Breaking barriers: West Bend Power's Frank Zawrazky is first openly autistic play-by-play announcer

WEST BEND, Wis. — At the age of five, Frank Zawrazky can remember sitting in his basement watching the Chicago Wolves trying to memorize the team's roster while also staying up-to-date on the American Hockey League (AHL).

However, that was also one of his earliest memories of listening to hockey play-by-play.

“I've been around hockey for my whole life, despite never playing on a team or holding a stick aside from one time on the ice," Zawrazky shared.

Chasing a career in play-by-play had been Frank’s dream since getting his first dose of it in high school, but the path to calling games for West Bend Power hasn't been the easiest.

“They didn't know what it was," he recalled to his childhood days. "I got my first neural psych when I was two years old. They knew there was something different, not a bad different, just something different.”

It wasn't until fourth grade when Zawrazky found out what that 'something different' after being diagnosed with ASD-1, which is a milder form of autism spectrum disorder.

Zawrazky shared he feels most like himself with a headset on.

“It really allows me to pick up things faster," Zawrazky explained. “The pace of it, especially of hockey, there's no out of bounds. You're always on, and for my energy level, that's what I want to do.”

Washington Capitals TV play-by-play announcer Joe Beninati has served as Zawrazky's mentor for the last four years.

“He has a tremendous ability to recall games, players, moments in time," Beninati shared. “I've listened to his work from the start of the season until where he is now with the team that he's working with and I can hear the changes. I can hear him implementing some of the things that we've been working on, and it's very encouraging.”

“He's a riot," Zawrazky smiled about his friendship with Beninati. "I give him energy, and he tells me when to reel it back, and that's the beauty of this whole thing is really just understanding what the strengths and weaknesses are.”

While Frank does not hide the fact that he's on the spectrum, it wasn’t until this past month he decided to share it with the hockey world.

"The amount of conversations I had at the dinner table with my parents is like, well, why can't I just talk about it now?" Zawrazky shared. "(They're like) there will be a time and a place to talk about it. You don't need to do it as soon as possible. You need to do it at the right time.”

For Zawrazky, his decision to go public was centered around finding a purpose.

“When we interviewed Frank that conversation never happened," West Bend Power owner and president Nick Novaczyk recalled. "It wasn't until a couple of weeks later that Frank finally came up to introduce himself to the team where he pulled me aside and said I've got some ideas. This is what I would like to do, and that's when he pitched the autism awareness night.”

Zawrazky is the first-ever openly autistic play-by-play announcer at both the junior and professional hockey level.

However, as more people learn about his story, he's hoping he won't be the last.

“Hopefully we start a movement," he smiled. "Hopefully we start something where it's like, okay, if you're autistic in hockey or if you're autistic in any sphere of work, you know, it's not a detriment, it's a benefit.”

Zawrazky shared that the team's Autism Awareness Night raised more than $3,000 for the Autism Society of Southeastern Wisconsin.

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