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DJ Jarrod Wronski Rocks the Caps

DJ Jarrod is often seen in photos like this. (photo courtesy Jarrod Wronski)

Anyone who has been to Caps events lately may recognize this man. He’s Jarrod Wronski, owner of Metro DC DJs, now pretty much on call when the Caps need someone to play loud music. We caught up with Wronski at  DCPS Beautification Day recently. Here’s his story.


Wronski scorekeeping with his son.
Wronski scorekeeping with his son.

I’ve been a DJ for over 22 years now.  I started as a P. A. announcer for my JV baseball team as a Freshman at W. T. Woodson in Fairfax.  That led to also playing music during games and wound up leading to DJing other events.  That was back in 1992, but it wasn’t until 2000 that I went to work for a DJ company and then started getting some more serious gigs after that.

I’ve DJed before playoff games at the F Street Entrance, before Caps/Penguins games the last couple of seasons, and on special occasions like Opening Night and St. Patrick’s Day.  Last year’s Opening Night was soooo cold that my face was frozen even though I was wearing some pretty warm gloves.  I loved every second of it!  The Capitals have also had me DJ for the Season Ticket Holder Party at Six Flags since they started it there.  That’s always fun because you see the players come through.  The first year, I was more in the park, so I got to see the whole team.  Sergei Fedorov was really getting into the music I was playing before the gates opened.

I’ve also DJed the Kaboom playground builds which have two great stories over the last two seasons.  The first one, Joel Ward was there along with Nicklas Backstrom and Mike Green.  I wound up having all the players come over and read off a raffle winner to a lucky fan.  Each player gave away a prize pack with something autographed by that player.  Since Ward had just arrived in DC, he didn’t know very many people, but walked up to me and introduced himself.  We chatted for a little bit, but it was truly a unique experience.  Last year’s was the day before the lockout and Nicke, Greenie and Brooksie (Laich) were there to help out.  I was able to get the three to pose for a picture with me and before I knew it, all the photographers were taking pictures and I felt like I was on the red carpet.  The picture wound up going viral.

Photo by Felix Yesquen.
Photo by Felix Yesquen.

The Red Rockers tryouts the last couple of seasons have been great because it’s allowed me to meet the Red Rockers on a personal level.  I had the pleasure of DJing for one of the original Red Rockers’ wedding a few years back.  That was a fun night and started a great relationship with Emme, her husband and the Red Rockers.  Now when I’m DJing an event for the Caps and the Red Rockers are there, they wind up coming by the booth to say hi and that winds up bringing some fans over to talk to me.  And I love talking to Caps fans!

I am married with two kids.  My son has even guest DJed for me a couple of times.  My son was just a few weeks old when he went to his first Caps game and wound up on the video board and on the TV broadcast.  The next night, I was at Six Flags with my wife and son for the season ticket holder party.  While playing music, I was holding Aiden and dancing around with him.  Several people saw him and said, “That’s the baby from the game last night!”

My “other” job is what got me in with the Caps about 10 years ago.  I own SportsAnnouncing.com which also provides P. A. announcers for sports events in the area along with helpful advice for other announcers out there who are just getting started.  One of the coaches that hired me for his high school’s games, asked me to do his youth team’s game at Verizon Center.  That was a blast!  The next year, I wound up doing another high school game and was able to get to know Tim Bronaugh better.  Tim is the one who sets up the pre-game and post-game events at Verizon Center.  For a couple of years, if I had a game, I would have the teams leave me a ticket so I could get in.  After a while, my schedule would get busier and there were some nights that I would announce a game somewhere else and then come to Verizon Center to announce a game after the Caps game.  After about a season of having to call Tim and wait to head down, he secured a pass that allowed me to get to where I needed to be, when I needed to be there.  Because I was always around the arena, people in other departments got to know me and what I do.  Because of that networking, I was able to meet the right people to DJ events, emcee some events and be around the team more.  That relationship has led to the Caps calling me for the host of events they call me for like the Team USA jersey unveiling last week at Kettler.

When you take into consideration all of the various events I do for the Caps, whether it’s providing music, sound support, DJ, etc., I’m really lucky and fortunate to be able to do what I do for the organization.  At the Caps Fanfest, I was there to DJ, but wound up hooking up the sound system and sound boards so that Monumental Network could have a clean feed of Wes (Johnson) announcing for their broadcast.  To have them ask me to help them out again was awesome and I’m happy to help.

Be sure to check out Metro DC DJs

jarrod wronski
Wronski DJs on DCPS Beautification Day. (Caps Outsider)

Ben Sumner

Ben Sumner is the editor of Capitals Outsider. He also works for The Washington Post and contributes there when he gets a scoop.

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