusiast does his homework. He knows a lot about a lot of sports; he studied up on the Captains roster and the Lansing Lugnuts too.

“The top of the order in general, in my opinion, is the scorers you want to have up, you’ve got Fox, you’ve got DeLauter, you’ve got Watson,” said Wylie.

“Allan, his insight has been spot on this whole time. My goal is to try to describe everything as in-depth as best as I possibly can so he gets a very good understanding of what’s going on. Then he’s been filling in the blanks perfectly,” said Logan Potosky, Lake County Captains play-by-play announcer.

“He’s been really crisp at the mound and, in my opinion, in line to earn his second win of the season,” said Wylie.

Whether the teenager knows it or not, he’s blazing a trail to make sure everyone can feel the joy of the game.

“Part of why I do this is to show kids, or anybody with disabilities, or anyone low on their luck, is that you can do anything you want to do,” said Wylie.

Wylie was the team’s good luck charm; the Captains won 13-1 against the Lugnuts.​ Wylie also does color commentary for the Westlake football team and has also done color commentary for the Cleveland Charge.

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