Fall Playoff Coverage Ramping Up on MHSAA.tv
By
Jon Ross
MHSAA Director of Broadcast Properties
October 28, 2021
A high percentage of this week’s Michigan High School Athletic Association playoff games for football and boys soccer will be broadcast on MHSAA.tv and the NFHS Network, followed by a significant number of opening volleyball tournament matches next week.
Three rounds remain in the MHSAA Boys Soccer Tournament, and MHSAA.tv will broadcast 10 Regional Finals (of 16 to be played), including seven on Thursday (Oct. 28). The 11- and 8-Player Football Playoffs kick off Friday and Saturday, and MHSAA.tv will broadcast more than 100 (of 144 total) football games as well.
The MHSAA Volleyball Tournament begins Monday with District play, and more than 50 matches are currently part of the MHSAA.tv broadcast schedule. The regular-season schedule finishes up this weekend with nearly 70 matches to be broadcast Oct. 28-30.
Additionally, MHSAA media partner Bally Sports Detroit will continue its weekly live cable TV broadcasts with Friday’s Division 1 District Semifinal of Clinton Township Chippewa Valley (6-3) traveling to Troy (8-1). Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. on BSD’s primary channel. The game also may be watched on the BSD website and app.
Click the links below to see all three sports’ listings in full:
Football – Volleyball – Boys Soccer
NFHS Network subscriptions begin at $10.99 per month. Subscribers have access to all live video and streaming statistics across the country. School Broadcast Program participants benefit as a portion of every subscription sold by a school goes to benefit its program.
More than 400 MHSAA member schools are participants in the School Broadcast Program, now in its 13th year, producing games using traditional hands-on student crews or via Pixellot cameras installed at stadiums and gymnasiums across the state. 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.)