Selection Sunday Show Returns to FSD
October 12, 2016
By John Johnson
MHSAA Communications Director
It’s become a ritual of the fall sports season – hundreds of high school football teams across the state of Michigan gathering for watch parties, hoping to hear their names and match-ups called for the MHSAA Football Playoffs during the Selection Sunday Show on FOX Sports Detroit.
This year’s show is set for 7 p.m. (EDT) on Oct. 23, originating from the FOX Sports Detroit studios in Southfield. In addition to the cable television broadcast, the show will be available via a live video stream on the FoxSportsDetroit.com website, and for mobile users on FOX Sports GO!
But to get to Selection Sunday, there’s still two weekends of regular-season football games to be played, and there are several games with playoff implications Friday night with livestreaming video on MHSAA.tv being produced by members of the School Broadcast Program.
At Clare, the 6-0 Pioneers are looking to clinch a share of the Jack Pine Conference championship, facing a 5-2 Beaverton squad looking to lock up a playoff berth. The winner of the Clarkston at Lake Orion game will not only send one of those 5-2 teams to the postseason party, but the winner also will secure at least a piece of the crown in the Oakland Activities Association Red. Traverse City West (5-2) can become playoff eligible by beating Gaylord (3-4) at Thirlby Field, and Saginaw Nouvel (5-2) can qualify if it beats a Montrose (4-3) team looking to keep its playoff hopes alive.
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 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 available being produced by SBP members.
Thursday, Oct. 13
- Girls Volleyball – L’Anse at Calumet, 6:30 p.m.
- Girls Volleyball – Atlanta at Rogers City, 7 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 14
- Football – Gaylord at Traverse City West, 6:30 p.m.
- Football – Clarkston at Lake Orion, 7 p.m. – PLUS LIVE STATS
- Football – Newberry at Rogers City, 7 p.m.
- Football – Petoskey at Alpena, 7 p.m.
Football – Negaunee at Marquette, 7 p.m. - Football – Sturgis at Plainwell, 7 p.m.
- Football – Bay City Western at Davison, 7 p.m. – PLUS LIVE STATS
- Football – Montrose at Saginaw Nouvel, 7 p.m.
- Football – Beaverton at Clare, 7 p.m.
Tuesday, Oct. 18
- Girls Volleyball – Morrice at Montrose, 6 p.m.
- Girls Volleyball – Houghton at Calumet, 6:30 p.m.
Here’s this week’s list of Football games streaming live statistics on the MHSAA.tv Website using Digital Scout. All games are Friday at 7 p.m.:
- Addison v. Hanover-Horton
- Bath v. Laingsburg
- Carney-Nadeau v. Stephenson
- Charlotte v. Lakewood Lake Odessa
- Clinton v. Britton-Macon
- Coldwater v. Hastings
- Flint Carman-Ainsworth v. Midland Dow
- Flint Kearsley v. Flushing
- Fowlerville v. Corunna
- Goodrich v. Westland John Glenn
- Grand Ledge v. East Lansing
- Grand Rapids South Christian v. Middleville Thornapple Kellogg
- Grand Traverse Academy v. Brethren
- Grandville Calvin Christian v. Leroy Pine River
- Grosse Pointe South v. Macomb L’Anse Creuse North
- Harrison v. Sanford Meridian
- Hart v. North Muskegon
- Hemlock v. Ithaca
- Hopkins v. Wyoming Lee
- Jenison v. Holland West Ottawa
- Lake Fenton v. Lansing Waverly
- Lansing Everett v. Lansing Sexton
- Manchester v. Vandercook Lake
- Marlette v. Memphis
- Marshall v. Battle Creek Harper Creek
- Marysville v. St. Clair
- Mayville v. Dryden
- Monroe Jefferson v. Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central
- North Adams-Jerome v. Adrian Lenawee Christian
- Norway v. Gwinn
- Onekama v. Mesick
- Reed City v. Stanton Central Montcalm
- Rudyard v. Onaway
- Saginaw Arthur Hill v. Mt. Pleasant
- Saginaw Heritage v. Bay City Central
- Saline v. Tecumseh
- Saranac v. Potterville
- Unionville-Sebewaing v. Vassar
- Warren Fitzgerald v. St. Clair Shores Lakeview
- Wyoming v. Greenville
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. Schools interested in becoming a part of the School Broadcast Program should contact John Johnson at the MHSAA Office.
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.
A weekly staple on the MHSAA.tv website and the MHSAASports Channel on YouTube is back for another year with highlights of selected games last week produced by members of the Association’s School Broadcast Program.
This week’s highlights package consists of clips from football games Merrill at Breckenridge, Ishpeming at Negaunee and Whittemore-Prescott at Rogers City.
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.)