Big Hoops Tip Off on MHSAA TV
November 28, 2017
By John Johnson
MHSAA Director of Broadcast Properties
Winter sports get off to a fast start on MHSAA.tv in the coming week, with a heavy load of basketball games being produced by School Broadcast Program members.
The new sports season also begins with several schools new to the program utilizing the NFHS Network’s new Pixellot technology to stream home athletic events. The latest active additions to the program are Dollar Bay, Macomb Lutheran North and Novi. There are now more than a dozen Pixellot schools in the program, and more will come online throughout the winter.
Pixellot enables schools to produce more games than they can generally find students to cover – meaning that a basketball tripleheader can be streamed instead of only the varsity contest. All the participating school has to do is enter the events it wants covered – athletic and non-athletic – into the system.
Pixelott is a unit equipped with four High Definition cameras which cover the length of the playing surface and then focus in on the ball and player movement to deliver the action. The unit communicates with the scoreboard to insert a time and score graphic on the screen. Ambient audio is picked up by the device, but the play-by-play of an in-person announce team also can be patched in.
In its ninth year, the School Broadcast Program gives members an opportunity to showcase excellence in their schools by creating video programming of athletic and non-athletic events, with students gaining skills in announcing, camera operation, directing/producing and graphics. Pixellot is used by schools wishing to stream games but which lack the ability to staff the events. The SBP program also gives schools the opportunity to raise money through advertising and viewing subscriptions.
Here’s this week’s MHSAA.tv schedule of video streams being produced by SBP members:
Monday – Nov. 27
Swimming & Diving – Manistique at Marquette – 3:30 p.m.
Tuesday – Nov. 28
Freshman Girls Basketball - Mattawan at Plainwell - 4:15 p.m.
JV Girls Basketball - Mattawan at Plainwell - 5:45 p.m.
JV Girls Basketball - Lake City at Harrison - 6 p.m.
JV Girls Basketball - Iron Mountain at Norway - 6:30 p.m.
Girls Basketball - Utica Eisenhower at Lake Orion - 7 p.m.
Girls Basketball - Mattawan at Plainwell - 7:15 p.m.
Girls Basketball - Lake City at Harrison - 7:30 p.m.
Girls Basketball - Iron Mountain at Norway - 8 p.m.
Thursday – Nov. 29
JV Girls Basketball – Ann Arbor Skyline at Novi - 5:30 p.m.
Girls Basketball – Ann Arbor Skyline at Novi - 7 p.m.
Friday - Dec. 1
Freshman Girls Basketball - South Haven at Plainwell - 4:15 p.m.
Freshman Girls Basketball - Midland at Freeland - 4:30 p.m.
JV Girls Basketball - Holland at Comstock Park - 5:30 p.m.
JV Girls Basketball - South Haven at Plainwell - 5:45 p.m.
JV Girls Basketball - Midland at Freeland - 6 p.m.
JV Girls Basketball - West Iron County at Norway - 6:30 p.m.
Girls Basketball - Holland at Comstock Park - 7 p.m.
Girls Basketball – Birmingham Groves at Lake Orion - 7 p.m.
Boys Ice Hockey – Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood at Calumet - 7 p.m.
Girls Basketball - South Haven at Plainwell - 7:15 p.m.
Girls Basketball - Midland at Freeland - 7:30 p.m.
Girls Basketball - West Iron County at Norway - 8 p.m.
Saturday - Dec. 2
Girls Competitive Cheer – Novi Invitational - 9 a.m.
Girls Competitive Cheer – Plainwell Invitational - 10 a.m.
Boys Ice Hockey – Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingwood at Calumet - 7 p.m.
Monday - Dec. 4
Freshman Boys Basketball – Bay City Western at Freeland - 5:30 p.m.
JV Boys Basketball – Bay City Western at Freeland - 7 p.m.
Girls Basketball - Holly at Lake Orion - 7 p.m.
Tuesday - Dec. 5
Freshman Girls Basketball - Portage Northern at Plainwell - 4:15 p.m.
JV Girls Basketball - Hamilton at Comstock Park - 5:30 p.m.
JV Boys Basketball - Birch Run at Otisville LakeVille - 5:30 p.m.
JV Boys Basketball – Ann Arbor Skyline at Novi - 5:30 p.m.
JV Girls Basketball - Portage Northern at Plainwell - 5:45 p.m.
JV Girls Basketball - Livonia Ladywood at Macomb Lutheran North - 6 p.m.
Girls Basketball - Cheboygan at Alpena - 7 p.m.
Girls Basketball - Hamilton at Comstock Park - 7 p.m.
Boys Basketball – Auburn Hills Avondale at Lake Orion - 7 p.m.
Boys Basketball - Birch Run at Otisville LakeVille - 7 p.m.
Boys Basketball – Ann Arbor Skyline at Novi - 7 p.m.
Boys Ice Hockey - Marquette at Calumet - 7 p.m.
Girls Basketball - Gladstone at Marquette - 7:15 p.m.
Girls Basketball - Portage Northern at Plainwell - 7:15 p.m.
Girls Basketball - Baraga at Dollar Bay - 7:20 p.m.
Girls Basketball - Livonia Ladywood at Macomb Lutheran North - 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday - Dec. 6
JV Girls Basketball - South Lyon at Novi - 5:30 p.m.
Girls Basketball - South Lyon at Novi - 7 p.m.
NFHS Network subscriptions begin at $9.95 a month. Subscribers will have access to all live video and streaming statistics across the country. All content becomes available for free, on-demand viewing 72 hours after being shown live. School Broadcast Program participants also will be selling Season and Annual Passes at a discounted rate. A portion of every subscription sold by a school goes to benefit its program.
A complete list of participating schools can be found on the School Broadcast Program page of the MHSAA website.
Ford Field Trip Gives Students Taste of Football Finals Broadcasting
By
Jon Ross
MHSAA Director of Broadcast Properties
December 7, 2021
Four levels above them, in the press box, a group of prospective broadcasters were touring the facilities. The high school students had spent the Fall sports season streaming games to the NFHS Network and now were learning about a career in broadcasting from Eric Vandefifer, a Montrose High grad currently serving as the radio voice of Saginaw Valley State University basketball and as a contributor to a variety of high school broadcast channels including the MHSAA Network.
Seven years ago, Vandefifer was in a similar situation. He was part of a field trip to Ford Field for the Finals that helped him realize sports broadcasting was a career he wanted to pursue. Those field trips were headed by Tom Skinner and Thom Lengyel, who became mentors to Vandefifer. As a high school junior in 2017, Vandefifer was named Best Student Broadcaster nationally by the NFHS Network.
“With Tom Skinner now deceased and Thom Lengyel retired from the broadcast business, I just felt like I had to continue this and their legacy,” Vandefifer said. “It was important to me to keep it going because when I was in school, it was something I looked forward to.”
Nearly 50 students from Lowell, Montrose, Lake Orion, Mount Pleasant and Ann Arbor Greenhills high schools made the Nov. 26-27 trip to Ford Field. They were able to film highlights, interview players, practice announcing the games, meet other members of the press and more. For Vandefifer, giving back to students who are in the position he once was is very rewarding.
“We had the ability to feel like real media members for a day. I wanted to be able to give other students that same opportunity,” Vandefifer said. “Seeing kids who have a love for sportscasting and that drive to get better gives me real hope for the next generation in this business.”
And after the field trips were done each day, Vandefifer put his headphones on, got behind the microphone and called the two afternoon games for the MHSAA Championship Network.
PHOTOS (Top) Eighth grader Sam Belill, left, and freshman Owen Leitelt from Montrose practice calling a game from the Ford Field press box. (Middle) Mount Pleasant make a stop at the press conference room. (Photos provided by the Montrose and Mount Pleasant School Broadcast Programs.)