by John Sorce
john.sorce@theleaven.org
LENEXA — Not many adults, let alone high schoolers, are able to turn a life event that takes away something they’ve had their whole lives and turn it into a positive.
But St. James Academy, Lenexa, sophomore Mary Claire Zacharias is one of those people.
Zacharias was a lifelong basketball player and had aspirations of playing in college.
But a neck injury suffered in a car accident right before the basketball season of her freshman year left her unable to play contact sports ever again.
“It was hard to find out I could never play the sport again that I put so much work into,” Zacharias said. “But I want to show people that a situation does not have to break you.
“You can keep going because that is what God ultimately wants you to do, and find something else in your path.”
As fate would have it, an email was sent out shortly after the accident by Cohen Merrick, the school’s director of broadcasting and media, looking for students interested in broadcasting for the Thunder Broadcasting Network.
Broadcasting was not something that ever crossed Zacharias’ mind before. She was able to recall only one instance growing up where she and her twin sister Caroline stood behind the couch and commentated an event they were watching on TV.
“It was just a one-time thing for fun,” she said. “This was not on my mind at all.”
But she felt “a calling from God” to give it a try. She started by operating a camera and then got opportunities to commentate.
Zacharias has worn a variety of hats since putting on the headset, starting with becoming the lead play-by-play voice for St. James’ soccer teams.
She also does color commentary and sideline reporting for football and basketball games while also hosting their pregame shows.
“I feel like it’s a God-given gift that I didn’t know I had,” Zacharias said. “But now he’s letting me share it with the world.
“It’s ultimately God speaking through me and telling me all the little things in my head to say.”
Another thing that helps Zacharias during basketball season is the fact that she grew up playing with a lot of the girls on the team.
“Color commentating is analysis of the game, so knowing a lot of the girls and having trained with them helps,” she said. “I know a lot of the plays they run, so knowing what is about to happen has helped me a lot.”
She hopes to take on some play-by-play opportunities for football and basketball in the coming years after some of the current upperclassmen graduate.
But being the only girl calling games was not easy at first. Zacharias credited Merrick in helping with her self-confidence and teaching her about broadcasting.
It also gives her an opportunity to meet other people she wouldn’t know otherwise.
“There are other girls that are in the control room or on a camera, but they’re not people that I would usually spend time with outside of school,” she said. “I think it’s nice that I get to surround myself with other people when I do Thunder broadcasting.”
Zacharias has also begun to promote her broadcasts over social media, though she only uses X and is grateful for her parents’ protection when it comes to having an online presence.
She admits all the attention can be overwhelming at times. But she has learned to keep things in perspective and set boundaries with it.
“God does not want to get you stressed out about the numbers because none of that matters,” she said. “But branding is huge these days and I think it’s important to brand myself to see what opportunities could be out there.”
One thing that separates Zacharias is the work she puts into her broadcasts on her own time. It takes her six to eight hours to prepare for a basketball game, and she is already working on her football chart for the fall.
“The biggest thing is the time that she puts into it,” Merrick said. “The guy who used to host our pregame shows graduated and I approached her about doing it. She then came up with all the segments and how the show would go.
“We don’t expect the students to do that. She just does it, and I think that’s what sets her apart.”
She credits that work ethic to her basketball days and trainer Luther Glover, who trains NFL players like Tyreek Hill and Mecole Hardman.
“He taught me to work as hard as you can to be the best you can be,” Zacharias said. “Nothing is going to be handed to you and that goes for anything in life.
“If you put in the work, it’s going to show.”
Putting in the work also looks like reaching out to professionals in the industry for advice.
That’s how a connection with ESPN’s Andraya Carter started, which led to an appearance on “College GameDay” before the Kansas men’s basketball game against BYU at Allen Fieldhouse on Jan. 31.
“It started with an email I sent to Andraya last fall sharing some of my work and asking for her advice,” Zacharias said. “She said if GameDay was to schedule a show in Lawrence that I could come shadow her.
“Once it was confirmed that GameDay was coming for the KU/BYU game, we figured out the details to make it happen. I learned a lot and it was a great morning.”
As for the future, Merrick is grateful to have Zacharias for two more years.
“She’s very humble,” he said. “She does so much work and loves finding ways to make her broadcast better.”
For Zacharias’ part, she hopes to continue pursuing broadcasting beyond high school but will follow God’s lead wherever that may be.
“I would love to continue doing this,” Zacharias said. “But we will see where God takes me and I will follow his lead.”
