Color of Hockey: Matthews inspired by having Fitzhugh as broadcast mentor

William Douglas has been writing The Color of Hockey blog since 2012. Douglas joined NHL.com in 2019 and writes about people of color in the sport. Today, he profiles Trey Matthews, a 23-year-old broadcaster who calls Arizona State University hockey games and cites Seattle Kraken radio play-by-play voice Everett Fitzhugh as an inspirational mentor.

Trey Matthews is another branch growing on the Everett Fitzhugh broadcasting tree.
The 23-year-old Detroit native draws inspiration and solicited guidance from Fitzhugh, who became the NHL's first Black full-time team broadcaster when the Seattle Kraken hired him to be their radio play-by-play voice in August 2020.
Matthews does streamed play-by-play for Arizona State University's American Collegiate Hockey Association women's team, and in November he called a game for ASU's NCAA Division I men's team at Mullett Arena.
He'll deliver the call for Erie of the Ontario Hockey League when it hosts Mississauga on Jan. 16 as part of a two-year-old Martin Luther King Day initiative to elevate promising Black play-by-play announcers. The game can be seen on OHL Live on CHL TV.

"Trey is just such a serious broadcaster," said Shawn Bednard, Erie's play-by-play broadcaster and media relations manager. "He's on the up-and-up, he goes through the right channels. He's trying to learn from the top-level people, and he's someone who's such a student of the craft and so in tune with the industry that it was a no-brainer to reach out to him and say, 'Hey, man, we want to present this opportunity to you.'"
Matthews, a graduate student at ASU's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, gives stick taps to Fitzhugh for his trajectory. Matthews first reached out to him in 2020, when Fitzhugh was the play-by-play announcer for Cincinnati of the ECHL.
"My dad told me during the summer of 2020 to look for some announcers who are Black hockey announcers because maybe you can build a connection with them," Matthews said. "Reaching out to Everett was the best thing because he's taught me so much. Now that he's in the NHL he can provide a different perspective for me, and I get to see it first-hand."
Matthews had the opportunity to shadow Fitzhugh when the Kraken played the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena on December 1, 2021.
"Everett is a role model not just to me but to other people because he breaks that stereotype, he breaks down those roles," he said. "In this sport, we need role models, we need people who look like us, we need people who are not just players, but announcers, journalists, whatever the case may be. That's how important Everett is to me."

Fitzhugh has also been a mentor to Jason Ross Jr., who calls NCAA Division I hockey games and other sports on the Big Ten Network and was a fill-in play-by-play broadcaster on Chicago Blackhawks radio and television games last season.
"He has been incredibly supportive, been an excellent mentor," Ross told NHL.com in December 2021. "I remember the first time I called Everett. I've never gone back and forth with someone else who looks like me on the sport of hockey, but not just hockey but broadcasting. We were just nerding out about how much we love hockey broadcasting."
Fitzhugh said he's touched by the compliments.
"It's so surreal and still very, very humbling and an honor when I hear people say, 'Man, I listen to you, I look up to you, you inspire me,'" he said. "I'm, like, 'Man, I thought I was just calling hockey games.' I didn't think it was as deep and serious as it is. But it's something that I never take for granted. Jason and I talk and text quite a bit. My man Trey is down in Arizona State, I still keep in touch with him."
Matthews' hockey play-by-play journey began with a thud at Adrian College, about 60 miles southwest of Detroit, where he was an undergraduate student. He was supposed to provide color commentary for a game on the campus television station, but was thrust into the play-by-play role.

"I didn't know anything about hockey, so I didn't know what I was doing so I basically had to wing it," he said. "Even though the broadcast wasn't good, I still had so much fun watching hockey -- it was so mesmerizing, so unpredictable, the physicality. It just intrigued me."
Undaunted by viewer complaints, Matthews was determined to master hockey broadcasting. He embarked on his own crash course by perpetually playing EA Sports NHL 19, the video game with retired NHL defenseman P.K. Subban on the cover, and binge-watching NHL Network.
"I played that video game nonstop until I could recite the rules and regulations," he said. "When the (COVID-19) pandemic hit and they sent everyone home, NHL Network was airing classic games back-to-back for five days straight. So I locked myself in my room and forced myself to watch those games so that way I could learn more."
Those lessons, and Fitzhugh's mentorship, are paying off.
"I hope to someday be the same type of role model to maybe the next kid in line who wants to do play by play who's a person of color," Matthews said.
Photos: Trey Matthews, Everett Fitzhugh