Watch Lacrosse Finals LIVE on MHSAA TV
June 11, 2016
By John Johnson
MHSAA Communications Director
The Finals of the 2016 MHSAA Boys and Girls Lacrosse Tournament will have live streaming video and audio coverage on Saturday on MHSAA.tv and the MHSAA Network.
On Saturday, live Finals coverage of lacrosse on MHSAA.tv will feature both championship games in both genders. Here’s the complete schedule:
Girls Finals at Brighton High School
2 p.m. – Division 1 - Birmingham United v. Rockford
4:30 p.m. – Division 2 – Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood v. East Grand Rapids
Boys Finals At Parker Middle School, Howell
2 p.m. – Division 2 – Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central v. East Grand Rapids
4:30 p.m. – Division 1 - Birmingham Brother Rice v. Detroit Catholic Central
The NFHS Network is offering a special All-Access Pass for $9.95 for this week's action, plus next week's coverage of the Baseball-Softball Semifinals and Finals, and the Lower Peninsula Girls Soccer Finals. Click here to take advantage of this offer.
All games are available live and for the following 72 hours on a subscription basis on MHSAA.tv, and become available for free on-demand viewing after that. Free highlights of all games will be posted to the MHSAA.tv website shortly after their conclusion.
The MHSAA’s audio streaming website – MHSAANetwork.com – goes back on the air for the last two weekends of the Spring sports tournament run, for live coverage of the Lacrosse and Girls Soccer Finals, as well as the Semifinals and Finals in Baseball and Softball.
The 2016 Michigan High School Athletic Association Girls and Boys Track & Field Finals were contested at five sites June 4, 2016. Below are MHSAA.tv highlights from the seven meets.
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.)