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Watch O-K Blue Football Tilt LIVE

October 7, 2015

By John Johnson
MHSAA communications director 

Among live events available this week on MHSAA.tv is a football game for the top spot in the Ottawa-Kent Conference Blue pitting Grand Rapids West Catholic at Comstock Park at 7 p.m. Friday.

The teams are tied for first in the O-K Blue at 2-0, with Comstock Park, the No. 2 team in Division 4 in this week’s Associated Press poll, sporting a 5-1 record;  and West Catholic, the two-time defending champion in Division 5, sporting a 4-2 overall mark. The game is being produced by Comstock Park students involved in the School Broadcast Program.

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.

Here’s the schedule of School Broadcast Program members planning to stream athletic competition this week for broadcast at MHSAA.tv.  On-Demand listings may be available as soon as one hour following an event’s completion.  (List as of Oct. 5):

Tuesday – Oct. 6

Wednesday – Oct. 7

Thursday – Oct. 8

Friday – Oct. 9

Monday – Oct. 12

Tuesday – Oct. 13

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 with Houghton Lake at Clare and DeWitt at Haslett and a girls volleyball match between two of the top-ranked teams in Class D, Pellston at Onaway. Watch those highlights below.

Schools interested in becoming a part of the School Broadcast Program should contact John Johnson at the MHSAA Office.

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, 8:30 and 11:30 a.m. Saturday, and 7  a.m. Sunday on FOX Sports Detroit. 

The following games are scheduled to be highlighted this week on Football Friday Overtime:

  • Berkley at Birmingham Groves
  • Farmington Hills Harrison at Farmington
  • Almont at Algonac
  • Haslett at Lansing Waverly
  • St. Johns at DeWitt
  • PLUS – SBP Coverage of Grand Rapids West Catholic at Comstock Park and Midland Dow at Davison.

Montrose SBP

Ford Field Trip Gives Students Taste of Football Finals Broadcasting

By Jon Ross
MHSAA Director of Broadcast Properties

December 7, 2021

DETROIT – An hour before kickoff of the first game of 11-Player Football Finals weekend – the Division 8 championship decider between Hudson and Beal City – Bally Sports Detroit announcers Evan Stockton and Rob Rubick were busy preparing to call the action from the television booth on the third level of Ford Field.

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.

Mount Pleasant SBP“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.)