How Lauren McLaughlin Became a Commentator for the APP Tour

Lauren McLaughlin is known for being a commentator on the APP Tour. On the Pickleball Fire podcast, she said her opportunity was due to a handful of very fortunate circumstances. Lauren considered stepping into broadcasting or communication back in high school and college.

However, she was unsure about it, so she didn’t realize her natural talent until she was given a chance to guest commentate for an exhibition being held. She was going to her first US Open when she got that opportunity. It made her realize just how much she loved broadcasting and commentating, igniting the fire in her again.

Lauren decided to start by live streaming on her phone. She started doing some live broadcasting at different tournaments and found an audience. People enjoyed it, and she had a chance to commentate for a few tournaments, including the Chicago Open in 2019. Ken Herrmann saw the talent in her at the Chicago Open and asked her to stay in touch.

As Lauren started commentating for tournaments arranged by Ken, she found herself getting involved in a lot of management-related work for broadcasting. Early in the history of the APP, she would have to leave her commentator’s seat to go up and fix a camera. Slowly, their team grew, and there were different people hired to handle those jobs that Lauren had been doing.

Now she gets to focus on commentating exclusively. She shared her experience throughout the pandemic when tournaments were hindered and halted by the COVID-19. When asked about the prep work that she has to do as a commentator, she says that it’s mostly about knowledge about the participating players.

Like Dominic Catalino and Dave Fleming, other team members are of great help to her. They are very knowledgeable about most professional players, but there’s still some chance that there will be someone new turning up during a tournament. Most of the time, they discuss who might be matched up with whom and what they would comment on that pairing.