Welcome to another exciting exploration of Washington State! In this episode, host Scott Cowan dives deep into the life and experiences of James Woollard, the renowned Public Address (PA) announcer for the Seattle Sounders. His journey from England to Seattle is fascinating, filled with passion for soccer and an unmistakable British accent that has charmed the American audience. Let’s walk through his story and discover how he became the iconic voice of the Sounders.

Seattle Sounders PA Announcer James Wollard Episode Transcript

James Woollard [00:00:00]:

Yeah. I give them what what what some fans have said jokingly, the epitome of meh.

Scott Cowan [00:00:27]:

Welcome to the Exploring Washington State podcast. Here’s your host, Scott Cowan. Welcome to this episode of the Exploring Washington State podcast. I’m joined today by James Woollard. James is the PA announcer for the Seattle Sounders. And for any of you that have been to a Sounders, match, you’ve heard him in in the stands. James, your accent, are you from is it Lynnwood?

James Woollard [00:00:54]:

Not exactly.

Scott Cowan [00:00:55]:

Not exactly. Okay. So I I can’t quite place it. Mhmm. No. In all seriousness Mhmm. Welcome to the show. And then

James Woollard [00:01:03]:

Thank you.

Scott Cowan [00:01:03]:

How did you end up in Seattle?

James Woollard [00:01:07]:

Yeah. It’s quite a long story, I guess. I grew up in The United Kingdom, in England to be precise, in a place, called Cambridge, which is about an hour north of London. I actually grew up on a farm. My father was a farmer in Cambridgeshire, so rural part of Cambridgeshire. And, yeah, I had a, like, a childhood on the farm, which was fun. Went to the local, state schools, government schools, as you’d call them here. And, eventually, went off to college and studied geography and, ended up being a teacher of geography in The UK.

James Woollard [00:02:00]:

Never really had any plans to live abroad. I liked traveling, but never thought it was, a possibility that I would live in another country permanently. But in, let’s see, 1998, I decided, to explore opportunities abroad. Teaching is one of those professions which does actually allow you to travel quite easily. Teachers are in demand around the world, especially if you can speak English. It’s pretty easy to get jobs in foreign countries. But I initially actually got a job in the Cayman Islands Oh. In The Caribbean or The Caribbean as we call it in England.

James Woollard [00:02:47]:

And, Cayman Islands is actually technically, it’s a British overseas territory. So they the kids in the schools there largely follow the British curriculum. And so it was really easy if you I mean, if you’re thinking of traveling abroad, as a teacher, I really picked kind of like the easy easy way to do it because I ended up in a English speaking country or overseas territory of Eng of of The United Kingdom, and was basically teaching the same type of material, the same courses that I was teaching back in England. And it was, you know, England, where I grew up is is gray and dreary in the wintertime like Seattle is. I know you’re from Wenatchee, so you probably see the sun in the wintertime, but we we don’t.

Scott Cowan [00:03:39]:

I I grew up in Tacoma.

James Woollard [00:03:40]:

Oh, okay. So

Scott Cowan [00:03:41]:

And I’ve lived fifty five years of my life on the West Side.

James Woollard [00:03:46]:

Oh, okay.

Scott Cowan [00:03:46]:

So you’re familiar with them.

James Woollard [00:03:48]:

With Yeah. Our winters. And, so English English winters are gray and dreary. And and so to go from Cambridge, England, to the Caribbean was like, I’m on vacation permanently. This is amazing. And, it was it was great. You know? I got into scuba diving and spent countless hours just laying around on the beach at the weekends and looking around at the tourists thinking how much they’d spent to get to go on vacation there. Well well, for me, it was free.

James Woollard [00:04:22]:

So it was it was kind of fun. But it it’s a very small island. It’s 20 miles long. It’s 10 miles wide. So it’s like living, you know, in the San Juan’s. You kinda get that island fever a little bit. You can obviously get off the island, but it costs you a lot of money every time because you have to fly off. And so it eventually got to me that I was living on this tiny island, and I decided to explore other opportunities in other countries.

James Woollard [00:04:53]:

I looked looked at again, wanting a little bit of the easy way out, I explored English speaking countries. I looked at Canada. I looked at The US. I seriously consider so considered New Zealand and Australia, and randomly applied for jobs around the world and ended up getting a job in Bremerton of all places. So I went from Cambridge, England to The Caribbean, Cayman Islands to Bremerton. So it was kind of like a return to the gray dreary England, but but a huge contrast physically from where I grew up. Where I grew up in Cambridge was, we say, flat as a pancake is literally, I think, the highest point in East Anglia, which is that region of England, is like a few hundred feet. And so to come again, you know, it it appealed to my travel, bug in me.

James Woollard [00:05:53]:

I wanted to go somewhere interesting that was different from just going back to Cambridge again and returning back to England. And, so in 02/2002, I came to live in Bremerton. I worked at a school there and, eventually found my way across to the East Side and have been working in another school in in Rep excuse me, in Redmond, since about 02/2003, ‘2 thousand ‘4, actually. I only spent one year in Brampton. Not because I didn’t like it, but I think I wanted a a more opportunities, and the East Side provided that with more schools and stuff.

Scott Cowan [00:06:31]:

K. So you took up scuba diving when you’re in The Caribbean. Did you know that Puget Sound is actually considered a excellent place to scuba dive?

James Woollard [00:06:42]:

Yes. And I actually haven’t done any scuba diving here, but you’re right. It is. I think I’m a scaredy cat because it’s so flipping cold here to go scuba diving. And I it’s I know in the summer, it’s nice, but in the in the win in the winter months, you’d probably need a dry suit, and I don’t have all the equipment. So I actually haven’t dived or dove, as the Americans say, at all since I came to live in The States. I did go back and visit The Caribbean a few times or a couple of times, and I did some diving then. But, yep, I’ve kind of whipped out because of the cold temperatures in the Puget Sound, but but I hear it’s very nice, and I hear the the visibility is surprisingly good, actually.

Scott Cowan [00:07:25]:

It doesn’t I I don’t understand because I I don’t I’m not a scuba diver. Mhmm. But I’m kind of with you. The idea of getting into, say, Puget Sound doesn’t sound like fun. It sounds cold. And Yeah. It might be it might be interesting, but I think that’s because you’re so numb that you can’t see straight. I I don’t know.

Scott Cowan [00:07:46]:

Anyway, I just I’ve read that, and I I have friends that are scuba divers, and they assure me that it is amazing.

James Woollard [00:07:52]:

Well, in The Caribbean The Caribbean has got fantastic visibility and such an array of fish and coral. I I think it would be hard to beat that. So I don’t wanna be disappointed if I went scuba diving around here and think, oh, this is not as fun. You know?

Scott Cowan [00:08:08]:

It it’d be completely different, I’m sure, than than what you experienced originally.

James Woollard [00:08:12]:

Yep.

Scott Cowan [00:08:12]:

Alright. So you’ve you you moved to Bremerton. You ended up on the East Side in the Redmond, you know, area. Yep. Yep. What came first, being a voice actor or, being the PA announcer?

James Woollard [00:08:28]:

Oh, definitely, the former. But the former led to the latter. So I I think I did did one voice over job when I was in The Caribbean. And and back in England, people have said, I like your voice and whatever, but but I’ve never never even considered that as something to do. But when I came to live in The States, I think it’s because the Americans genuinely like the British accent. A lot of people just commented, oh, I I like your voice, you know. Say something, they would say, especially the kids in school. And then they would also laugh every time I mispronounce a word or something like that.

James Woollard [00:09:08]:

But but I think, people enough people said they liked the sound of my voice and my accent that I that I seriously considered, pursuing voice over work as a sort of a part time sideline gig kind of thing. And I honestly had no clue how to do that. Like I said, I hadn’t I hadn’t really considered it back in England and and hadn’t really crossed my mind. But, but I decided I’m gonna explore this, and I literally got on the Internet and, you know, Googled, how do you become a voice actor? And, one of the things that that stood out, was you would you first of all, you should get some training, if you can. Find somebody who trains professional voice over folk. And, and and there that was really my opening. So I actually, in in the Seattle area, there’s a there’s a lady named Veronica Weikal. I don’t know if you’ve heard of her, but I have not.

James Woollard [00:10:13]:

She is very well known, especially in this area, as a voice trainer, as somebody you you you should go to if you want to get into the voice over industry. So and back in the day, so, like, 02/2003, ‘2 thousand ‘4 when I started to look into this, She and her husband, who’s an audio engineer, lived in Wallingford, and they ran, like, weekend courses training people to get into the voice over industry. And I remember I did a couple of those with her, and it was a small group training. And one of the things I remember her telling me at the time and I was quite in awe of, you know, she would drop in there.

My past clients have done this and that, and And I was like, I haven’t done anything really, and I was very much, you know, open eyed and in awe of the fact that she had these people who had done these amazing things. But she did say to me, you gotta make sure that you get plenty of training because there’s nothing worse than presenting yourself to an agent, and you haven’t got you got nothing no evidence to back it up that you’re a good voice over person. So I did enough training with her, and I cut a demo CD. That was when CDs existed.

James Woollard [00:11:30]:

Cut a demo CD, and I literally then went around using Veronica’s advice to to get yourself an agent. And I literally drove from around Seattle area and dropped off my CD and say, hi. I have no experience in this, but here’s my demo. I’d like to get into the voice over industry. Would you give me a shot? Very, kindly, there was a agency in in Kirkland named Dramatic Artists, and they gave me a they I I think they wanted a British person on their books. So they said, yeah. We’ll have you, which was great. And and once you have an agent that that an agent basically sends you auditions and and gets you to record auditions at a home.

James Woollard [00:12:18]:

And to begin with, again, you know, you need to get equipped if you’re gonna get into the voice over industry. I had a, like, a really awful microphone, which is kind of amazing because I’m just recording this on a really awful microphone at the moment. But I actually do have a mini recording studio. And once I got equipped and, you know, they’d send me auditions, and I’d send back my demo and and and the example recording for the audition. And I started to get a few jobs, not many. It’s it’s in it was back then, and I think it’s increasingly so, a very tough business to get into. There’s so many people who are vying to be voice over talents, and it’s so easy now actually with the technology that’s available, you know, like we’re illustrating now. We’re talking to each other on microphones and whatever.

James Woollard [00:13:10]:

You a lot of people have access to the equipment to do this now. So but I was able to, get a few jobs, not many. And one job I got in 02/2007 was for a product It was actually Pacific cod, the fish.

Scott Cowan [00:13:33]:

Okay.

James Woollard [00:13:34]:

And, the idea behind the little commercial that we were doing was, Pacific cod is widely available. It’s delicious. Compare that with Atlantic cod, which is on the demise. And it was six British guys, real British guys selected for this little commercial thing. We were sitting around a pub that was supposed to look like a British pub, but it was actually in Queen Anne. And we were bemoaning the, you know, the collapse of the Atlantic cod industry, and then somebody pipes up, you know, but have you considered Pacific Cod? And and that was the theme of the commercial. Anyway, kind of a random thing, but it it’s, it was one of those doors that was opened, because what happened was two years later, the Seattle Sounders began as an MLS franchise. And somebody from the organization reached out to me and said and it just so happened that that that was Victory Studios, which is where we recorded that commercial.

James Woollard [00:14:40]:

It is the same recording studio used by the Seahawks and the Sounders who were then kind of in a business relationship. Somebody who worked for the Seahawks Sounders had also seen that Victory Studios commercial and said, we like the sound of your voice. Would you be willing to audition to be the the stadium announcer, the public address announcer for the Seattle Sounders? And I’m listening on the phone, like and I was like, seriously? Kind of I mean, I I had zero experience in sports broadcasting, public address announcing. So there was all of that. And then the other thing I was thinking of, at this point in my career, I was a school principal. So, like, where am I gonna find the time to do this kind of thing? But I didn’t say all that to him. I was just thinking it in my mind. You know? I’m the least qualified person you want for this job.

James Woollard [00:15:39]:

That’s but but I said, oh, yeah. I’ll come in. I’ll audition for it. And, you know, not surprisingly, I don’t think I auditioned that well. They certainly they didn’t, in the end select me to the be the public address announcer at that point in time. But they did say, well, we really like your voice. We we would like to still use you for the club. There’s, there’s something called gate scripts, which which when you’re buying tickets to a to a to a game or if you’re walking up to the stadium, if you you know, any sport will have this.

James Woollard [00:16:16]:

You’ll hear somebody over the loudspeaker system, the the tannoy, telling people what they can bring in to the stadium, what they shouldn’t bring in the stadium, you know, where you can buy your tickets, etcetera. So they said, we would like you to use you for the gate scripts. And I I think the reason for that was I probably had quite a formal sounding voice, and people can quite easily understand my accent. I don’t have a particularly strong regional dialect accent. And so they thought, well, you’d be good to be that person to just explain the rules and regulations and etcetera. So I was the, for the first two years, two thousand nine, two thousand ten, I did the gate scripts for the club, which was which was you know, looking back, that was a really good thing for my career because I kept that connection with the club. You know, I if I’d been a real diva back in 02/2009, I might have said, oh, you’ve rejected me for this public address announcer position. I’m I don’t need your gate scripts kind of thing, which would have been a pathetic thing to do, but, I’m glad I didn’t because I kept I kept that connection with the club.

James Woollard [00:17:28]:

And as it turned out at the beginning of 02/2011, I went in to record the gate scripts again because it’s a prerecorded thing. This was like February 2011, and the guy who was my contact said, we’d actually, it turns out the the public address announcer that was originally selected is no longer with us. It turns out that, you know, we’re we’re doing more auditions. Would you like to have another go? And I said, yes. And by this point, I was a little bit more experienced in, like, you know, I’d taken time to listen to public address announces and and read about it and and watch videos, etcetera. So I I felt a bit more equipped to do it, but I still felt pretty green, and not necessarily the most high qualified person for the job. But I said, yep. I’d love to I’d love to give it a go.

James Woollard [00:18:21]:

And, behind the scenes, I didn’t know this, they were auditioning at other preseason games. And I think about, oh, literally about four days before the opening game of the season, they said, well, we want you to we want you to call the opening game of the 02/2011 season. So we want you to be the stadium announce for that game. That’s gonna be your audition. It’s like, what? So whereas in that 02/2009, all I’d done was gone into a studio and, you know, pretended to be an announcer. In this case, 02/2011, I was gonna be the announcer at the game. And I had done one game, I forgot to mention, I’d done one game back in 02/2009. They’d called me as as a substitute announcer.

James Woollard [00:19:09]:

So I’d had my little, trial by fire back then. So 02/2011, started the season, March 2011, the game was against LA Galaxy, David Beckham’s team. I think David was there at the time. So they came into Seattle, and I announced that game, and the rest is history. I’ve been doing it ever since.

Scott Cowan [00:19:35]:

Okay. So I’ve got some questions.

James Woollard [00:19:36]:

Okay. I bet you have.

Scott Cowan [00:19:38]:

Yeah. I’ve got some questions. I’ve lived my entire life at Washington State.

James Woollard [00:19:43]:

Mhmm.

Scott Cowan [00:19:45]:

But it does seem to me that Americans are totally enamored with the British accent.

James Woollard [00:19:52]:

Mhmm. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:19:55]:

Are the British enamored with any accent?

James Woollard [00:20:00]:

That’s interesting. Personally, I would say I love the French accent.

Scott Cowan [00:20:05]:

Okay.

James Woollard [00:20:06]:

I think it sounds very romantic and, nice to listen to. And I do like some of the American accents. Some, but not all. I’ll be diplomatic. I won’t mention the ones I don’t like so much. Okay. I

Scott Cowan [00:20:23]:

just think it’s funny. We Yeah.

James Woollard [00:20:24]:

It is it is a strange phenomenon how, different cultures appreciate other accents. And it’s and it’s it’s a myth in a sense, because if you think about the range of British accents, some of them are not pleasant. And I lived in Birmingham for ten years, which is, which is where Ozzy Osbourne comes from.

Scott Cowan [00:20:50]:

Okay.

James Woollard [00:20:51]:

K? I think that’s one of the worst accents in the world. You know, My name’s Ozzy Osbourne. I I used to be the lead singer for Black Sabbath, and I’d I’d bite the heads off bats or pigeons. You know? It’s kind of like, oh my gosh. You’re you’re yeah, I just hate that accent.

Scott Cowan [00:21:11]:

You you articulated that way too clearly,

James Woollard [00:21:13]:

by the way.

Scott Cowan [00:21:13]:

Yes. You would not would not have been able to understand Aussie if you said that.

James Woollard [00:21:16]:

But it’s funny. I’m not alone in that. In I I’ve read several articles that say within England, the British people least like the Permian accent. So and it’s also a myth. I think people in America think, oh, the British are so intelligent because they can speak like that. And that’s, I can definitely assure you that is a myth too. But why not play along with it? If they think intelligent and cultured, I’ll I’ll go with it.

Scott Cowan [00:21:44]:

Take it. When you took your voice over classes Yes. What did what was the what did they teach you? What was the training like?

James Woollard [00:21:55]:

Yeah. Well, it’s a long time ago now, so I’m having to think back. You know, I think a lot of it was kind of on the job training as it were. They would give you a commercial script

Scott Cowan [00:22:08]:

Mhmm.

James Woollard [00:22:09]:

For some random product, and they would probably demonstrate, you know, the sound that they were looking for. With with commercials, it depends on the type of the commercial, I guess, but, you know, they always want you to sound enthusiastic and and smiley. And literally, as you smile, you sound happier about a product and you and you don’t go down at the end of a sentence. You go up because that sounds much more interesting, and you vary the tone of your sentences. Because to listen to somebody speaking in a monotone is very boring, and you’ll probably switch off your radio. So that’s the kind of thing they did it. And a lot of on the job trial and error

Scott Cowan [00:22:52]:

Okay.

James Woollard [00:22:53]:

Recording, listening to yourself, critiquing, that sort of thing. But I guess it was it was enough to teach me the basics. But I you know, there are some people in the voice over industry that literally make hundreds of thousands of dollars every year. The he’s now deceased, unfortunately. But the guy that did, in a Woollard, the you know, Don LaFontaine, you know, the Mhmm. Before every movie trailer, in a world where Scott Cowan became the baseball announcer for the Nat Wenatchee Applesocks. You you already told me that, but that’s you know, people like that, they get a reputation, and they’re they’re like, okay. We’ll give you the job, and they’re, like, paid 30,000 at the spot.

James Woollard [00:23:43]:

You know? That’s never happened to me, unfortunately. Okay. Yep. Alright. Well, hey. You know,

Scott Cowan [00:23:49]:

there’s still time.

James Woollard [00:23:49]:

There’s still time. Time. Yeah. Before.

Scott Cowan [00:23:55]:

So this is the another preconceived notion that I have. Soccer, football Yep. Is not it’s it’s growing in popularity in this country, but it seems like in the rest of the world Mhmm. It is the dominant Yes. Attention grabbing sport. Yes. Were you a I’m just gonna say soccer, you know, sorry. I was were you a soccer fan growing up? Was this new to you?

James Woollard [00:24:29]:

Well, like you said, it’s, it’s the dominant sport in the rest of the world. In fact, I recently read there are 4,000,000,000 fans of soccer, which, you know, considering the world’s pop that’s, like, over half the world’s population, I believe.

Scott Cowan [00:24:45]:

That seems that actually seems small to me.

James Woollard [00:24:46]:

Yeah. I I would have said now. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:24:48]:

I’d say 6,000,000,000.

James Woollard [00:24:50]:

I’d say, oh, yeah. It it cycles a bit with the World Cup, you know, as interest wanes and and goes up or whatever. But, yes, growing up, I I wasn’t what one would call, an ultra fan. Like, I didn’t have season tickets to a particular team. But my first introduction to soccer football was probably as a seven, eight year old going along to, Cambridge United games. Cambridge United is a soccer club in Cambridge that has a fairly small stadium. I think they can only see, like, six or 7,000, I believe. So it’s kind of a tiny club, but to the, in my eight year old eyes, it was like this huge stadium.

James Woollard [00:25:42]:

And, I I was taken along by a friend in the village who did, I I think, have season tickets. And that was my first introduction to professional football. And I’ve always enjoyed playing it as a kid. In fact, you know, I would say 90% of kids in England grow up playing soccer at break time, recess, lunch times, and after school, and at weekends with their friends. It’s a very easy sport to play. You don’t you just really need a ball. You can make goalposts out of jerseys thrown on the ground. You know? And I think that’s part of the appeal of soccer is it’s such an easy sport to do.

James Woollard [00:26:22]:

There’s no highly technical equipment you need aside from the ball. So I would so I played it, and then I loved watching it. I remember, back in ’71, I’m 56. So that way, I would have been six then watching the FA Cup and collecting these little medals for the FA Cup teams that have won over the years because it was the centenary of the FA Cup in that year. And, so I’ve always taken a strong interest. I nowadays, I’m I’m a one club person. I support the Seattle Sounders, but I but I get up every weekend. I don’t know if you know it, but English Premier League is broadcast every weekend here on a Saturday and a Sunday.

James Woollard [00:27:11]:

You can get up and you can watch it on the TV. So I enjoy watching high tier, high quality soccer on the TV. I love watching the World Cup. I watched the World Cup qualifier last night between Mexico and The US. So it’s it’s definitely a sport I like to watch, and I like to not so much play now. I’m getting a bit old, but, but definitely, it’s I would consider my fan myself a fan, but never I wasn’t particularly loyal to any particular club in The UK. And now I consider myself a fan of the Sounders.

Scott Cowan [00:27:50]:

So when you started the job, you already knew you knew the sport. It wasn’t like if they called me up to be the PA announcer, they’d have to I think the learning curve would be I just don’t know the sport.

James Woollard [00:28:03]:

Right. Yeah. No. I that and I think that was an advantage. I I I I think the club probably wanted somebody, obviously, who knew the sport. I think the British accent was a bonus. It kind of added to that European feel, flavor of this of the sport. But, yeah, coming in knowing the game, or not not being an expert necessarily and not, you know, never having really played at a high tier level, that wasn’t so much an important issue as just being familiar with, you know, the basic rules and regulations of the game.

Scott Cowan [00:28:40]:

Okay. Let let’s let’s talk then. So you started being the the PA announcer. Mhmm. So I’d like you to explain what the Sounders expect that role to

James Woollard [00:28:52]:

do. Okay.

Scott Cowan [00:28:54]:

What what is your job expectation?

James Woollard [00:28:57]:

Right. Well, on game day itself, I typically turn up a couple of hours before the actual kickoff of the game. There is a pre prepared script, which can be, multiple pages long. A lot of it is, you know, short sponsorship reads, commercial reads for stuff, for companies that sponsor the Sounders. Some of it’s rules and regulation reads. Some of it’s like talking about what’s happening on on the field. It’s, you know, when the players come on, to practice, we’ll announce them coming onto the field. I announce the lineups.

James Woollard [00:29:44]:

I announce the goals. Anyway, I get so I get there two hours before in order to make sure that I go through the script. Mhmm. And and I’m fully prepared. I have probably seen it before. We have electronic scripts, so I can access those before. And usually, I’ve read through it once or twice before, even getting to the stadium. But that is a final read through time.

James Woollard [00:30:07]:

And then about an hour before kickoff is when I actually start talking because that’s when they open the stadium up to the to the fans to come in.

Scott Cowan [00:30:17]:

Okay.

James Woollard [00:30:19]:

So we’ll start off with, you know, welcome to the stadium kind of thing. And and then, yeah, that will go on for the next hour.

Scott Cowan [00:30:28]:

Mhmm.

James Woollard [00:30:28]:

There’s there’s all sorts of reads before we actually do a kickoff. The big thing is, I’ll announce, our team. Mhmm. And we have a very scripted method of doing that. It’s it’s one of the highlights of the games. So I’ll say, and here’s the Delta starting 11 for your Seattle Sounders football club. And then I’ll go through the roster, the the 11 players who are starting the game for the Sounders. And, I’ll read their I’ll say their position, I’ll say their number, and I’ll say their first name, and then the crowd, it’s very interactive.

James Woollard [00:31:10]:

The crowd will chat back the second name. So it’s really fun. So I’ll go in goal number 24, Stefan. And the crowds will chat back Frey. He’s our captain, Stefan Frey. So we’ll go through our 11 players on that kind of call and response thing, back and forth. And it’s I think, personally, for me, it’s one of the highlights of the game because it’s so interactive, and I think the fans really like it too.

Scott Cowan [00:31:38]:

So that would be great. Come about? I mean, that you that wasn’t by design, was it? Or

James Woollard [00:31:44]:

It it it evolved. I think, I’m not sure they did it in the first two years, just quite like that. And I can’t remember exactly when it happened, but for as long as I can remember, we’ve done first and last name. And it and it may be copied from another club around the world that does that style of announcing. But we do exactly the same thing for the goals as well. So that’s really fun. So I’ll go, Sanders FC, go. Score by number 13, Jordan.

James Woollard [00:32:26]:

And then the crab will chant chant back, Morris. And I’ll say it again. Jordan. The crowd will shout that, Morris. And I’ll say it a third time. Jordan. The crowd will say, Morris. So that’s the way we announce goals as well.

James Woollard [00:32:41]:

Again, it’s a highly interactive thing between me and the crowd. And, again, I think it’s something that I think the crowd really enjoys.

Scott Cowan [00:32:51]:

Yeah. Well, so that’s very different than, say, baseball Yep. American football, basketball. Right. Is this is this sort of call and response prevalent in other, like, in the Premier League? Is that is it would that be something you would see if I was tuning into a Premier League game?

James Woollard [00:33:13]:

Actually, I don’t think so much in the Premier League. I think this is an idea that came from Germany. Okay. I think the Bundesliga, which is the German equivalent of the Premier League, did that. And it’s been copied by several American teams, but, it’s I would say it’s a hugely successful way and and fun way of doing lineups, doing goal calls. And it is kind like you said, it’s kind of peculiar to soccer. I’m not aware of it in other sports that might be other sports that do it. I’m not sure, but yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:33:49]:

Oh, I like the idea of it because it it engages the crowd. The crowds the crowds invested in paying attention and and Exactly. And pay you know, going I’ve been to one Sounders match.

James Woollard [00:34:00]:

Uh-huh.

Scott Cowan [00:34:00]:

And I was that confused guy up in the stands. He probably saw me. Just looking around going, I’m not sure what’s going on here, but it was fun. I didn’t know what was going on. This whole thing with scarves. I will get to that in a minute. You know? I don’t understand. And the whole the ritual of it, if you will Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:34:17]:

Was really interesting.

James Woollard [00:34:22]:

It’s funny you use the word ritual. I think I think sport’s kind of like a religion to many people. Yeah. And it has its own rituals or liturgy. And going going to a soccer game is is kinda like going to church, but with a different liturgy.

Scott Cowan [00:34:42]:

Yeah. No. I I think that’s true for absolutely true.

James Woollard [00:34:47]:

Mhmm.

Scott Cowan [00:34:48]:

So your your job so you’re there a couple hours before. Your your your mic is on for the first, you know once the gates are open, you’re

James Woollard [00:34:56]:

you’re

Scott Cowan [00:34:56]:

on the you’re on the clock.

James Woollard [00:34:57]:

Correct.

Scott Cowan [00:34:58]:

And then you’re you introduce the roster. Don’t are you introducing the the opposition as well?

James Woollard [00:35:03]:

Yes. But not so enthusiastic.

Scott Cowan [00:35:05]:

And so are you just going, you know, and now number five, Bill Jones? It

James Woollard [00:35:10]:

kind of. It’s actually like that, actually. Yeah. I give them what what what some fans have said jokingly, the epitome of meh. Basically, at least, well, with with little enthusiasm, you still have to maintain the volume because they the the crowd has to hear you say the names. You can’t just mumble the names. But

Scott Cowan [00:35:34]:

Right.

James Woollard [00:35:34]:

Basically, I do the complete opposite of what you’re not supposed to do as a voice over talent.

Scott Cowan [00:35:40]:

Okay.

James Woollard [00:35:41]:

With a voice over talent, you’re supposed to sound interesting and enthusiastic, and you vary your tone a little bit and blah blah blah. But when I’m introducing the opposing team, I they get none of that.

Scott Cowan [00:35:52]:

And I see

James Woollard [00:35:53]:

the crowd love it because they, in the south end of the stadium where the Emerald City City supporters group, which is the biggest supporters group of the Sounders stand, they’ll literally turn their back on the pitch. And they’ll look up at the big screen, and as I announce the opposing players, they’ll shout back, who? You know, like, basically, you’re an inconsequential person to me.

Scott Cowan [00:36:19]:

That’s awesome.

James Woollard [00:36:21]:

Yeah. So and and and that’s a that’s a way of giving, you know, relatively speaking, then the opposing team, not very much home advantage, whereas we get all the home advantage, you know.

Scott Cowan [00:36:37]:

Right.

James Woollard [00:36:38]:

And it it’s it’s allowed. It’s it’s some people would say, well, that’s not good sportsmanship to do that. But but, hey, that’s part of the fun of being at home. You get to create that home field advantage and atmosphere. And I’ll pump up our names. And if they score, if the opposing team scores, I will announce it just like I announce them as the roster. I will say goal score by LA Galaxy. You know, with a with very little enthusiasm.

James Woollard [00:37:10]:

I mean, I’m following that the crowd from here, but the crowd at that point, I just ticked off that the opposition has scored. They don’t want to hear me tell them. You know? So, basically, I get get rid of that quickly. You know?

Scott Cowan [00:37:25]:

It’s it’s the thing is also, though, is there’s an entertainment value here. Oh, yeah. And and this is I I I’m of the opinion. The way you’re describing it is this is good natured Mhmm.

James Woollard [00:37:39]:

Television. It’s comedy. It’s DNA comedy.

Scott Cowan [00:37:43]:

And If you were to be if you were to be in attendance down in LA at a Galaxy’s Sounders match

James Woollard [00:37:49]:

Mhmm.

Scott Cowan [00:37:50]:

I would guess that your your peer for calling the game for the LA Galaxy would do something

James Woollard [00:37:56]:

Exactly the same.

Scott Cowan [00:37:58]:

Or yes. In his whatever his or her Yeah. Style was. But Yeah. The Sounders name, they would and now number five, Freddie Montero.

James Woollard [00:38:07]:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They’re not gonna they’re not gonna give us any enthusiasm. No. Now, the only time when you might get into trouble for doing that is if if you are maybe hosting at at a neutral venue or something like that, and then then that’s different. You know? You want you want to give equal weight to both sides.

Scott Cowan [00:38:27]:

But Sure.

James Woollard [00:38:28]:

But normally, when we’re at home, yep, I’ll pump up our names. I’ll be enthusiastic about our goals and the opposite for the opposition.

Scott Cowan [00:38:37]:

Do you have you ever given any thought to doing, like, you know, radio or TV play by play? Do you want to do that, or do you like this role that you have?

James Woollard [00:38:48]:

No. I like this role. And, actually, I I know the limits of my talent. To be a play by play person, you really have to be extremely knowledgeable about the support, and I wouldn’t put myself in that category. Usually, a lot of the play by play folks are former players themselves or well, they’ve just they’ve done enough commentary that they’ve really become very, very good at it. I couldn’t do that. I I don’t consider myself to have I don’t know if you have this expression in America, but the gift of the gap. Do you know what I mean by that? Yeah.

James Woollard [00:39:27]:

I do. But The ability to just ramble incessantly about anything. Right. No.

Scott Cowan [00:39:32]:

James Woollard [00:39:33]:

I think that the best play by play announcers are really very it’s it’s a highly skilled job, and I I don’t think I could do that, partly partly because of lack of expertise, partly because I think I would run out of words. And then there’d be blank spaces, and people would wonder why I got the job.

Scott Cowan [00:39:56]:

So after the match is over Mhmm. Are you

James Woollard [00:40:01]:

you you

Scott Cowan [00:40:01]:

I mean, you started an hour before. So are you still being a public address announcer after the match? Are you telling people to exit calmly or,

James Woollard [00:40:10]:

you

Scott Cowan [00:40:10]:

know, remain calm all as well? Or

James Woollard [00:40:13]:

Yeah. So I’m a public address announcer right through to the end. There’s very little that said during the run of play other than gold calls, substitutes, yellow cards, that sort of thing. Then there’ll be a halftime break, and I’ll do my spiel again. There’ll be fifteen minutes of announcements. And then after the game, it’s there’s a few closing reads, but, typically, they last no more than about ten minutes, and then I’m done after the end of the game. So, actually, that’s quite fun. If there’s an afternoon game, I’ll go out afterwards with some friends, you know, who are fans, and we’ll have a drink or go for a meal or something like that.

James Woollard [00:40:49]:

If it’s an evening game and I finish late, I’ll probably just go home at that point. Okay.

Scott Cowan [00:40:54]:

So during your career as the the the PA announcer, what’s some of the memorable things that you’ve witnessed?

James Woollard [00:41:02]:

Yeah. I have, I mean, a number of favorite things. Trying to think now. Back back in, I think it was 02/2011, ‘1 of our star players got injured, broke his leg, unfortunately, in an away game. His name’s Steve Zakhawani. And then literally a year later to the day, he came back after rehabbing. And so introducing him onto the pitch as a substitute was, one of those spine tingling moments. 02/2014, we won the supporters’ shield at home, and I’ll explain to that.

James Woollard [00:41:42]:

The the supporters’ shield is basically, it goes to the team that has the most points in the regular season, not including the playoffs. So in 02/2014, we were considered the best regular season team in the whole league. And, winning that at home was really fun and announcing the goals for that. Some, you know, in 02/2016, I remember one of our forwards, Nelson Valdez, who hadn’t scored for forever, finally scored in the playoffs, and that and that was, like, amazing. And so announcing his goal in, in 02/2016, we won the MLS Cup, which is the the equivalent of the Super Bowl, basically, the playoffs after the season has ended. That was in Toronto, but I got to kind of introduce the players at a big rally downtown Seattle. That was fun. And then probably the highlight the biggest highlight of my career has been announcing the MLS Cup in 02/2019, which we won at home.

James Woollard [00:42:54]:

Mhmm. And, there were three or four years where it was the MLS cut cup finalists were Toronto and Seattle, and this was the third time we’d met, in the MLS cup final. And we won it at home in front of the largest crowd ever at what was then CenturyLink Stadium that’s now Lumen called Lumen Field. But we’ve had we had more fans in the stadium than at any other sporting event, including the Seahawks. So we hold the the Sounders holds the record for that, sporting attendance, which is but just the fact that we won it and just being able to announce that at the end. I mean, I was I was very nervous because I knew that, you know, I didn’t wanna screw up in such a big occasion, but I was also so excited because it it was my team that had won the MLS Cup. And so that, you know, like you see in baseball, the Woollard Series or in the football, the Super Bowl, winning that is is the piece de resistance, as we say.

Scott Cowan [00:44:01]:

Yes. Now putting you on a spot, this is a a this is like asking you which is your favorite kid type question. So I know it’s gonna be challenging. Through the years, you’ve got to meet a lot of the members of the team. Right?

James Woollard [00:44:13]:

Actually, you know, that’s interesting. A lot of people assume I mix and mingle with the team, but I don’t really at all.

Scott Cowan [00:44:18]:

Okay.

James Woollard [00:44:19]:

There’s there’s a bit of a divide between folks who work in my line of work and the playing staff and coaches, but but I know what you’re gonna ask me. Who’s my favorite player?

Scott Cowan [00:44:30]:

Well, no. And I’m that’s the question, but I have a slightly different very like

James Woollard [00:44:34]:

Okay.

Scott Cowan [00:44:35]:

Who’s the player that you’d wanna go out to dinner with? Because you think it would be interesting to sit across the table and have a an hour long conversation with this person, you know, over over food.

James Woollard [00:44:47]:

Well, I just mentioned him actually. His name is Steve Zakuani. He’s a former player. Now he does he does color commentary on the play by play.

Scott Cowan [00:44:57]:

James Woollard [00:44:57]:

He originates from Congo and Africa, but he moved to London, Mhmm. As a kid, grew up in London, played for Arsenal Academy. Just a really nice guy. I’ve gotten to know him a little bit, but I don’t know him in-depth. But I think he would be a fascinating person to get to know more. Other other folks trying to think. If you ask me my favorite player,

Scott Cowan [00:45:28]:

one

James Woollard [00:45:28]:

of my favorite players in the past was a guy who’s no longer no longer with the team. His name is Obafemi Martins. He’s from Nigeria originally. And he played alongside Clint Dempsey. Mhmm. You know? And I’m trying to think now. They I think they both started at the club either 02/2013 or 02/2014. Brilliant pairing up front.

James Woollard [00:45:57]:

They got a they were just, like, magical to watch. I don’t I honestly don’t know much about Obafemi. I don’t know whether it’d be a good for

Scott Cowan [00:46:05]:

James Woollard [00:46:05]:

sit down dinner conversation, but

Scott Cowan [00:46:07]:

but

James Woollard [00:46:07]:

he was he was one of my favorite players to watch. And it’ll be fun to just sit down and chat with him, I guess.

Scott Cowan [00:46:14]:

Okay. If you could announce your dream 11 lineup, what would be some give me some examples of names that would be on there. And this can be from any league. You can you can mix and match.

James Woollard [00:46:34]:

Oh my gosh. That’s, that’s very challenging. I think for the well, let me just go with the Sounders because that’s easier. That’s the team I know the best. Okay. In goal would be difficult because we actually have had two star goalkeepers in our history, Casey Keller, who played for the US men’s national team

Scott Cowan [00:46:56]:

Mhmm.

James Woollard [00:46:56]:

And, Stefan Vries. So it’d be a toss-up between those, for goal. Defenders, he’s no longer with us, but I have Chad Marshall in defense. I probably have a couple of our current defenders, Jaymar Gomez Andrade and Nuhu, who’s a fan favorite at the moment. He’s from Cameroon. Midfield, not no longer with us, but I’d have Osvaldo Alonso. He played with us for many, many years. Let’s see.

James Woollard [00:47:39]:

I’d have to pick probably you know, our current Sounders team is very, very strong. So I picked, Jordan Morris, Christian Roldan, Nicholas Loderon. Let’s see. I’m trying to find another midfielder who I’d throw in the mix there. Name’s escaping me at the moment. But up front, I would have Freddie Montero, who is, again, one of our team’s long standing players. He actually went away and came back.

Scott Cowan [00:48:16]:

Mhmm.

James Woollard [00:48:17]:

And one of my favorite forwards, Raul Ruiz Diaz, who’s still with the team, and Clint Dempsey and Obafemi Martin. So that I probably chosen too many players there, but Well, that’s okay. That’s okay. Those would be some of the greatest that have either played or still play for the Sounders. Okay. But if I if I was going to pick some international stars, you know, you’d probably have to throw in Lionel Messi as or someone like that. You know? Because he’s generally regarded as one of the best in the world ever.

Scott Cowan [00:48:50]:

Right. Ever. Right. In your opinion, who’s the Seattle Sounders’ biggest rivalry?

James Woollard [00:48:58]:

Oh, that’s an easy question. That’s Portland Timbers. And, it’s funny as a rivalry because it’s a bit like Manchester United, Manchester City. It’s like you’re essentially from the same place,

Scott Cowan [00:49:13]:

and

James Woollard [00:49:13]:

I think Portland and Seattle are very similar. They’re both from the Pacific Northwest. They’re culturally very similar cities, and yet there’s a strong rivalry between them. And it has been since 1975, actually, when Portland Timbers came into being. We came into being the year before that in a former iteration

Scott Cowan [00:49:34]:

Mhmm.

James Woollard [00:49:34]:

When we were in a older league, former league before MLS. So we’ve been playing essentially since ’75. And in three years’ time, that will be a fifty year rivalry.

Scott Cowan [00:49:50]:

Wow.

James Woollard [00:49:50]:

We yeah. The fans on both teams, you know, they’ll say they hate each other. Then it’s but it’s but hate in sport is, you know, it’s it’s just more banter. It’s, no one really hates, the opposing team, but they, or they might hate the concept of the team. They don’t hate the people, you know. But it’s a strong rivalry. We always want to beat them. Same, you know, Portland would say the same about us.

James Woollard [00:50:21]:

They always want to beat us. You could have you could have the greatest season, Seattle season ever, but if you lost to Portland, that would be like, that would be the most disappointing thing to happen that year. You know?

Scott Cowan [00:50:32]:

Right.

James Woollard [00:50:33]:

And last year, we beat them six two in Portland, so that was like,

Scott Cowan [00:50:38]:

yes. Well, it’s like if you go to baseball, like, the New York Yankees.

James Woollard [00:50:42]:

Yes. And the Boston Red Sox or something like that.

Scott Cowan [00:50:45]:

Yeah. Well, just the Yankees okay. That rivalry is is real fierce. But the the and I I hate to use the word hate because that’s such a strong

James Woollard [00:50:55]:

Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:50:56]:

They’re they’re despised. Maybe that’s I can get away with that word. Anyway, but nobody likes the Yankees other than Yankee fans Yeah. Because, well, they always got all the best players, and they do this and they do that. Well but, you know, the sport would be much less interesting if there wasn’t that type of

James Woollard [00:51:13]:

Yep.

Scott Cowan [00:51:13]:

Rivalry. If, you know, if everybody was just meh.

James Woollard [00:51:18]:

Yeah. You know? To be honest, the Sounders have been a very successful team since they started in 02/2009. We’ve won multiple trophies, and we’ve gotten a little bit of a Yankees reputation, to be honest. That’s, like, one of the teams that people don’t like because we’re so successful. But I think the Portland fans in particular dislike us. And, you know, we’ll taunt each other on social media. They’ve only won one MLS Cup. And, actually, the MLS Cup was hosted in Portland last year, and they lost to the home.

James Woollard [00:51:53]:

So that was you know, you can imagine how ecstatic the Seattle fans felt about that. But it there’s lots it’s it’s back and forth banter. But the funny thing is, you know, like I said, culturally, we’re so similar. If you met each other in the street and you didn’t know any affiliation, you’d probably be best friends with each other. It’s it’s kind of a silly rivalry in in a sense.

Scott Cowan [00:52:16]:

And we like to think

James Woollard [00:52:17]:

of them as our little brother. They’re our little stepbrother from down south. You know?

Scott Cowan [00:52:21]:

K. I’m sure they love that.

James Woollard [00:52:23]:

Yeah. Okay.

Scott Cowan [00:52:26]:

In in baseball, if you go to a Mariners game, the Toronto Blue Jays seem to travel well to Seattle. Okay. Because maybe because it’s the proximity to Vancouver.

James Woollard [00:52:38]:

And, you

Scott Cowan [00:52:38]:

know, you you go to a Mariners game when the Mariners aren’t doing well, and they’re playing the Blue Jays, and it almost feels like it’s a an away game.

James Woollard [00:52:45]:

Right.

Scott Cowan [00:52:46]:

Are there teams in the league that travel like that? I mean, if somebody’s coming to Seattle, does somebody does the LA Galaxy have a large fan base that travels with them in or is it is it not like that in that?

James Woollard [00:53:00]:

Yeah. I would say apart from Vancouver and Portland, Vancouver Whitecaps in Canada, there’s not there’s not many teams that bring a a ton of supporters with them. You know? Because it’s it’s it’s given the distance between these cities, it’s not an easy thing to do. But there’s usually, you know, and a lot of this is pre COVID, you know, we Sure. But back in the day, Portland would bring, I don’t know, two or 3,000 pounds up, and we would do the same down there. Vancouver might bring not quite so many, but a good contingent. There are a lot of teams, clubs that we’ll play, and there’ll be, like, 50 fans from the opposing team in the stadium. And, but that’s you know, a lot of it’s the, you know, teams like Miami or something like that, which are far, far away.

James Woollard [00:53:55]:

And and maybe the only supporters that that have traveled are probably Miami fans that live in Washington state or something like that for some reason. Sure. Okay. Yeah. But and we’ve got one of the best traveling groups around, but but, you know, the further it is a way to play, you know, the the fewer fans can afford to do it. It’s it’s funny actually because if you look at, you know, England and the Premier League, the cities that are involved in the Premier League are so close to each other relatively speaking. It would be like your furthest away opponent is in Spokane or something like that. Okay.

James Woollard [00:54:35]:

Oh, you know, the the agony of having to travel all that way. That I mean, that’s English perception of distance is is a lot different from American perception. I remember living in England and thinking, you know, if I traveled 400 miles, that would be a long way away. But now I, you know, live in America, and I think, well, that’s actually not very far away.

Scott Cowan [00:54:55]:

Well, there you know, the state of Oregon is larger than Germany.

James Woollard [00:55:00]:

Yeah. It’s crazy.

Scott Cowan [00:55:02]:

So yeah. There you go.

James Woollard [00:55:03]:

We’re a huge country.

Scott Cowan [00:55:06]:

When you’re not the PA announcer for the Sounders, what do you like to do for fun and entertainment?

James Woollard [00:55:14]:

Yeah. I, have a couple of dogs. I’m married, and I have I don’t have any biological kids. I have some step kids, and I actually have a granddaughter. So family and home life is really important. I’ll either be playing with the dogs or playing with my granddaughter or, hanging out with my wife. I like hiking. One of the things I really appreciate about the Pacific Northwest is the beauty of the place, and I like photography.

James Woollard [00:55:46]:

I’ve got, we happen to live in a in a house that backs onto a stream. So I’ve got a couple of trail cams set up to view the wild animals and stuff. So I’m very much into the outdoor life if I can get outside. In the summer, it’s I’m more of a fair weather hiker, but in typically in the summer, I’ll be out hiking up the mountains, and I’ll often go out on my own. I’m kind of introverted. I like to get away and

Scott Cowan [00:56:14]:

Okay.

James Woollard [00:56:15]:

Think about things and just enjoy the beauty of the landscape around me.

Scott Cowan [00:56:20]:

Okay. So one of the questions I ask all my guests will be the next question. But because you’re British Mhmm. And I’m can there’s a stereotype. So I’m gonna ask the question differently.

James Woollard [00:56:33]:

Okay.

Scott Cowan [00:56:34]:

Coffee or tea?

James Woollard [00:56:38]:

Tea. K. Definitely. I’m

Scott Cowan [00:56:41]:

a huge coffee fan, so I always ask people where to go for for coffee.

James Woollard [00:56:45]:

Right. And I

Scott Cowan [00:56:46]:

But I’ll

James Woollard [00:56:47]:

I do appreciate coffee. I’m just, not as into it as I am tea.

Scott Cowan [00:56:53]:

Alright. Okay. That’s fine. Where do you like to go for a good cup of tea in the area?

James Woollard [00:57:03]:

My pantry. To get

Scott Cowan [00:57:06]:

That was a fair a fair answer.

James Woollard [00:57:08]:

To get the Tetley tea bags out of the cupboard.

Scott Cowan [00:57:11]:

And The Tetley tea bags.

James Woollard [00:57:12]:

Tetley. Yeah. I get Why

Scott Cowan [00:57:14]:

why Tetley over, say, Lipton?

James Woollard [00:57:16]:

Oh, oh, I can’t stand Lipton’s. There are different Tet Tetley is a kind of traditional British black tea in a tea bag. And and and, actually, tea aficionados would probably be looking down their nose at me now with the fact that But

Scott Cowan [00:57:31]:

if you’re in the you’re in The United States, I don’t expect you to have access to a type of tea that a tea aficionado Yeah. A aficionado would expect of you.

James Woollard [00:57:40]:

Right. Right. So I just use the Tetley tea bags. It’s it’s traditional black tea. It tastes good. I stick a tea bag in the cup, pour it pour in the hot water with my kettle made from my kettle, heat it up with my kettle, I should say, and then add some milk and perfection. That’s that’s my breakfast drink. And then Okay.

James Woollard [00:57:59]:

If I was to go out for a nice cup of coffee, I can recommend Victor’s Coffee House in Redmond. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to that.

Scott Cowan [00:58:08]:

I have not been to that.

James Woollard [00:58:09]:

That’s have. But, I can’t say that I’m an expert in coffee. So, yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:58:16]:

I’m not claiming to be an expert. I just drink way too much of it.

James Woollard [00:58:19]:

I I listened to a couple of your podcasts, and I I I knew that was a question that you, that you often answered of your guests. And I and I I could tell you were into coffee yourself. So

Scott Cowan [00:58:29]:

Yeah. I I drink way too much, but I love I love the taste of coffee. Mhmm. I I will drink tea. Mhmm. I have no discernible palate for tea. I mean, you could

James Woollard [00:58:40]:

Right.

Scott Cowan [00:58:40]:

You could blind test me with the best coffee that you or excuse me, the best tea. The best tea that you could possibly imagine. You’re like, this is amazing and and give me, you know, a a Lipton. And I don’t can’t promise you that I would go, oh, this is better. Yeah. I just don’t have the discernible palate.

James Woollard [00:58:58]:

And I I just know I like black tea or Earl Grey tea, breakfast blend or something like that. I don’t like, what in England, we would say herbal teas or where in America say herbal, you drop the eight.

Scott Cowan [00:59:11]:

Right.

James Woollard [00:59:12]:

I don’t like herbal teas. I don’t like fruity teas, minty teas. I I just give me black tea, please.

Scott Cowan [00:59:19]:

Okay. So last question direct question I’m gonna ask you, and then we’ll I’ll let you have the last word. Okay. Do you go do you go home often?

James Woollard [00:59:29]:

Back to England? No. Okay.

Scott Cowan [00:59:32]:

Do you talk to your friends from

James Woollard [00:59:35]:

Yeah. I’m I’m on social media, like Facebook connected with family only. So, you know, back and forth with my family. I don’t have a lot of, friends because once you’ve once you’ve left a place and, you know, it’s ’98, I’ve I’ve been out of the country now twenty four years. You kind of lose track of friends and stuff, unfortunately. I’ve got some family I still connect with. My best friend from high school actually lives in America now. So, I’ll talk to her every now and again.

James Woollard [01:00:09]:

But the only reason I would go back to England is to visit my parents or my, niece and nephew and their families. I generally don’t go back very often, but we are going this summer. Okay. Last time we went was back in 02/2018. Actually, Seahawks were playing in London, so we made a combined trip to watch the Seahawks play and visit my family at the time. But, you know, cost is a prohibit prohibition, and, obviously, with COVID, you know, it was really hard to travel.

Scott Cowan [01:00:45]:

So part two of the question is, friends, family, do do they ever have they ever commented that you don’t sound the same as you did? Have you picked up

James Woollard [01:00:56]:

Have you has

Scott Cowan [01:00:56]:

your voice become Americanized? How’s that?

James Woollard [01:00:59]:

I believe it has. Most Americans would say if you’ve never met me before and they listen to me, they would say, oh, yes. You’ve got a British accent. But I do get occasionally people people say you’re from Australia. And I believe that’s because if you combine a British accent with a bit of an American twang, it does turn into an sort of Australian put another shrimp on the barbie, Bruce kind of sound. And when I’ve gone back to England, last time I was back in England, actually, might be the time before last, my sister commented that I sounded really funny. That was her expression. And I think it’s you know, I picked up Americanisms.

James Woollard [01:01:42]:

I’m sure my accent’s changed. I’ve picked up words that you don’t use in England. So I’m sure I’m I’m sure I sound weird.

Scott Cowan [01:01:51]:

I’m in

James Woollard [01:01:51]:

this sort of middle of the Atlantic stuck stuck somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic.

Scott Cowan [01:01:59]:

Well, I will say, now that you’ve said that, the the tone tonal quality

James Woollard [01:02:05]:

Mhmm.

Scott Cowan [01:02:06]:

Has Australian. Yeah. But your phrasing is nowhere near how the what little few Australians I know, you don’t put your words together like an Australian. So I wouldn’t have thought that until you Okay. Put the yeah. But it’s because your your sentence structure is not the same. No. Okay.

Scott Cowan [01:02:28]:

Alright. So this is where I get you know, this is how I cheat. Every episode, I ask this question. So what didn’t I ask you that I should have asked you?

James Woollard [01:02:36]:

You didn’t ask me about my Narnia closet.

Scott Cowan [01:02:40]:

Oh my gosh. You’re right. So I’m gonna let me let me set that up. Okay. So has it been on Twitter that you posted the pictures? I must be. I think I yeah. It was on Twitter. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [01:02:50]:

So you were recreating the Narnia closet. Yeah. And I joked before this episode went live if you were in the Narnia closet because then you said no. But I accept

James Woollard [01:03:00]:

it now, but not your name.

Scott Cowan [01:03:03]:

But what was the inspiration, and how has it been received? Mhmm.

James Woollard [01:03:09]:

Well, the unveiling of the Narnia closet will happen tonight. Let me explain. I have a granddaughter I mentioned I mentioned previously, and she actually literally lives around the corner, which is great. So we’re we’re very close with her. Her name’s Moira. And, it’s just like one of the highlights of my life being a grandfather. And we have this downstairs closet, which is actually it’s actually bigger than the closet I’m sitting in at the moment, or at least it’s longer, not quite as wide. It’s about eight foot long by about three and a half feet wide.

James Woollard [01:03:48]:

It’s underneath our stairs, and it’s where we hang our coats. So for some reason, I had this brainwave that I was gonna convert the closet into the Narnia wardrobe. Mhmm. But I’ve called it the Narnia closet because it has the coats hanging up. So, I had this dream. I was gonna do this, and finally, I got around to it last weekend. And, I don’t know if your podcast ever has links or anything, but you could link to a picture of it if it I I will. I will.

James Woollard [01:04:22]:

To do it. But, so I in a Bob Russ kind of little trees type style, I recreated what I viewed as Narnia. So you go through the coats hanging in the closet. And on the wall, I painted trees, which are covered in snow with tree brown tree trunks all around the both sides and at the end. I’ve painted a lamppost because if you’re familiar with the Chronicles of Narnia, the land, the witch, and the wardrobe, when Lucy goes through the wardrobe, the first thing she sees in the land of Narnia, it’s snow covered and there’s trees and whatever, but there’s a lamppost with a shining light. And I’ve put, blue sky and stars, which are a string of lights on wrapped around the ceiling, but one of the lights ends up as in the lamppost. So it’s literally like the lamppost has this real light shining. So I’ve recreated this, and I put a white rug on the ground to simulate snow.

James Woollard [01:05:30]:

And tonight, Moira is coming around because we’re having some guests around for dinner, and she’s coming around with her parents. And I’m gonna show her this, so I’m gonna hopefully get a nice reaction video. I think she’s gonna love it because, you know,

Scott Cowan [01:05:44]:

if you

James Woollard [01:05:44]:

think of two year olds, three year olds, they love these. They love forts. They love creating things out of cardboard boxes and hideaways and whatever. So this is going to be what I envisioned to be a reading nook for her where she’ll be able to go and hang out. There’ll be pillows in there and her cuddly toys and whatever, and she’ll be able to and one day, I’m hoping I’ll be in there reading the Chronicles of Narnia to her, and this will be like grandfather, granddaughter perfection.

Scott Cowan [01:06:13]:

That’s that’s awesome. I love that. That’s that’s wonderful. Yeah. I I I hope that you’ll share the video on on I will. We can okay. Mhmm. Well, so I’ll ask I’ll I’ll reask the question.

Scott Cowan [01:06:24]:

What else

James Woollard [01:06:25]:

could I should I have asked

Scott Cowan [01:06:26]:

you besides that? Because we had talked we were gonna talk about that, and I I did drop that one. So what else could we should I have asked you?

James Woollard [01:06:37]:

I can’t really think of anything. You asked me all about PA announcing and things like that. I’m definitely a fan of the Sounders. Not all PA announcers are fans of the club that they announce for, but and I’ve never announced for any other type of sport, which is kind of interesting. A lot of

Scott Cowan [01:07:00]:

Do you want to?

James Woollard [01:07:01]:

Nope. I, I’m very happy announcing for the Sounders. And if I retire as the announcer of the Sounders, I’ll be very happy. I have one goal left, and, and that is in 02/1926, Seattle is in the running to be one of the cities to host the World Cup. Not the World Cup final, but the World Cup competition. It’s already been it’s already been approved that Canada, Mexico, The United States will host the twenty twenty six World Cup. And, hopefully, Seattle, Lumen Field will be one of the host locations for a few of the games. So Mhmm.

James Woollard [01:07:43]:

That Woollard be my dream to announce, a World Cup game. I’ve previously had the privilege of announcing The US Men’s National Team, The US Women’s National Team, several other international teams in in in, international competitions that have happened at Linfield, but announcing the World Cup will be such a fun experience.

Scott Cowan [01:08:06]:

Okay. Well, that’s that’s a that’s quite the bucket list item to

James Woollard [01:08:10]:

have. It would be a bucket list item for me.

Scott Cowan [01:08:13]:

K. Well, I wanna thank you for taking the time and and sharing your story with us because I I think it’s great.

James Woollard [01:08:20]:

I do

Scott Cowan [01:08:20]:

have one last question. I

James Woollard [01:08:21]:

like I

Scott Cowan [01:08:21]:

have one last question. I’ve been to like I said, I’ve been to one hockey excuse me. Well, I’ve never been to hockey, and I was talking to the Kraken’s announcer a couple weeks ago. That one’s still in my brain. Yep. I’ve been to one Sounders match.

James Woollard [01:08:32]:

Mhmm.

Scott Cowan [01:08:34]:

If I go to an oh, well, not yeah. I will go. When I go to another Sounders match

James Woollard [01:08:40]:

Mhmm.

Scott Cowan [01:08:41]:

Where should I sit for because I don’t know what’s going on in the sport. Mhmm. So where would be a good spot in the stadium for a novice to watch the game?

James Woollard [01:08:57]:

You wanna get up high so that you can get a perspective of the whole pitch. So as high up as you can in the second tier, the club level, they call it. Unfortunately, the third tier is usually closed off. We used to have that open before COVID, but they’ve changed that now. So get up as high as you can just so you can get a good pitch perspective. And I recommend you take a soccer loving friend with you Mhmm. And ask ask him or her what’s going on, what’s happening in the game at this moment in time. I I think it’s a fairly simple to understand game, but people will tell me baseball’s simple to understand, and I don’t understand it.

James Woollard [01:09:43]:

You know? So, it depends on your, you know, you know, your experience growing up watching it, etcetera. But I don’t think it’s that complicated. We do have a few complicated things. There’s something called off side, which I won’t begin to try to explain to you.

Scott Cowan [01:09:56]:

Thanks. Yeah. Because I that don’t wanna escape. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

James Woollard [01:09:58]:

Don’t wanna confuse anybody. But, basically, yeah, get up high so that you can see the whole pitch end to end. Maybe midfield position, would be good. If you wanted to just go and soak up the atmosphere towards the south end, there’s a group called this Emerald City supporters. They are

Scott Cowan [01:10:21]:

James Woollard [01:10:21]:

raucous crowd who wave flags and cheer and have chants and stuff. And that’s fun to watch, but you don’t wanna be standing behind them because your flags the flags might obscure your view of the pitch. So if you’re wanting to kinda learn more of the game, maybe the southern end, but not right behind the goal, more the sides of the southern end of the stadium, which is what they call the Broham End. That’s actually where I am. I’m in the third tier level in the southwest corner of the stadium, the announcing booth.

Scott Cowan [01:10:51]:

Okay. Alright. Yep. Well, again, thank you very much for taking the time to chat with me, and I really appreciate it.

James Woollard [01:10:59]:

Thank you for inviting me up. Appreciate it too.

Scott Cowan [01:11:12]:

Join us next time for another episode of the Exploring Washington State podcast.