MHSAA TV Set for Broadcast Boom
September 6, 2017
By John Johnson
MHSAA Director of Broadcast Properties
More than 40 Michigan high school games are scheduled to be streamed live online over the next week, produced by MHSAA School Broadcast Program members on the NFHS Network.
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.
All sporting events – live or delayed - 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 this week’s MHSAA.tv schedule of video streams being produced by SBP members:
Tuesday, Sept. 5
- Junior Varsity Girls Volleyball - Burton Bentley at Otisville Lakeville, 5 p.m.
- Varsity Boys Soccer - Coopersville at Comstock Park, 6 p.m.
- Varsity Girls Volleyball - Burton Bentley at Otisville Lakeville , 6:30 p.m.
Wednesday, Sept. 6
- Junior Varsity Girls Volleyball - Caro at Freeland, 5 p.m.
- Junior Varsity Girls Volleyball - Clare at Harrison, 6 p.m.
- Varsity Girls Volleyball - Fennville at Wyoming Lee, 6 p.m.
- Varsity Girls Volleyball - Clare at Harrison, 6 p.m.
Thursday, Sept. 7
- Freshman Football - Vicksburg at Plainwell, 4:30 p.m.
- Freshman Girls Volleyball - Chassell at Calumet, 4:30 p.m.
- Junior Varsity Girls Volleyball - Sparta at Comstock Park, 5 p.m.
- Junior Varsity Girls Volleyball - Marlette at Otisville Lakeville, 5 p.m.
- Junior Varsity Girls Volleyball - Chassell at Calumet, 5:30 p.m.
- Freshman Football - Corunna at Freeland, 6 p.m.
- Varsity Girls Volleyball - Sparta at Comstock Park, 6 p.m.
- Junior Varsity Football - Vicksburg at Plainwell, 6:15 p.m.
- Varsity Girls Volleyball - Chassell at Calumet, 6:30 p.m.
- Junior Varsity Football - Kingsford at Norway, 6:30 p.m.
- Varsity Girls Volleyball - Marlette at Otisville Lakeville, 6:30 p.m.
Friday, Sept. 8
- Varsity Football - Sturgeon Bay at Norway, 7 p.m.
- Varsity Football - Shepherd at Freeland, 7 p.m.
- Varsity Football - Coopersville at Comstock Park, 7 p.m.
- Varsity Football - Houghton Lake at Clare, 7 p.m.
- Varsity Football - Hurley at Calumet, 7 p.m.
- Varsity Football - West Bloomfield at Lake Orion, 7 p.m.
- Varsity Football - Traverse City Central vs. Traverse City West, 7 p.m.
- Varsity Football - Lincoln Alcona at Rogers City, 7 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 9
- Junior Varsity Boys Soccer - Holland at Plainwell, 9:30 a.m.
- Varsity Boys Soccer - Holland at Plainwell, 11 a.m.
Monday, Sept. 11
- Varsity Boys Soccer - Grand Rapids Forest Hills Eastern at Comstock Park, 6 p.m.
Tuesday, Sept. 12
- Junior Varsity Girls Volleyball - Crystal Falls Forest Park at Norway, 6 p.m.
- Varsity Girls Volleyball - Coopersville at Comstock Park, 6 p.m.
- Freshman Girls Volleyball - Goodrich at Otisville Lakeville, 6 p.m.
- Varsity Boys Soccer - Hopkins at Wyoming Lee, 6 p.m.
- Junior Varsity Girls Volleyball - Goodrich at Otisville Lakeville , 6 p.m.
- Varsity Girls Volleyball - Goodrich at Otisville Lakeville, 6:30 p.m.
- Varsity Girls Volleyball - Crystal Falls Forest Park at Norway, 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday, Sept. 13
- Junior Varsity Boys Soccer - South Haven at Plainwell, 5 p.m.
- Freshman Girls Volleyball - Shepherd at Freeland, 5 p.m.
- Varsity Girls Volleyball - Sanford Meridian at Harrison, 6 p.m.
- Junior Varsity Girls Volleyball - Sanford Meridian at Harrison, 6 p.m.
- Junior Varsity Girls Volleyball - Shepherd at Freeland, 6 p.m.
- Varsity Boys Soccer - South Haven at Plainwell, 6:45 p.m.
- Varsity Girls Volleyball - Shepherd at Freeland, 7 p.m.
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 second week. Featured games are in football with Calumet at Negaunee, Indian River Inland Lakes at Rogers City, and our first football highlights from a Pixellot school – Ishpeming at Norway. 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 is the projected list of games to be featured on this week’s edition of MHSAA Extra Point:
- Detroit Denby at Detroit Central
- East Grand Rapids at Lowell
- Flat Rock at Milan
- Macomb L'Anse Creuse North at New Baltimore Anchor Bay
- Bloomfield Hills at Clarkston
- Rochester Hills Stoney Creek at Farmington Hills Harrison
- West Bloomfield at Lake Orion
- Houghton Lake at Clare
- Sturgeon Bay at Norway
- Plus additional games from the Grand Rapids and Lansing areas, Northern Lower Peninsula and Upper Peninsula.
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 is the third of a three-part series on football rules changes for 2017, with this edition talking primarily about face guarding and defensive pass interference.
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.
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.)