Football Finals Re-Air for Christmas

December 20, 2016

By John Johnson
MHSAA Communications Director

FOX Sports Detroit will present Michigan high school football fans with eight presents on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, re-airing the championship games from the 2016 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 35, Ottawa Lake Whiteford 6 – Muskegon Catholic Central broke this one open in the second half. QB Cameron Martinez ran for 154 yards and one TD while passing for a second score.

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6 p.m. – Division 2 – Detroit Martin Luther King 18, Walled Lake Western 0 – King does it with defense, picking off four Western passes and returning two of them for touchdowns.

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8 p.m. – Division 6 – Jackson Lumen Christi 26, Maple City Glen Lake 14 – Bo Bell comes up big for Lumen Christi, rushing for 238 yards and one TD.

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10 p.m. – Division 4 - Grand Rapids Catholic Central 10, Detroit Country Day 7 – This one was dominated by the defenses. The only GRCC first down of the day came on a fourth-quarter 44-yard touchdown pitch-and-catch from Jack Bowen to Michael Brown.

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Dec. 25

4 p.m. – Division 7 – Pewamo-Westphalia 28, Detroit Loyola 14 – Nothing can stop the PW Pirates. Jimmy Lehman throws for two touchdowns and rushes for a third against the Loyola Bulldogs.

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6 p.m. – Division 1 – Detroit Cass Tech 49, Detroit Catholic Central 20 – Cass Tech QB Rodney Hall ties a Final game record with five touchdown passes against DCC.

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8 p.m. – Division 5 – Grand Rapids West Catholic 43, Menominee 7 - Gaetano Vallone passes for 311 yards and four scores as the Falcons fly over the Maroons.

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10 p.m. – Division 3 – Orchard Lake St Mary's 29, Muskegon 28 – This went down to the wire. Ky’ren Cunningham dives to catch an 18-yard pass from Caden Prieskorn with four seconds to go to give the Eaglets the win.

Watch @ MHSAA.TV - Buy Video DVD - Listen @ MHSAANetwork.com - Instant Audio Download

DVD’s cost $24.95, and Instant Audio Downloads are $4.99.

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

In its eighth 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 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. 16):

Tuesday, Dec. 20

Wednesday, Dec. 21

Thursday, Dec. 22

Tuesday, Jan. 3

The NFHS Network has announced new pricing for 2016-17, eliminating the Day Pass and lowering the cost of a Month Pass to $9.95. 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. Some schools also will be selling 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.

Fans can also access scores of games in-progress on the NFHS Network website via ScoreStream. Click on the Scores button in the upper right corner.

Ford Field Trip Gives Students Taste of Football Finals Broadcasting

By Jon Ross
MHSAA Director of Broadcast Properties

December 7, 2021

DETROIT – An hour before kickoff of the first game of 11-Player Football Finals weekend – the Division 8 championship decider between Hudson and Beal City – Bally Sports Detroit announcers Evan Stockton and Rob Rubick were busy preparing to call the action from the television booth on the third level of Ford Field.

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.

Mount Pleasant SBPWith 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.)