When the University of Washington announced Elise Woodward’s latest career milestone on Tuesday, she was in Las Vegas, preparing to call the Portland Fire’s game there against the reigning WNBA-champion Aces.
What better way to celebrate than by putting on a headset?
No doubt, Woodward stays busy. Currently, she’s the voice of the Fire. She’s taken on play-by-play duties for women’s and men’s hoops (and myriad other sports) over the years with the Pac-12 Network, Big Ten Network, ESPN and FOX, and color analysis for the Seattle Storm, a job she held before joining the Fire. She’s been a pregame, halftime and postgame host for the Storm, Sonics and Trail Blazers. She had a stint as a talk-radio host at KJR. And, of course, she’s spent the past 23 seasons as the sideline reporter for UW football radio broadcasts, a role at her alma mater she has always cherished.
“I shake my head in gratitude before every game that I get paid to do this,” Woodward said from Vegas. “It’s incredible.”
She’ll have a different view for Year 24.
Woodward will take over this season as the new radio play-by-play voice of UW football, the school announced, replacing Tony Castricone after he left last month to call games for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. She made her football play-by-play debut in 2021, calling two games on radio while Castricone was on paternity leave, and later called games on television for the Pac-12 Network.
Woodward said she made the decision years ago to steer her career toward play-by-play, generally, but calling her first football games sparked something.
“Tony was amazing to give me that opportunity,” she said. “He's the one that said, ‘hey, you've been doing play-by-play for all these other sports — take over for football,’ with no hesitation. And I think at that point it was like, ‘man, this is amazing,’ and I saw that there was a path to maybe doing it at some point.”
That made for a useful audition tape, said Brandon Forbis, general manager of Huskies Sports Properties with Learfield, the school’s multimedia rights holder. Even with a compressed timeline ahead of the 2026 season, Forbis said, “our perspective was to find the right person, which we did.”
“It was pretty easy for the cream to rise in this case,” he said. “She’s an uber-talented broadcaster, and she separated herself pretty quickly.”
They couldn’t have found anyone more committed to the place. Woodward played basketball at UW, where she graduated in 1997 with a degree in broadcast journalism. Her husband, Troy, played baseball there, and so did their sons Will and Grady. A native of Eugene, Ore., Elise remembers taking her recruiting trip to UW as a senior in high school, and having the chance to meet Don James.
As a college football fan, that was a “pinch-me moment” in itself. She remembers James’ brief message: “Elise, so nice to meet you. I hope you become a Husky.”
Landing the play-by-play gig, 30-some years later?
“I’m fired up to get going,” she said. “I’m just shaking my head. I’m so happy.”
Already the first woman to call UW football games on the radio, Woodward now is believed to be the first woman to serve as lead play-by-play voice of an FBS football program.
The distinction carries significance, but also a duality.
“I take a tremendous amount of pride in it, because I do understand that women are having to break barriers to get into opportunities, and I take the responsibility very deeply that I want to have the path be easier for somebody behind me,” Woodward said.
But at the same time, she said, “I don’t want it to be the headline. I hope everybody views this as, I’ve earned the right, and I happen to be a woman. But it’s nothing more than that.”
UW football is so woven into the fabric of Woodward’s life that it’s how she marks the passage of time. For example: she knows she spent exactly 23 years as a sideline reporter because she was pregnant with her oldest son, Will, when she interviewed for the position ahead of the 2003 season. She got the job, and gave birth on Oct. 23.
On Nov. 22, she worked Washington’s 27-19 upset of Washington State in the Apple Cup. While mom patrolled the home sideline and Marquis Cooper sealed the memorable victory with a late pick-six, Will hung out with his aunt in an RV in the parking lot.
“Don’t ever say I’m not dedicated to Husky football,” Woodward said with a laugh.
In the booth, she’ll join color analyst and longtime pal Cam Cleeland, the former UW tight end who joined the broadcast team in 2021. (UW is seeking a new sideline reporter.)
Though Castricone and former play-by-play broadcaster Bob Rondeau also called men’s basketball games, the school will make a separate hire for that job. “I love having the ability to call (basketball) games for FOX, FS1 and Big Ten (Network), and I’ve worked really hard to do that,” Woodward said, “and thankfully, UW’s going to allow me to do that.” She will also continue her work with the Fire, who do not have any scheduling conflicts with UW football.
The men’s basketball play-by-play hire also will serve as director of broadcasting, Forbis said, with non-gameday duties similar to some that Castricone assisted with for social media and YouTube. That person also could serve as the football sideline reporter, but not necessarily.
In Woodward, though, they found a familiar voice ready for a new challenge. Working every kind of job throughout the last three decades gave her an appreciation for every part of a broadcast, and all the people — the spotters, the statisticians, the audio engineers — who help make it happen.
Beginning with UW's Sept. 6 Apple Cup game against Washington State, that team effort will funnel through Woodward's microphone.
"I know it's a huge responsibility," she said, "and I'm going to work my ass off to try to bring the very best broadcast possible to UW."
— Christian Caple, On Montlake
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