Tag: Bridgette Proulx

Passion for Hockey Leads Attleboro’s Proulx to NESN Booth

Bridgette Proulx
Attleboro High grad Bridgette Proulx (left) stands with former professional hockey player Gigi Marvin on the set of NESN’s coverage of the Women’s Beanpot. (Courtesy of Bridgette Proulx)

By Josh Perry || HockomockSports.com Managing Editor

When Bridgette Proulx started thinking about her college plans and what she might want to do with her life, she went to her parents for advice. They told her to find something that “doesn’t feel like work.” Proulx was a rabid hockey fan, who “could talk about the [Boston] Bruins all day, every day.” So, she decided to follow her passion and make a career out of talking about hockey.

It was a decision that has taken the Attleboro High alum from doing rinkside analysis of UMass hockey games to producing Red Sox coverage and hosting a Boston Bruins show on WEEI to being the play-by-play announcer for NESN’s Hockey East, Women’s Beanpot, and PWHHL coverage.

Someday, she hopes, it could take her to being the play-by-play voice of the Bruins.

“Once I started it, I never really doubted that it’s what I wanted to do,” Proulx said during a phone call in February. “Every single time it’s a challenge, but in a good way. You have to be super prepared and you have to pay really close attention and put a lot of effort and care into knowing the players and what’s been going on with them.”

Proulx added, “Doing play-by-play in the NHL would be the end goal. I wouldn’t want to get that opportunity too soon where I wasn’t ready but it feels like over the last couple years everything is kind of progressing.”

While she was talking about her start at UMass, Proulx looked up an old social media post to confirm her first game was in October 2013. She was given a start doing rinkside reporting during UMass hockey broadcasts.

“I think I was really nervous,” Proulx explained. “Maybe I was just cold, but I remember my hands were shaking when they first sent it down to me for a report. I think everyone will tell you that it still happens to them sometimes.”

Being rinkside wasn’t her favorite role, so Proulx requested being in the booth to do play-by-play and color, which she enjoyed far more. Her four years at UMass was the foundation for her blossoming broadcasting career. She worked alongside fellow students who were as passionate about sports as she was and worked in an environment where mistakes were just moments to learn from.

“It was fun,” she said. “Not beating yourself up was probably the hardest part. When you make a mistake you can’t harp on it because you’re starting and everyone makes mistakes and when you do it on a college radio station nobody cares as much as if you do it on NESN.”

At UMass, Proulx was part of broadcasts for a variety of sports, including men’s and women’s basketball, football, and baseball. After graduation, she has covered multiple sports for multiple outlets, but she has always been drawn back to hockey. When asked why hockey, Proulx laughs. She played on local ponds as a kid (“Like a real New Englander.”) but at Attleboro she played basketball, soccer, tennis, and softball.

“I just liked it best,” she explained. Maybe at some point I’ll go through another phase and maybe it will be basketball again but right now all the chips are in on hockey.”

There have been several people who helped Proulx get started in the industry. She credited Mike Logan, a teacher at Taunton High and longtime play-by-play voice of Providence College hockey, for being a mentor and friend. He helped Proulx get started at PC and that led to other jobs calling games for other schools.

Broadcasting in general, and hockey play-by-play in particular, is still largely a male-dominated business, but Proulx is part of a cohort of women who are starting to make inroads. She highlighted Kathryn Tappen, who was part of NESN’s hockey coverage and now works with NBC, as an inspiration and someone who showed that it is possible to make this a career.

Proulx said, “When I told my parents that I wanted to be a hockey broadcaster, they didn’t immediately go, ‘That’s crazy.’ They were really supportive because it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that a woman could do that job.”

Asked if she feels like she can be a role model for girls thinking about play-by-play, Proulx replied, “I don’t think you ever think of yourself like that. I’m still trying to do my best. I’m still plugging away and trying to get better and you don’t think that other people are looking at you like that.”

She admitted that it does cross her mind during milestone broadcasts, like when she did the first PWHL game on NESN or was part of NESN’s first all-female hockey broadcast for the 2023 Women’s Beanpot. “When you’re doing the first of stuff, you kind of think about it more,” Proulx noted.

No one can predict what will happen in a game and play-by-play announcers have to be able to think on their feet. Each broadcast is unique with some productions having elaborate set ups or intricate graphics or reads for the announcer to navigate. Of course, not everything goes smoothly and sometimes there are technical issues and you can’t just pause the game or broadcast to work it out.

So, no matter how long you’ve been in the business, every day is a chance to experience and learn from something new.

“I feel like at each different level you get nervous again because it’s different, it’s an adventure,” Proulx said. “It keeps you on your toes. The main thing that you need to know to get through it is you’ll adapt. You just have to have that ability to swim every time. You have to adapt to every situation.”

“There hasn’t been a day that I didn’t learn something new since I started in this business. You don’t even realize it but every day you’re adding in more and more to your knowledge of the business and the sport. It’s not scripted, so you never know what mistake you’re going to make or what different thing you’re going to have to know or learn in a day.”

While it is work and it can be hard, it’s also a lot of fun. Sometimes you have to remind yourself that not many people go to work at the TD Garden or the Mullens Center or Schneider Arena.

“You have to take a second and check yourself and be like, hey, this is something that not everyone gets to do,” she said. “This is cool.”

“Two years ago the Winter Classic was in Boston. It was Bruins/Penguins at Fenway and I had a credential and I got to go talk to (Sidney) Crosby and I got to see everything behind the scenes and that was one of those moments where I was like I always wanted to do it and I got to.”

What is her advice to someone getting started in the business?

“Say yes to everything,” Proulx explained. “Even if it’s not glamorous, even if it doesn’t pay well, even if it doesn’t pay anything. When you’re starting out, sometimes you just have to say yes.”

“The reason I got hired at Hockey East was because I agreed to fill in at a game at Merrimack. It was far from my house, the weather was terrible, and I ended up just doing it. I showed up and the commissioner of Hockey East was there, randomly, and he offered me a job in the first intermission.”

Proulx continued, “Things in this business snowball. The more times people give someone a chance, you never really know where it’s going to end up.”

From her start as a rinkside reporter on a college broadcast, Proulx’s career has snowballed to where the Olympics or an NHL broadcast could realistically be on the horizon. She decided to make a career out of her passion for sports and it is paying off.