Kenzie Fowler never exactly had the best of luck in her softball career.
There was the season-ending thoracic outlet syndrome injury in 2014, back surgery in 2013 and a concussion in 2011 that left Fowler, a Canyon del Oro High grad, never the same.
Her broadcasting career is off to a much better start, it seems.
Fowler graduated from the UA with a degree in broadcast journalism, interned with the Pac-12 Networks, worked for Arizona’s video department and recently was brought on as a game analyst for the Pac-12’s softball coverage.
“I got hired in a couple days,” Fowler said, “and it was the craziest couple of days of my life. It was so fast.”
Fowler will make her debut this weekend in Berkeley, California, for the Wildcats’ series against California, starting Friday at 3 p.m.
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The process for Fowler began with her Pac-12 internship, where she worked in the production department, did studio show work and created highlights for football.
When that was over, she was hired by the UA video department, and soon thereafter, Fowler was offered the chance to be an analyst on Arizona’s softball game live streams, which she did for most of nonconference play at Hillenbrand.
“I didn’t really know if I wanted to do it,” Fowler said. “I just decided I’d try it.”
Doing a live stream, as opposed to a live television broadcast, helped.
“That’s not a lot of pressure,” she said, “and I know the game very well. I got really good feedback on Twitter, and everybody was hitting me up and saying ‘you’re really good.’”
“My mom always says I’m good,” Fowler added, laughing. “But I don’t believe her. People were telling me I’m good, and I didn’t know how to take it, but then I figured why not, I’ll give it a go.”
Fowler certainly has the knowledge, and experience with the game, to make it work.
At CDO, Fowler was a superstar, winning three Gatorade Arizona softball player of the year awards.
At Arizona, she opened her career more than living up to that hype, as she posted one of the best single seasons in UA history as a freshman, with a 38-9 record, 1.53 ERA and 371 strikeouts in 284.1 innings. The 38 wins were the fourth-most in UA history, the strikeouts seventh, and Arizona made it to the national championship game.
Fowler was never the same after that due to injuries, but she say she feels good now.
Fowler estimates that after this weekend she’ll call at least 12 games this season — all Arizona games, including the home series against ASU, Washington and Oregon, and on the road at Oregon State. The Star spoke with Fowler on Tuesday about her new gig.
Did she initially even want to be an analyst? “I’d always kind of, in the back of my head when I was deciding my major and doing the broadcast journalism thing, I thought I wanted originally to be on the camera like everybody does, the glamour thing, and then I went to Pac-12 and I was on the other side doing studio show work, creating highlights for football, and that was such a thrill. It totally made me realign my whole life, that this is what I can do, behind the scenes, feature stuff, and I saw how hard the on-air talent had to work and I was like ‘Oh man, that’s pretty hard, I don’t know if I can do that,’ then I came back here and kind of found an interesting avenue for myself because I never thought about being an analyst. I always thought about sideline reporter or anchor or whatever, I never thought about being a softball analyst.”
Is she nervous for her debut? “Totally. I’m so nervous, but it’s exciting. I’m not scared at all, I’m excited. I know the game inside and out and I don’t have to study as hard as maybe others who have been out for a long time, since I just graduated. That’s a big advantage for me right now. It’s fun homework. I go home and watch softball.”
How similar is this to her first-ever start at Arizona? “That’s good. I’d say it’s very similar, because you’re going to be on a stage, a platform and you know people are going to be looking at you, but I’m used to that. I’m used to being the pitcher, you’re the person in the circle, everyone is staring at you, and that doesn’t phase me at all. I have friends who are really good at what they do, but they don’t like the limelight, and I guess that just comes with growing up as that type of position, a pitcher.”
IS UA coach Mike Candrea getting tired of seeing her? (Laughs) “He’s like ‘I can’t get rid of you.’ He’s very cool. He always knew I was interested in sports media and was always giving me a hard time for following him around, but he gives me a good time because he’s a source for me. I’m sitting in McKale right now, and I can go into his office and talk about the weekend, and that’s a big advantage.”
