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MHSAA TV Serves Up Key TVC Match

October 4, 2017

By John Johnson
MHSAA Director of Broadcast Properties 

A battle for control of the Tri-Valley Conference Central takes place today (Oct. 4) on MHSAA.tv when Freeland hosts Saginaw Swan Valley in girls volleyball at 7 p.m.

Swan Valley enters this week’s action 31-8-2 and ranked seventh in the latest Class B coaches poll. Freeland, which garnered honorable mention this week in the same poll, is 26-5-2 overall. Both teams are 3-0 in league play.

Freeland is one of more than 60 MHSAA member schools across the state participating in the

School Broadcast Program, and one of nearly a dozen schools to be streaming live video of its home athletic events using the NFHS Network’s Pixellot technology.

Pixellot 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 can also be patched in. Freeland is one of several schools in the state using Pixellot in its gymnasium and at its football/multipurpose field.

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:

Tuesday, October 3

Wednesday, October 4

Thursday, October 5

Friday, October 6

Monday, October 9

Tuesday, October 10

NFHS Network subscriptions begin at $9.95 per 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 will also 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.

Highlights of games produced in the past week by MHSAA School Broadcast Program members are in their fifth week. Featured events are in girls volleyball with Clarkston at Lake Orion, football with Lowell at Cedar Springs and football with Lansing Catholic at Fowlerville. Highlights can be found each week on the MHSAA.tv website, the home page of the MHSAA Website, and the MHSAASports Channel on YouTube.

More than 15 football games are featured each week on the State Champs! Sports Network Extra Point – powered by the Michigan High School Athletic Association – Saturday at 10 a.m. on FOX Sports Detroit.

The half-hour program features highlights from more than a dozen games each week, including clips from games produced by MHSAA School Broadcast Program members. The program airs multiple times each weekend on FOX Sports Detroit and on Comcast Channel 900, and will be archived on the State Champs YouTube Channel. Consult your local listings for additional playback times.

Here are some of the games to be featured this week on State Champs! Extra Point:

  • Chelsea at Ypsilanti
  • Warren Mott at Romeo
  • Redford Union at Redford Thurston
  • Clarkston Everest at Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes
  • Warren Fitzgerald at Madison Heights Madison
  • Hudsonville at Caledonia
  • PLUS - Additional coverage from Grand Rapids, Lansing, Flint, Upper Peninsula and School Broadcast Program games.

The MHSAA also has a presence on other State Champs! Network programs throughout each weekend. The MHSAA Minute is a weekly part of the State Champs! High School Sports Show on FOX Sports Detroit at 9 a.m. every Sunday – with multiple replays on FOX Sports Detroit and Comcast Channel 900 throughout the week. That program also is archived on the State Champs YouTube Channel. Consult your local listings for additional playback times.

This week’s MHSAA Minute on State Champs talks about concussion protocols and the Association’s concussion insurance program.

The MHSAA also has content on the State Champs Scoreboard! High School Football Radio Show on Friday nights during the football and basketball seasons, originating on WXYT-FM (97.1) in Detroit and carried on more than 10 radio stations across the state. This Week In High School Sports and Be the Referee are weekly features on the program.

Montrose Earns SBP Awards 5-Peat

By John Johnson
MHSAA Communications Director emeritus

May 11, 2018

Make it five in row for Montrose High School, which again claimed the top spot as the “Program of the Year” in the MHSAA’s School Broadcast Program Excellence Awards for 2017-18.

The SBP Excellence Awards will award certificates and plaques to the schools which took individual honors, with the presentation dates and times to be announced.

Montrose took first place in every category: Best Highlight, Best Multicamera Production, Best Student Play-by-Play, Best Produced Commercial/Feature, Best Single Camera Production with PlayOn! Sports Graphics and Best Use of PlayOn! Sports Graphics. It also placed a second entry in five of the six categories.

Montrose continued to demonstrate good blend of productions in a variety of sports covered and an overall command of the PlayOn! Sports software used for graphics and inserting commercials/features during the course of productions.

Other criteria used in selecting the top program awards were sporting events produced and live page views for those events. The events category was dominated by schools using Pixellot, the NFHS Network’s automated coverage solution, but still topped by a traditional SBP member. Comstock Park has produced 89 events to date this year, followed by three Pixellot schools – Freeland (76), Plainwell (76) and Macomb Lutheran North (71). 

For live page views, the top four schools were Dollar Bay, Lake Orion, Norway and Calumet. Dollar Bay and Norway are dedicated Pixellot schools, while Calumet produces games with traditional crews and Pixellot.

Here is the complete list by categories of the schools and students being honored in this year’s SBP Excellence Awards:

Best Highlight

First Place – Montrose - Eric Vandefifer, David Sackrider, Peyton Hobson, Tanner Sims – Football game v. Birch Run.

Second Place – Negaunee - Thomas Bagley, Chaz Bluse, Alec Johnson – Gymnastics meet v. Super Seven co-op.

Third Place – Montrose - Danny Sackrider, Steven Folsom, Taylor Burke Pennington, Randall Smith – Boys Basketball game v. Genesee Christian.

Best Multicamera Production

First Place – Montrose – Eric Vandefifer, John Blackford, Kenzie Bishop – MHSAA District Wrestling Finals.

Second Place – Lake Orion – WDBC Staff – Boys Basketball game v. Oxford.

Third Place – Lake Orion – WDBC Staff – Boys Basketball game v. Rochester.

Best Student Play-By-Play

First Place – Montrose – Eric Vandefifer and David Sackrider – Football game v. Birch Run.

Second Place – Montrose – Eric Vandefifer and David Sackrider – JV Boys Basketball game v. Genesee Christian.

Third Place – Lake Orion – Ben Wellman and Ted Hirschfield – Boys Basketball game v. Rochester.

Best Produced Commercial/Feature

First Place – Montrose – Jared Adams, Maddie Pyrc, John Blackford – Conlee Oil Company Commercial.

Second Place – Montrose – Jared Adams, Molly Dunton, David Sackrider – Hamilton’s RV Commercial.

Best Single Camera Production with PlayOn! Graphics

First Place - Montrose – David Sackrider, Eric Vandefifer, Tanner Sims, Peyton Hobson, Taylor Burke-Pennington – Football game v. Birch Run.

Second Place – Negaunee – Colton Yesney, Carter Richardson, Robby Williams, Peyton Anderson – Girls Volleyball match v. Gwinn.

Third Place – Montrose - David Sackrider, Eric Vandefifer, Tanner Sims, Peyton Hobson, Taylor Burke-Pennington - JV Boys Basketball game v. Genesee Christian.

Best Use of PlayOn! Graphics/Software

First Place - Montrose – David Sackrider, Eric Vandefifer, Tanner Sims, Peyton Hobson, Taylor Burke-Pennington – Football Game v. Birch Run.

Second Place – Lake Orion - Ben Wellman, Isabella Larsen, Micah Williams, Samuel Jenkins – Boys Basketball game v. Clarkston.

Third Place – Montrose - David Sackrider, Eric Vandefifer, Tanner Sims, Peyton Hobson,Taylor Burke-Pennington - JV Boys Basketball game v. Genesee Christian.

Montrose also was honored this spring by the NFHS Network with the Best Live Sports Broadcast of the 2017-18 school year. Its production of a regular-season football game with Birch Run, won by Montrose in overtime, took top honors.

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. 

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

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

PHOTOS: (Top) Montrose’s Eric Vandefifer interviews three of his school’s wrestlers who qualified for the MHSAA Individual Finals, during a basketball telecast in March. (Middle) Montrose SBP students take in Tigers Student Media Day this spring.