Ellsworth’s Kirchner is a one-man sports broadcasting crew

By Reagan Hoverman

While some Pierce County area schools have extensive, wellfunded broadcasting operations with dozens of volunteers, other schools – such as Ellsworth – may only have one dedicated person to sports broadcasting and commentary. For Ellsworth, that person is high school junior Lucas Kirchner.

Kirchner is a versatile play-by-play man who has called everything from basketball to football and a whole host of other sports including baseball, softball and tennis. His journey as a commentator began at the beginning of his junior year, the fall of 2021. During Kirchner’s sophomore year, a teacher, Señor Tyler LaRose, was doing the commentary full-time by himself. Kirchner joined midway through the football season and began his young broadcasting career.

When Kirchner became a junior, he and LaRose were expected to continue calling games. However, the departure of LaRose from the Ellsworth School District meant that Kirchner became a one-man band, taking over the broadcasting operation full-time as a solo act. He spoke about what it was like to be broadcasting alone.

“It was an interesting transition because there was always somebody you had to think of as well,” Kirchner said. “Then when you’re on your own you have to fill the silence. Just finding something to talk about during the game. I didn’t have too much trouble adjusting. It’s almost nicer because you don’t have to stop talking for anybody, but I liked having two people.”

Kirchner’s transition from initial color analyst to full-time solo play-by-play man was quick and unexpected. He spoke about how he got into the Ellsworth broadcast booth and what his journey has been like so far.

“My mom was watching one of the football broadcasts and she said it sounded like he needed someone to talk to,” Kirchner said. “I thought, well, I’ve always been a good speaker, maybe I should ask about it. So, I emailed (LaRose), I talked to the principal, and then I went in for a game.”

After Kircher’s first appearance on the broadcast, it went well, so he did color commentary for a couple more games. After those went well, LaRose asked Kirchner if he would take over playby- play duties so that he could do the color commentary analysis. They switched the roles for the rest of the basketball season and then baseball and softball he did alone.

Kirchner has not only survived in his role as a solo play-byplay man, but he has also flourished and is receiving recognition from the staff at the school, his peers, and even people in the community who want to give thanks for the commentary during the sports seasons. Kirchner spoke about what it’s like to be known for his broadcasting in a small town.

“People kind of know me for doing this, and that’s pretty cool,” Kirchner said. “Some of my friends like to call me the voice of Ellsworth sports. People find out through Facebook.

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Some adults talk to me about it and they say, ‘You’re doing a great job.’ Sometimes people come up here to talk about it. It’s cool to be known for doing it, especially because all of the students know about it.”

While Kirchner has only been broadcasting for approximately a year, he’s already called some of the greatest games in Ellsworth history. Many of which were Ellsworth football games from this most recent season, when the team went undefeated until its loss in the state championship game down in Madison against Catholic Memorial on Thursday, Nov. 18, at Camp Randall.

While Kirchner didn’t get to call the state championship game, he did get to provide updates on the We Are Ellsworth broadcasting page at the end of each quarter to keep the audience updated. He spoke about how fun it was calling games for that special football team.

“The most fun one was probably the sectional final against Freedom at Marshfield,” Kirchner said. “I got my own section in the broadcast booth and that was really nice.”

Broadcasting is a way for Kirchner to share his love of sports and also his passion for the games. He noted that because the microphone he uses is so small, sometimes he has to contain his excitement, otherwise he will get too excited and loud and basically blow out the microphone. He spoke about trying to walk that line.

“My biggest issue is that it cuts out and I can’t yell because of it,” Kirchner said. “That’s what I love to do the most. I love to get really excited.”

All of his broadcasts are put on the Facebook page known as We Are Ellsworth. The We Are Ellsworth page is part of a larger company known as the We Are Network, a service that began in Grantsburg and quickly expanded to other area schools including Luck, Saint Croix Falls, Ellsworth and others.

The goal of the service is to – at a bare minimum – provide live-streamed video footage to anyone with an internet connection and a desire to watch high school sports for one of the schools involved with the network. While some schools only have video, others, such as Ellsworth, have commentary thanks to dedicated sports fans like Kirchner.

Kirchner’s broadcasting career began as something that could have been a one-game experiment. Now, it’s not only something he does for fun, it’s a career path that he wants to pursue once he graduates from Ellsworth in the spring of 2023. He spoke about how this opportunity changed his life.

“I love doing it and I want to keep doing it for a career,” Kirchner said. “I’ve gotten comments from people saying they would rather listen to me than Joe Buck,” Kirchner said while laughing. “I want to do the same stuff as Joe Buck. I want to do the World Series. All of that would be awesome.”

Kirchner does all of his commentary work on a volunteer basis. He doesn’t get paid for anything and even accumulates volunteer hours for donating his time on most weeknights. According to Kirchner, he has over 100 volunteer hours logged from commentating alone, and he still has the rest of the winter sports season, the spring sports season, and his entire senior year.

He’s starting a young broadcasting career by providing a service to people all around the state who want to consume Ellsworth athletic content. With enough experience and his small-town roots, who knows, maybe Kirchner will be calling a World Series sometime in the next 20 years, just like Joe Buck.

Ellsworth junior broadcaster Lucas Kirchner is lifted by his junior classmates on the football team after they won the sectional final in Marshfield against Freedom. Kirchner was on the call for that game, which was an Ellsworth blowout victory.Photo courtesy of Lucas Kirchner