Michigan High School Athletic Association - Promoting Educational Athletics
Michigan High School Athletic Association - Promoting Educational Athletics |
|
User Sections
|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Feb. 28, 2008 Broadcast Coverage of MHSAA Winter Finals to Include Live EAST LANSING , Mich. - Feb. 28 - Video coverage of the Michigan High School Athletic Association’s Basketball Tournaments will be more extensive than ever, with the live broadcast of the championship games on FSN Detroit being complimented with live Internet distribution of the games on the MHSAA Internet Broadcast Network – MHSAA.TV. For the 10th straight year, FSN Detroit’s award-winning coverage of the MHSAA Girls Basketball Finals kicks off the hoop package, with all four games on March 8 at the Convocation Center on the campus of Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti being shown live. Dan Gutowski and John Keating will share the play-by-play duties, and Gregory Kelser will provide the color commentary for all four games. The following Saturday – March 15 – FSN will show all four games of the Boys Basketball Finals from the Breslin Student Events Center on the campus of Michigan State University in East Lansing live. Matt Shepard and Keating will call the action, with Kelser providing the analysis. The MHSAA will also experiment with live Internet video coverage of the Semifinal rounds of both basketball tournaments. The coverage at MHSAA.TV will be on a pay-per-view basis at a cost of $8 to watch a two-game session in each class. The games will also be available for on-demand viewing at $4 each. Audio of all of the Semifinal games will be available at no cost at MHSAANetwork.com. Also included in the Internet video coverage will be the two Girls Basketball Quarterfinal games taking place at Lansing Eastern High School on March 4 in Class A and Class D. These games will be available beginning March 5 at MHSAA.TV on a pay-per-view on-demand basis for $4. Joe Jason of WCSY in South Haven and John Spooner of Grand Rapids, who has previously covered MHSAA events for PASS Sports, will call those games. Jason and Spooner will also provide the commentary for the Class C and A Semifinal games; while Greg O’Connor and Tom Ratchford of WKHM in Jackson will cover the Class D and B contests. At release time, play-by-play announcers for the boys Semifinal games will be Mark Crawford of Battle Creek, who annually covers the MHSAA Girls Volleyball Finals for FSN Detroit and has called over 100 MHSAA championship games over the past 20 years; Tim Staudt, sports director of WILX-TV in Lansing, who has previously called MHSAA events for PASS Sports; Fred Heumann, sports director of WLNS-TV in Lansing; and Todd Arner of Saginaw, who annually calls the MHSAA Girls Volleyball Finals for FSN Detroit. Among the color commentators will be Jay Smith of Mt. Pleasant, the leading scorer in Michigan high school basketball history, totaling 2,841 points for Mio from 1976-79; and J.J. Boehm from Saginaw, the radio voice of Saginaw Valley State University football. The MHSAA-Michigan Association of Broadcasters Foundation Championship Radio Network will cover the Finals of both events. WAAM (1600) in Ann Arbor will serve as the flagship station for the Girls Basketball Finals; while WVFN (730) in East Lansing will be the flagship for the Boys Basketball Finals. Andrew MacDonald of Cadillac will again host the broadcasts, and Mike Stump of WATT in Cadillac will serve as the sideline reporter. Jason and Spooner will call the Class C and A action at the Girls’ Finals; while O’Connor and Ratchford will cover the Class D and B contests. For the Boys Basketball Finals, Jason will team with Jack Ebling of WILS in Lansing for the Class C and A games, while Brock Palmbos and Nick Chase of WVFN will call the Class D and B action. Stations carrying the Girls Basketball Finals on March 8 are: WBCK – Battle Creek; WATT – Cadillac; WKYO – Caro; WCBY – Cheboygan; WCHT – Escanaba; WDBC-WYKX – Escanaba; WDLP – Fenwick; WMJZ – Gaylord; WBBL – Grand Rapids; WSCG – Greenville; WCSR – Hillsdale; WMIQ-WZNL – Iron Mountain; WIKB –Iron River; WTIQ – Manistique; WMMI – Mt. Pleasant; WNBY – Newberry; WTVG – Sandusky; WIDG – St. Ignace; WHIT – St. Joseph; and WMSH – Sturgis. Consult your local listings for the specific games to be carried. Stations carrying the Boys Basketball Finals on March 15 are: WABJ – Adrian; WQBX/WFYC – Alma; WBCK – Battle Creek; WATT – Cadillac; WKYO – Caro; WCBY – Cheboygan; WTVB – Coldwater; WCHT – Escanaba; WDBC-WYKX – Escanaba; WDLP – Fenwick; WTRX – Flint; WMJZ – Gaylord; MichiganSportsRadio.com – Grand Rapids; WGRY-WQON – Grayling; WBBL – Grand Rapids; WSCG – Greenville; WMPL – Hancock; WCSR – Hillsdale; WHTC – Holland; WPNW – Holland; WMIQ-WZNL – Iron Mountain; WIKB – Iron River; WJMS – Ironwood; WIBM – Jackson; WKLA – Ludington; WMTW – Manistee; WTIQ – Manistique; WMPX – Midland; WMMI – Mt. Pleasant; WLCS – Muskegon; WNBY – Newberry; WMJT – Newberry; WMBN – Petoskey; WTVG – Sandusky; WIDG – St. Ignace; WHIT – St. Joseph; WMSH – Sturgis; and WKJC – Tawas City. Consult your local listings for the specific games to be carried. The MHSAA Internet Broadcast Network – MHSAANetwork.com – will also carry student broadcasts of the Girls and Boys Basketball Finals, utilizing the talents of students who have participated in career programs offered by the Michigan Association of Broadcasters Foundation and the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association. At the Girls Basketball Finals, Chelsey Kimbrough of Algonac High School will call the Class A game; Greg Palawski of Davison will do the play by play of the Class C contest; and Mike Anthony and Marcellous Strong of Warren Cousino will announce the Class B finale. At the Boys Basketball Finals, Billy Whiting and Lloyd Praedel of Bloomfield Hills Lahser will announce the Class D game; Alyssa Dennis and Chelsey Kimbrough of Algonac will call Class C; Matt Pocket and Tom Baczkowski of Warren Cousino will cover Class A; and Adam Brewster and Dexter Mason of Grosse Pointe South will announce the Class B championship. The Semifinals and Finals of the Ice Hockey Tournament on March 6-8 will receive audio coverage at MHSAANetwork.com. John Kreger will call the play-by-play of the Division 1 and 2 action with Denny Kapp; and Mike Moore will announce the Division 3 games. FSN Detroit's coverage of the MHSAA goes to more than 3.2 million cable and satellite households throughout Michigan and portions of Northwest Ohio and Northern Indiana. The regional network is home to more than 250 live local events per year among the MHSAA, Detroit Red Wings, Detroit Tigers, Detroit Pistons, Detroit Shock and the Central College Hockey Association. FSN is the nation’s leading provider of local sports. Through its affiliates and other Fox Network Group-owned networks, FSN reaches more than 82 million homes through 25 regional networks. The MHSAA Internet Broadcast Network – MHSAANetwork.com and MHSAA.TV – is powered by EZStream.com. In its third year, the MHSAA Network originates nearly 160 hours of programming annually, covering 75 games in 13 Association post-season tournaments; and the weekly MHSAA Perspective program, which is also heard on over 40 radio stations during the fall and winter sports seasons. Production services for the network are provided by Advanced Video Service, Jason Productions and When We Were Young Productions. The MHSAA-MAB Foundation Championship Radio Network is a cooperative effort of the two non-profit associations. The MHSAA helps promote a portion of the Foundation’s outreach to the high school broadcasting community by sponsoring the Sports Public Service Announcement category of its annual Student Broadcasting Award competition and through other educational programs. Production services for the network are provided by TBC Sports and Jason Productions, with satellite distribution by Michigan Radio Network. The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by over 1,800 public and private senior high schools and junior high/middle schools which exists to develop common rules for athletic eligibility and competition. No government funds or tax dollars support the MHSAA, which was the first such association nationally to not accept membership dues or tournament entry fees from schools. Member schools which enforce these rules are permitted to participate in MHSAA tournaments, which attract approximately 1.6 million spectators each year. -0- RL08-059 AT&T, Farm Bureau Insurance, Henry Ford Health System and MEEMIC Insurance |