Football Finals Re-Air Christmas Eve, Day

December 16, 2015

By John Johnson
MHSAA communications director

Eight presents await high school football fans on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, as FOX Sports Detroit will re-air the championship games from the 2015 MHSAA 11-Player Football Playoffs – presented by the Michigan Army National Guard.

The action begins at 4 p.m. each day, with the odd-numbered divisions being shown on Christmas Eve and the even-numbered title games on Christmas Day in the order they were played at Ford Field in Detroit.

Here’s the complete schedule:

Dec. 24

4 p.m. – Division 8 – Muskegon Catholic Central 7, Waterford Our Lady 0 – In a matchup dominated by defense, Muskegon Catholic’s Christian Martinez scored on a 45-yard run early in the fourth quarter for the game’s only points.

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6 p.m. – Division 2 – Detroit Martin Luther King 40, Lowell 38 – No one will ever forget King’s 95-yard drive in the last 37 seconds, and Armani Posey’s 40-yard TD pass to Donnie Corley on the game’s final play.

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8 p.m. – Division 6 – Ithaca 27, Clinton 20 – Yellowjackets quarterback Jake Smith ran for 126 yards and three touchdowns, and passed for another 180 yards and a fourth score to lead his team to the win.

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10 p.m. – Division 4 - Zeeland West 40, Flint Powers Catholic 14 – These Dux were indeed mighty on this day, as quarterback Casey Brinks directed West for the second time in three seasons to a title.

Watch on MHSAA.TVBuy Video DVDListen on MHSAANetwork.comBuy Audio CD

Dec. 25

4 p.m. – Division 7 – Ishpeming 22, Pewamo-Westphalia 16 – Ozzy Corp does it all in this one, scoring all three of his team’s touchdowns and batting away a last-minute pass into the end zone to give the Hematites their third crown in four years.

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6 p.m. – Division 1 – Romeo 41, Detroit Cass Tech 27 – Bradley Tanner rushed for 103 yards and three touchdowns, and Paul Hurley threw for 203 yards and one score to lead the Bulldogs.

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8 p.m. – Division 5 – Grand Rapids West Catholic 40, River Rouge 34 – Gaetano Vallone and David Fox shared the quarterback duties and combined for 288 yards rushing and 106 passing to lead the Falcons to a third straight championship.

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10 p.m. – Division 3 – Orchard Lake St. Mary’s 40, Chelsea 12 – The Eaglets got two scoring passes from the combination of Brendan Tabone to K.J. Hamler, and pounded the rock for 293 yards rushing to win their second straight championship.

Watch on MHSAA.TVBuy Video DVDListen on MHSAANetwork.comBuy Audio CD

Things are winding down for the holidays on MHSAA.tv with School Broadcast Program members heading into a break.

In its seventh 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. 

The program also gives schools the opportunity to raise money through advertising and viewing subscriptions.  

All sporting events – Live or On-Demand – are available on a subscription basis only for their first 72 hours online.  They become available for free, on-demand viewing approximately 72 hours following their completion.

Here’s the schedule of events that School Broadcast Program members plan to stream the rest of the month for broadcast at MHSAA.tv. On-Demand listings may be available as soon as one hour following an event’s completion.  (List as of Dec. 15):

Wednesday – Dec. 16

Thursday – Dec. 17

Friday – Dec. 18

Saturday – Dec. 19

Monday – Dec. 21

Tuesday – Dec. 22

Monday – Jan. 4, 2016

Tuesday – Jan. 5

Schools interested in becoming a part of the School Broadcast Program should contact John Johnson at the MHSAA Office.

This week's SBP highlights package includes clips from the Portage Northern/Plainwell girls basketball and Cheboygan/Alpena ice hockey games, plus buzzer-beating shots from around the state. 

MHSAA.tv Live Postseason Views Approach 1 Million for 2020-21

By Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor

July 14, 2021

Live postseason events streamed on MHSAA.tv during the 2020-21 school year were viewed nearly 1 million times, with 15 events drawing more than 10,000 live views apiece. 

The final championship weekend of the Spring – featuring Girls Soccer Finals and Baseball and Softball Semifinals & Finals, all across four divisions June 17-19 at Michigan State University – saw nearly 70,000 live views on MHSAA.tv despite record attendance of those events at Old College Field. 

The Division 2 Softball championship game – which ended with Owosso claiming its first Finals title in any sport, drew a weekend-high 5,677 live views on the network. The previous weekend, the Division 1 Girls Lacrosse Final won by Rockford on June 12 led the way with 4,284 live views.

The total number of live postseason views on MHSAA.tv for 2020-21 was 962,371. The most-viewed live tournament events were the Individual and Team Wrestling Finals, which with all rounds over all four divisions combined drew 244,044 live views. Among individual games broadcast solely by MHSAA.tv, the Division 3 Boys Basketball Semifinal matching Iron Mountain and Schoolcraft (15,393 live views) and the Division 1 Volleyball Semifinal featuring Novi and Lowell (13,484) ranked among the most watched.

MHSAA.tv is a partner of the NFHS Network. Postseason events streamed on MHSAA.tv included most sports’ Finals, and Semifinals and Quarterfinals for some – especially sports where multiple concluding rounds were hosted by the same tournament site.

MHSAA.tv also ranked second among NFHS Network contributing states with 18,973 live events (postseason and regular-season combined) streamed during the 2020-21 school year. That total of nearly 19,000 live postseason events was an increase from 7,710 events streamed live during 2019-20 and 3,900 during 2018-19, and placed Michigan behind only Illinois.

The School Broadcast Program is responsible for nearly all production of regular-season events. Having now concluded its 13th year, the SBP 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. Rockford – one of the state’s largest schools with nearly 2,500 students – broadcast 242 events, drawing an SBP-high 74,437 live views and 89,604 total with on-demand replays included. Much smaller Pewamo-Westphalia, a school of 300 students, received the second-most views of SBP members in 2020-21 with 56,009 including live and on-demand. Marquette, Lake Orion, Cedar Springs, Montrose and McBain also were among top SBP providers.

In addition to bringing local events on air nationally, the School Broadcast Program gives schools the opportunity to raise money through advertising and viewing subscriptions. NFHS Network subscriptions begin at $10.99 per month. Subscribers receive access to all live and on-demand video from across the country. School Broadcast Program participants receive a portion of every subscription sold by a school to benefit its program.

Broadcasts from the majority of Michigan schools – especially those lacking the ability to staff events for production – are streamed using a Pixellot automated camera. Michigan schools have 774 Pixellots in service, third-most in the country behind only Texas and California. Most Michigan schools have one camera at an outdoor stadium and a second at the main indoor gymnasium.

A complete list of participating schools can be found on the School Broadcast Program page of the MHSAA Website.