Fiona Quinn wasn’t really thinking about becoming a broadcaster. Not until the last year and a half.

She’s long had a passion for the statistical part of sports, and that has been a big part of her responsibilities in the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum press box since she began interning for the ECHL’s Fort Wayne Komets a few years ago. 

In fact, she’s become a bit beloved by visiting broadcasters because she’ll stroll over to them before games and ask if they need her to track any stats for them, such as faceoff wins and losses, hits or shot blocks – information they’re not accustomed to getting in other arenas.

Some of those broadcasters may have been cursing Quinn’s name Saturday, though, upon learning she was behind the microphone doing the play-by-play coverage for the Komets and got to call something some of them never have – a goalie fight – in her first professional game.

And she’s only 19.

“Insane. Insane,” she said, while trying to unwind from the adrenaline of calling a 5-2 road loss to the Indy Fuel, which featured a fight between Komets rookie goalie Brett Brochu and the Fuel’s Zach Driscoll, in front of a sellout crowd of 6,436 at Indiana Farmers Coliseum. “I was just praying that I did (that fight) justice. So, so incredibly grateful that it happened to me. And Brochu had a good go of it.”

Quinn is a lifelong fan of the Komets – her favorite players all-time are forwards Alan Lyszczarczyk and Artur Tyanulin, along with goalies Nick Boucher and Robbie Irons – so she already was over the moon being able to intern for the team. Her responsibilities included fetching players and coaches for media interviews.

Quinn never played hockey, but she had a knack for stats, perhaps from her time tracking them for the Wayne High School girls soccer games, and she quickly became valuable for broadcaster Shane Albahrani. 

She then started trying her hand at broadcasting in 2022, doing color commentary for high school hockey with WOWO radio broadcaster Josh Williams handling the play-by-play duties.

This season, after Quinn spent the summer helping the Komets tidy up their record books, Albahrani began having Quinn offer insight on the WOWO and FloHockey feeds, along with color commentator Fred Bean. She also began doing play-by-play coverage of high school hockey, all while beginning her freshman year in the sports management program at the Indiana Institute of Technology in Fort Wayne.

GOALIE FIGHT AND @BRETT BROCHU IS SERVIN' UP RIGHTS#LETSGOKOMETS pic.twitter.com/K3EJyvQdHI

— Fort Wayne Komets (@FWKomets) December 31, 2023

A career in radio could be in her future.

“I’d love to continue this after college,” she said. “I’m still waiting to see where everything falls into place."

Through their 72-season history, the Komets have had almost exclusively two voices do play-by-play: Bob Chase, who called games from 1953 to 2015, and Albahrani. 

Albahrani was fighting an illness last week and was too hoarse to call the Komets’ 5-2 loss to the Norfolk Admirals on Friday, so Williams stepped in to handle the play-by-play duties for the second time in his career, as Albahrani recuperated at home.

Albahrani woke up on Saturday and realized he still didn’t have the voice to call a whole game, so he called Quinn and told her to get to the team bus, though Albahrani would be in the booth at Indiana Farmers Coliseum to do color commentary and step in at the rare moments Quinn needed assistance.

“Fiona did fantastic,” Albahrani said. “So unbelievably proud of her. I’m amazed at her drive, energy and knowledge. It’s a tough position for even a seasoned broadcaster to get the call with only a few hours notice, plus travel. But she handled it like a true pro. I was honored to be able to share the booth and her moment tonight.”

The ECHL was unable to confirm if Quinn was the first woman to do play-by-play for an ECHL game, though other teams have had female color commentators, such as Kendall Linnenkugel with the Toledo Walleye and Kelly-Anne Roberts with the Newfoundland Growlers.

Frankly, not enough women have gotten opportunities to broadcast men’s hockey games, though Leah Hextall becoming a voice of NHL hockey for ESPN has been a step in the right direction. 

Quinn was keenly aware Saturday that she was making history as the first woman to call a game for the second-oldest team in minor-league hockey, behind the American Hockey League’s Hershey Bears.

“Oh, for sure,” Quinn said. “I mean, I obviously could never see the whole scope of it, but with a lot of my work with the Komets being rooted in compiling Komets history, it’s so fulfilling and incredible.”

"I’m just hoping to make everyone in Fort Wayne proud."

Fiona Quinn (@overtimestress) is in exclusive company, joining Shane Albahrani and the great Bob Chase among those who've called a @FWKomets game!
Quinn also became the first woman to call a Komets game over the weekend 🎙️ pic.twitter.com/9ArqC9uwp0

— Josh Ayen (@Josh_Ayen) January 2, 2024

She didn’t have much time to think about what she’d say on the air and didn’t script any of her goal calls, not that she had many of them – only Carl Berglund and Ture Linden found the back of the net for Fort Wayne, while Kyle Maksimovich had two goals for the Fuel. 

There was a lot of ground to cover on the broadcast, though, as Fort Wayne traded defenseman Darien Kielb and goalie François Brassard to the Maine Mariners before the game for forward Ethan Keppen and defenseman Mackenzie Dwyer.

“I just winged it,” Quinn said. “Through high school hockey, I was able to get better game by game. I was working on (goal calls), but I just winged it.”

Maksimovich was a big part of what sparked the second-period goalie fight. 

There was a large scrum in front of the Fort Wayne net, and Brochu shoved Maksimovich, who then dumped Brochu to the ice, inciting Driscoll to come the length of the rink. 

The goalies threw about 15 punches between them. Both goalies were able to stay in the game because it wasn’t deemed a secondary altercation, which may have been a good thing for the Fuel, who had only an emergency backup goalie, Caydon Edwards, and were clinging to a 3-1 lead.

After this weekend's goalie fight, @BrettBrochu is this week's guest on Episode 99 of the Komets Podkast, presented by Spice Dog Provisions!

Tune in now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and online:
🔊 https://t.co/r7Bl3SAz95 pic.twitter.com/dMuOr5GyrR

— Fort Wayne Komets (@FWKomets) January 4, 2024

The fight came about 10 months after Fort Wayne goalie Ryan Fanti fought Wheeling Nailers netminder Brad Barone in Fort Wayne.

“I was here when Ryan Fanti got into a fight against Wheeling,” Quinn told WANE TV in the Fort Wayne press box Sunday, when she was back to doing stats and color commentary, with Albahrani handling play-by-play for a 6-4 loss to the Toledo Walleye. “The energy in the broadcast booth was just incredible, and I wanted to bring more energy – just like what was out on the ice – into the booth and into the game.” 

Fort Wayne fans are notoriously critical of players, coaches and referees, but they were overwhelmingly supportive of Quinn’s jubilancy on the air. Perhaps they knew she was one of them, getting a chance to live out a dream, and perhaps they knew she could have more games in her future with an eye toward improving.

Quinn was pleased with her first go-round, as she should have been. It’s no easy task grabbing the mic with little warning, little time to prepare – and the knowledge that people would be listening around North America in a sport dominated by male voices.

“I’m ready to go back at it,” she said. “So, so grateful for the opportunity, and I’ll improve from here.”