Forester alum Cam McGuire ’19 was recently named the ECHL Broadcaster of the Year for his work with the Worcester (Mass.) Railers during the league’s meeting in Las Vegas.
This was the first full season for McGuire as the Railers’ lone voice. He’d worked previously with Eric Lindquist in 2019-20, and the team’s season was canceled in 2020-21 due to the pandemic. (Lindquist sadly passed away in May this year.)
McGuire played two years of hockey at his local high school before attending Pomfret, a boarding school in Connecticut, where he grew up. Upon his high school graduation, he enrolled at Lake Forest College, where he did not play and instead took up broadcasting the Forester hockey games.
“I knew I always wanted to get into sports but didn’t know exactly what route,” said McGuire about getting his start in broadcasting. “I went to [Lake Forest] as a walk on and did not make the team and did not know what I wanted to do next. My brother is three years older than me and was a junior playing at the University of Wisconsin when I was a freshman at Lake Forest. I was introduced to Brian Posick (the voice of Wisconsin Hockey) and sat with him in the press box for a game and immediately fell in love.”
McGuire decided that broadcasting was the route for him after meeting with Posick, who coincidentally had a previous connection to Lake Forest College through his sister Priscilla, a 1990 graduate of the College and a member of the Forester Athletic Hall of Fame. He met with Jackie Slaats, Blake Thiesen, Mike Wajerski, and then-head coach of Forest hockey Pat Kelliher to define his role; all four were on board with him taking on the broadcasting responsibilities for the hockey team.
“When my bother graduated, I still had two years to go in school and started calling every (hockey) game with T.R. Bell, who was an absolute blast to work with. I began traveling with the team, hosting weekly video segments with players and coaches,” McGuire said.
While he grew into the role as voice of Forester Hockey, McGuire networked with Forester alumni to learn more about broadcasting. He connected with Brien Rea ’05, who is the current host for Fox Sports Southwest Dallas Stars and Doug Plagens ’07, radio voice for NHL Florida Panthers. They became mentors of his during his collegiate career, providing him with advice and critiques.
“I keep in touch with [them] on a normal basis and give a lot of credit to them,” McGuire said.
“My experiences at the College were vital for me. I was able to do anything and everything,” he continued. “I got so many repetitions as I was one of just a few students that wanted to pursue broadcasting as a career. If I’d gone to a bigger broadcasting school such as Arizona State or Syracuse, I wouldn’t have been able to get as many reps. Come graduation, I had already had so much demo reel material to send out to teams because of the experiences I was able to gain at Lake Forest.”
In addition to being the voice of the Railers, McGuire also called games with the Worcester Bravehearts summer-college baseball game and the Bridgeport Islanders, Worcester’s AHL affiliate; and has filled in at the end of the regular season on Providence Bruins broadcasts along with Game 1 of the Bruins’ playoff series against Bridgeport.
McGuire is one of many recent Foresters who have pursued a career that combines the liberal arts education and experience at Lake Forest College with their passion for sports.