Watch Football Playoffs on MHSAA TV
October 25, 2016
By John Johnson
MHSAA Communications Director
There will be plenty of live streaming video coverage of the first four rounds of the MHSAA Football Playoffs – powered by the Michigan Army National Guard – on the PrepZone on FoxSportsDetroit.com and MHSAA.tv.
For the sixth straight season, the PrepZone on FOX Sports Detroit will provide live streaming video coverage of four games weekly, available online on the FoxSportsDetroit.com website and for handheld users on FOX Sports GO!
Pre-District games on the PrepZone this Friday (Oct. 28) are:
Canton at Northville
Walled Lake Northern at Pinckney
Battle Creek Harper Creek at Coldwater
Cass City at Unionville-Sebewaing
All PrepZone games will be live at 7 p.m. Fridays the first three weekends of tournament play, and the Semifinal games at 1 p.m. Nov. 19 will be part of a package with MHSAA.tv where all 16 games will be live on the internet. 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. Here’s the schedule:
Friday – Oct. 28
- Grand Blanc at Davison, 7 p.m.
- Traverse City Central v. Traverse City West @ Thirlby Field, 7 p.m.
- Charlevoix at Negaunee, 7 p.m.
- Montrose at Laingsburg, 7 p.m.
- Saginaw Nouvel at Breckenridge, 7 p.m.
Saturday – Oct. 29
Fans can subscribe to MHSAA.tv for $9.95, which will provide a full month of access to live programming on the NFHS Network, including the full schedule of MHSAA Tournaments during the month of November:
- Nov. 5 – Boys Soccer Finals
- Nov. 4-5 – Selected Football Playoff District Finals
- Nov. 11-12 – Selected Football Playoff Regional Finals
- Nov. 17-19 – Girls Volleyball Semifinals & Finals
- Nov. 19 – Lower Peninsula Girls Swimming & Diving Finals
- Nov. 19 – Selected Football Playoff Semifinals (12 games)
MHSAA.tv also will offer a free live video stream Nov. 5 of the finish line at the Lower Peninsula Cross Country Finals at Michigan International Speedway. The stream will include audio commentary from announcers around the course throughout each race.
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.
Weekly highlights from games produced by participants in the MHSAA's School Broadcast Program are back for another school year on MHSAA.tv. This week's highlights include football games Detroit Catholic Central vs. Orchard Lake St. Mary’s, Manton at Rogers City and Napoleon at Concord.
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.)