Oswego roots run deep in the new men’s ice hockey public address announcer. Dan Kapuscinski has come a long way since his days playing with matchbox cars and announcing the race to himself along the way.

Kapuscinski, a graduate of St. John Fisher College, has worked as the public address voice for numerous outlets since his graduation in 2007. This path led him to be the new PA voice of Oswego State men’s ice hockey.                                        

Kapuscinski moved to Columbus, Ohio around the age of three, but visited during summers and returned to Oswego in 1998 and attended Oswego High School. There he took part in the school’s television station, WBUC.

“I’ve always been kind of an Oswego guy at heart,” Kapuscinski said.

During his time as an Oswego Buccaneer, Kapuscinski was heavily involved with WBUC and was the play-by-play voice for the school’s basketball, football and hockey teams.

He says he has always been a sports fan and just loves being able to tell stories and talking to people. All these traits fueled his passion for current positions.

“I’ve been on a microphone in one way, shape or form pretty much non-stop since I was 15 years old,” Kapuscinski said.

At St. John Fisher, Kapuscinski worked as a public address announcer and learned that being behind a microphone was something he could see himself doing for the rest of his professional career.

“Basically a lot of the public address announcing I did there really helped refine my skill a little bit and reaffirm that I would like to continue doing further down the road.”

The academic program there also helped him learn the necessary skills needed to be successful in such a tough field to get involved with.

“[St. John Fischer] was a great stepping stone and learning platform for me to move on and continue to do a lot of the [public relations] and communication work that I do still to this day,” Kapuscinski said. 

Once out of college, Kapuscinski worked for World Racing Group, the same organization that put on Super DIRT Week at Oswego Speedway recently. There he was a media specialist and handled television and radio advertisements for the group. He was the voiceover for their commercials and edited them, while also coordinating the live stream broadcasts of the races that would stream to racing fans across the U.S.

He now works full-time in public relations and marketing for Oswego Speedway, but not doing much public address announcing unless he is filling in.

“It was just something that naturally came to me,” Kapuscinski said. “I was fortunate enough to have a voice that works well for that and was lucky enough to have programs like WBUC and being accepted at Fisher and learn other programs to learn the craft along the way.”

With hockey season now underway, Kapuscinski, a huge Laker hockey fan, is ready to see what the regular season holds after last weekend’s sell-out crowd.

“It was already a great experience last Saturday,” Kapuscinski said. “It was so exciting to be in such a beautiful facility and with 3,000 amazing fans to sell out an exhibition game speaks volumes for what the program has done in recent years.”

Kapuscinski attended Laker hockey games at Romney Field house, where former public address announcer for the Lakers, Bill Foley, first worked games for the Lakers before the switch to the Marano Campus Center in 2006.  Before Foley, longtime Oswego resident, Dennis “Denny” Snyder was the man behind the mic.

“I’m happy to be able to fill in where those guys left off,” he said.

Foley reached out to Kapuscinski to pass the torch as Foley recently retired after 19 years. Kapuscinski then went through the tryout process with Oswego State Sports Information and was given the job to take over behind the mic.

The diehard Laker hockey fan knows this is a big year for the Lakers with another lofty set of expectations. He acknowledges the depth they have and is curious as to where guys will slot in coach Ed Gosek’s starting lineup for their first SUNYAC game on Nov. 4.

The Lakers are set to faceoff again at home Friday against Elmira College where Kapuscinski will take part in his first regular season game as the Oswego State men’s ice hockey public address announcer. With new interactions in the Marano Campus Center Ice Arena, the fan experience should be better than ever. 

“It’s an honor,” Kapuscinski said. “I’m looking forward to it. I can’t wait for this Friday.”