Originally posted on March 6, 2019...
Sloane Martin made history on Wednesday, and that's something that has been happening in recent days. Last Saturday, Sunday and Monday, Marney Gellner became the first female to handle play-by-play duties for Minnesota Twins broadcasts, calling spring training games from Florida for Fox Sports North and WCCO Radio.
In downtown St. Paul on Wednesday, Martin made her mark as the first women to do television play-by-play at the MHSL boys state hockey tournament. She worked the first two Class 1A games with Mark Parrish, the analyst for all the 1A games.It has been a little bit of a whirlwind for Martin (pictured). Last weekend she was in Indianapolis calling a women's basketball game between Indiana and Purdue on the Big Ten Network.
"As soon as the game was over, I drove to the airport and was pulling out my hockey stuff and looking at my notecards," she said after Wednesday's broadcast had ended.
Now a reporter with WCCO Radio, Martin is a Los Angeles native who played basketball at Division III St. John Fisher College in Rochester, N.Y. She has previously called girls state hockey tournament games as well as several Prep Bowl football games.
"I always say that I'm so happy to have had an introduction to Minnesota hockey with the girls because that exposed me to the kind of talent that's in this state, the kind of skill that we see," she said. "I felt like I was able to easily slide into things and it wasn't any kind of adjustment because of my three years doing the girls tournament.
"It's open notes but it's a test. But it's not just a test, it's a big one. It's like the bar exam or the LSAT (Law School Admission Test) or something. I really take a lot of pride in being as prepared as possible. Of course it's knowing players, but I think being a reporter myself I'm very big on narratives and storylines and background stories."
During the telecast Martin was informative, excited and stayed on top of the action. She takes pride in being the first woman to call boys state tournament games, and knows the impact this can have.
"It's been very exciting. And to me the most important thing about this is that representation is important. When you have women who are visible in these roles, it's just going to normalize someone occupying this position. And that's the goal with all of this.
"It's not that I would want any attention for myself, and I'm sure (Marney) would think the same way. It's letting more people see this, so it just becomes something that we accept and know is going to happen in the future."
--MSHSL media specialist John Millea has been the leading voice of Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Twitter @MSHSLjohn and listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts. Contact John at jmillea@mshsl.org
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