Prep Zone Returns for Football Playoffs
October 28, 2015
By John Johnson
MHSAA communications director
For the fifth straight season, FOX Sports Detroit will provide live streaming video coverage of four games from each of the first four rounds of the MHSAA Football Playoffs – presented by the Michigan Army National Guard – on the PrepZone on FoxSportsDetroit.com.
Pre-District games on the PrepZone this Friday (Oct. 30) are:
- Clarkston at Romeo
- Farmington Hills Harrison at Birmingham Groves
- Mason at St. Johns
- Flint Powers Catholic at Goodrich
All PrepZone games will be live at 7 p.m. Fridays the first three weekends of tournament play, and the Semifinal games Nov. 21 starting at 1 p.m. will be part of a package with MHSAA.tv where all 16 games will be live on the Internet.
Fans can watch PrepZone games on their computer or handheld devices and follow these instructions:
On Your Desktop/Laptop Computer
- Go to FOXSportsGo.com
- Click on the “All Chs” menu at the bottom left of the page
- Select “FOX Sports Go Extras”
On Your Handheld Device
- Download the free FOX Sports Go app from your store
- Click on the “All Channels” menu at the top of the app
- Select “FOX Sports Go Extras”
All PrepZone games will be archived on MHSAA.tv.
A number of Football Playoff games will be covered by MHSAA members participating in the School Broadcast Program this week, including three Saturday (Oct. 31) games which will be available live on a subscription basis. SBP produced games being shown live this week at 1 p.m. Saturday are:
- Gaylord at Mt. Pleasant
- Crystal Falls Forest Park at Lake Linden-Hubbell
A Day Pass to watch live on MHSAA.tv is $9.95. A Month Pass is $14.95, and would also allow access to the full schedule of MHSAA Tournaments during the month of November:
- Nov. 4 – Selected Boys Soccer Semifinals
- Nov. 7 – Boys Soccer Finals
- Nov. 7 – Selected Football Playoff District Finals
- Nov. 14 – Selected Football Playoff Regional Finals
- Nov. 19-20 – Girls Volleyball Semifinals & Finals
- Nov. 21 – Lower Peninsula Girls Swimming & Diving Finals
- Nov. 21 – Football Playoff Semifinals (12 games)
Other Football Playoff games available on an On Demand basis being produced by SBP schools this week are:
- Grandville at Rockford
- Saginaw Swan Valley at Comstock Park
- Calumet at Negaunee
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.
Launching at Midnight every Friday throughout the season is MHSAA Football Friday Overtime on FOX Sports Detroit. Mickey York and Rob Rubick host the weekly 30-minute highlights show. The show will re-air most Saturday and Sunday mornings – and will be archived on the FOX Detroit Website. This week, FFOT will re-air at 6 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Saturday; and 10 a.m. Sunday on FOX Sports Detroit.
The following games are scheduled to be highlighted this week on Football Friday Overtime:
- Detroit Denby at Detroit Collegiate Prep
- Marysville at Pontiac Notre Dame Prep
- Bay City John Glenn at Orchard Lake St. Mary's
- Riverview at Allen Park
- Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett at Riverview Gabriel Richard
- PLUS – Highlights from this week’s PrepZone games.
This week's School Broadcast Program highlights (see below) include football games with Otsego at Plainwell and Hudsonville at Rockford and a volleyball match, Bay City John Glenn at Pinconning.
Schools interested in becoming a part of the School Broadcast Program should contact John Johnson at the MHSAA Office.
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.)