Maki Jenner admits it was hard for her to fall asleep after Saturday’s game between the Halifax Thunderbirds and the Buffalo Bandits.
She was still coming down to earth after making her play-by-play debut for the Thunderbirds.
“It was crazy. I mean, my phone was blowing up with so many kind messages from people in the industry, in the lacrosse world, my family, my friends, people from home, you know, just everyone showing their support, which is so incredible for me,” said Jenner.
She became the first woman to ever call a National Lacrosse League game on Saturday.
It wasn’t her first historic feat for the league, though. In 2024, she was the first woman to do colour commentary for the NLL.
Play-by-play announcers provide real-time narration of the game’s action, while colour commentators offer analysis and background information.
Saturday’s historic moment wasn’t lost on the 24-year-old, who has spent her whole life around the sport.
Despite her experience as a player and broadcaster, she said she was nervous heading into the game.
Jenner credits colour commentator and longtime lacrosse analyst Pat Gregoire for helping her stay calm.
“He’s able to kind of lighten moods sometimes and so I think he was really able to help bring me into that and I think we played off each other really well,” she said.
Gregoire has nothing but praise for his young colleague.
“Maki is no longer a rising star in lacrosse media; she’s already risen to incredible heights and continues on a trajectory with no limits,” he said in a news release.
“Young girls and women around the world can now hear a voice and see a face they can identify with and know that they too can one day sit in broadcast booths,” he said.
Both of Jenner’s parents played lacrosse. Her father and uncle were in the NLL when she was a child.
In a way, she’s been spending her whole life getting ready for a job in professional lacrosse.
“It’s actually really full circle for me,” Jenner said. “I had a stick in my hand as young as I could.”
The Victoria native has been around the sport ever since.
She played for the varsity team at Concordia University, St. Paul in Minnesota and graduated with a major in sports communication and minor in journalism.
In 2022, she became the first woman to be a play-by-play announcer in the Western Lacrosse Association in British Columbia.
Jenner joined the Halifax Thunderbirds that same year as the director of communications. She quickly became the team’s sideline reporter before becoming TSN’s Halifax lacrosse reporter, a job she maintains alongside her work for the Thunderbirds.
Experiencing the ups and down as a player and a broadcaster has taught Jenner a lot about herself, she said.
“I think looking back, [lacrosse has] led me to become who I am,” she said.
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