Connections key to famed announcer’s love of wrestling

PALMER — Famed public address announcer Sandy Stevens, known across the nation as the “voice of wrestling,” spent her day Friday with her microphone at the scorers table on the upper level of the Palmer High School gymnasium, keeping a watchful eye on the action on multiple mats below.

Stevens, a member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, called takedowns and falls, announced victories and teased upcoming matches, just as she has done during 34 NCAA Division I championship tournaments, Olympic events, and too many national youth championship meets to count. With her partner for the weekend, longtime Valley voice Michael Janecek, the duo supplied the audio for what has become the premiere prep wrestling event in Alaska, the Lancer Smith Memorial.

Stevens is in Alaska for the first time after accepting a Palmer High wrestling booster club member’s spur of the moment invitation to attend the tournament. But despite not spending a day in the 49th state prior to this trip, Stevens seems to have an uncanny connection to Alaska.

Her weekend in Alaska started with a pleasant surprise courtesy of an old family friend. The daughter of a longtime friend and former wrestling announcing partner now lives in Wasilla, and surprised Stevens with a visit. Stevens said she’ll also have a chance to visit with the family of a man in Eagle River, who was coached in wrestling by her husband in her home state of Iowa.

It’s these types of connections, Stevens said, that fuels her love for the sport. She finds these connections regardless of where she goes.

“That’s the wrestling family,” Stevens said. “Wrestling has the biggest family of any sport there is. There’s no question about that.”

And that’s also a reason why Stevens had no reservations when she received a spur of the moment invitation from Trent Farris, a Palmer wrestling dad and member of the booster club. Earlier this month, Farris said he learned Stevens had a gap in her schedule, and took a shot and sent Stevens the invite.

“I thought maybe we could pull something like that off,” Farris said recently. “It’s an honor getting someone (who is) in the hall of fame. She’s the iconic voice of American wrestling.”

Stevens said she was immediately interested.

“My first response, I think was, are you serious?,” Stevens said. “I said I’ve never been to Alaska. I’ll go any place for wrestling.”

Stevens said she never charges a rate for announcing.

“I’ve never in my life set a fee, ever,” Stevens said. “I ask for my transportation and my housing. If tournaments want to give me an honorarium, that’s up to them.”

Farris coordinated a fundraising effort to pay for the plane fare for Stevens, and the Palmer booster club supplied the housing and transportation.

“I feel absolutely at home here. The people have been so welcoming and enjoyable,” Stevens said.

Stevens said some wonder why she continues to travel to tournaments to lend her voice.

“People use to say to me, friends who were not familiar with wrestling, doesn’t it bother you to go to a tournament where you’ve never been before? You fly all over the United States. They just don’t understand. When I walk into a tournament there will be officials that I’ve met, there will be coaches, there will be parents, that will come up to me and say, do you announce at Fargo?” Stevens said, referring to the national youth championships held each year in Fargo, North Dakota. “It’s just that connection that wrestling has, that is unlike any other sport.”

The connections and relationships she’s made through wrestling stand out, Stevens said, but there’s also more.

“The values,” Stevens said of wrestling. “I grew up in Iowa. When we moved to Illinois, people said to me, do you miss Iowa? I realized I missed Iowans, and eventually I thought, maybe that’s why (I) love wrestling so much. Because people in wrestling seem to have the same values as people in Iowa. Hard working. They tend to be blue collar, certainly not all. They understand the life lessons wrestling teaches. And they take that out into the world, into whatever their occupations are. It’s the realization that you’re an individual. But you’re responsible for what you do, and there’s people counting on you.”

Stevens has crossed paths with numerous Alaska coaches and athletes during her career that spans more than 40 years. She’s called the names of Alaskan talent on the highest stage of the youth and college levels. Stevens quickly recalled names such as Hutchison, a noted wrestling family from the Soldotna area that includes multiple youth national champions, and Dallas Seavey, who was a nationally recognized youth wrestler before his days as an Iditarod Sled Dog Race champion.

Stevens said she’s enjoyed being able to see more of the Alaskans she’s familiar with during the Lancer Smith Memorial.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity to meet some of those wrestlers I’ve announced, and to meet some of those coaches who have been to the national championships or at Fargo for years,” Stevens said.

During the weeks that led to her trip to Alaska, Stevens seemed to be drawn to connections to Alaska and this tournament.

Days after receiving her invitation, Stevens was in an old shoe repair shop in Glenn Ellyn, Illinois, where she now lives.

The owner asked where Stevens was headed on her next trip.

“I said, believe it or not, I’m going to Palmer, Alaska, for a wrestling tournament. I am so excited. And he said, I have T-shirts from that tournament,” Stevens said. “And I said, what?

“He said, my brother lived in Kotzebue for three years, and some how he got me T-shirts.”

Earlier this month, Stevens’ late husband Robert, a former wrestler at the University of Northern Iowa, was honored posthumously by UNI. The school assigned students to each honoree. Stevens asked the student where he was from, and he said, Wasilla, Alaska. Stevens told the student that she was going to be in Palmer in three weeks to announce at a tournament. Stevens said, the student responded with, “The Lancer Smith?”

Turns out that student was a former Wasilla wrestler.

“It’s the connections, the wrestling family. I’m so blessed to be a part of this,” Stevens said.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.