Elise Woodward named Washington football’s new radio voice

Twenty-three years after she started patrolling the Washington football sideline in a headset and rain gear, Elise Woodward has finally been promoted indoors.

Washington Athletics and Learfield’s Huskies Sports Properties announced Monday that Woodward will ascend to the program’s radio play-by-play chair, ending her run as its longest-tenured sideline reporter. She’ll make her debut in the booth on Sept. 6, alongside Cameron Cleeland, and a sideline reporter to be named later

This is such an honor and a dream come true. I love Husky football to my core. Every game for the last 23 seasons as the sideline reporter, I am filled with gratitude for the chance to cover these great athletes at my alma mater.
New role, same passion. LFG DAWGS!! 💜💜💜 https://t.co/vQNBiKC6yv

— Elise Woodward (@EliseMWoodward) July 28, 2026

The seat in the booth opened up in June, when Tony Castricone left to succeed the retired Gene Deckerhoff as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ radio voice. Castricone had spent nine years as Washington’s Director of Broadcasting, having himself inherited the booth from Bob Rondeau after Rondeau’s 37-year reign behind the mic, and his exit made Woodward the third person to hold the chair in less than a decade. Woodward filled in on play-by-play for two Husky games in 2021, becoming the first woman to call a Washington football broadcast, an audition that put her in position for the permanent job once Castricone left.

Woodward, who spent four seasons as a scholarship guard for the Huskies from 1993-97, has never been shy about the philosophy that guides her behind a microphone. She told Awful Announcing in 2024 that calling games for the team you cover means adopting that team’s perspective rather than staying neutral, even while still crediting an opposing player who earns it.

“It’s different when you’re a hometown announcer; you are covering the team through the eyes of the fans of your franchise,” she said.

Woodward spent 16 seasons narrating Seattle Storm basketball alongside Dick Fain before she left this spring for the expansion Portland Fire, where she became the franchise’s inaugural play-by-play voice ahead of its May debut. On her way out the door, Woodward turned in one of the most acclaimed seasons of any local WNBA broadcaster in 2025, earning praise in AA’s local broadcaster rankings as the steadying presence fans credited with elevating a Storm broadcast that otherwise graded out unevenly.

She also joined the Big Ten Network in 2024, working as an analyst, reporter and studio host throughout the women’s basketball season while also appearing on BTN calls for men’s soccer, volleyball, women’s gymnastics and track and field. Before that, she spent stints with the Pac-12 Network and the Washington IMG Sports Network, tracing all the way back to her earliest days out of college as a reporter for Fox Sports Net Seattle, covering the Seahawks, Mariners, and Huskies.

Portland’s WNBA slate barrels headlong into the opening weeks of Husky football, as the Fire play at Golden State on Sept. 18 and visit the Sparks on Sept. 20, sandwiching Washington’s home game against Eastern Washington on the 19th. Woodward is currently booked as the lead play-by-play voice for all three broadcasts, spanning two states and two sports inside a single 72-hour window. How she pulls that off remains to be seen.