NFHS Network Rooted in Our Back Yards
August 28, 2014
By Jack Roberts
MHSAA Executive Director
Throughout my nearly 28-year tenure with the MHSAA, I have been a consistent and outspoken critic of our national organization, the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), whenever it attempted an initiative that I saw purposed more for its own promotion than as a needed service for its member associations and their member schools.
When its strategy for service was to promote a “national presence” for the NFHS, I objected. I have never felt that national tournaments or national telecasts would be of the slightest benefit to 99 percent of the MHSAA’s member schools; and worse, I have always believed that those initiatives would tend to corrupt the one percent involved.
So it may have come as a surprise to some of my colleagues in this state and my counterparts across the country when I became an early advocate of the NFHS Network and now serve as the network’s first president.
The definitive difference between the NFHS Network and earlier talk of national tournaments and telecasts is that the network’s thrust is local, not national. In fact, it’s hyper-local.
The heart of the NFHS Network consists of the season-ending tournaments of statewide high school associations across the U.S. The NFHS Network produced Internet broadcasts of at least the culminating contests for most of the sports sponsored by most of the three dozen state associations contributing content during 2013-14, the network’s first year of operation.
While state high school associations provide an immense potential for content, there are only 51 member associations of the NFHS, in contrast to the coast-to-coast pool of nearly 20,000 member high schools these associations serve. It is this local content through the School Broadcasting Program that gives the network its legs. The aggregation of all this content is the magnet to draw media partners, sponsors and subscribers; and it is this local emphasis that attracted my support of the concept, and now my service to the network board of directors.
School sports is first, last and always about local teams. And it’s not just high-profile sports and varsity teams; it’s just as much about lower profile programs and subvarsity events.
There are more school-sponsored football games in Michigan during one week than there are NFL games across the U.S. all season long. There are more school-sponsored basketball games in Michigan during one week than there are NBA games across the U.S. all season. And we serve two dozen other sports as well.
Together, the MHSAA and the SBP can provide enough live and on-demand Internet programming to provide MHSAA.tv with authentic high school sports broadcasts 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days each year. And those who subscribe to Internet broadcasts on MHSAA.tv have access to content from the local school and state association level from coast to coast and border to border.
The success of the NFHS Network will not be “made-for-TV” national-scope tournaments or matchups between teams with the most highly recruited players. Our success will come from the aggregation of thousands of typical local rivalries that are played all school year long in every nook of this state and every cranny of our nation.
At least while I’m involved, the NFHS Network will be true to the mission of school-based sports and uplift the values for which educational athletics have always stood.
For years, school sports have stood apart from non-school sports as the preferred brand of youth sports because we offered letter jackets, pep assemblies, pep bands, marching bands, cheerleaders and homecomings. Going forward, school sports will also stand apart from other youth sports because of the NFHS Network.
SBP School Streams 1st HD Broadcasts
February 4, 2015
By John Johnson
MHSAA communications director
The first High Definition video streams by a participating school lead a list of more than 50 sporting events on MHSAA.tv this week being produced by its School Broadcast Program.
Haslett High School streamed live HD video of its boys basketball game with Okemos on Tuesday and will do so for its game against Saginaw Nouvel on Feb. 10, utilizing its new in-school fiber network connections from its gymnasium to its production control room for the first time. Haslett joins a short list of schools in the SBP which run fiber from their event facilities to a control room in another wing of the building where video production classes are taught.
Most schools haul all of their production equipment to the venues for their video broadcasts. Now at Haslett, cameras, audio connections and intercom communications will simply be plugged into network jacks, replacing long snakes of cable runs around a performance venue. In addition to the fiber connections at the gym and football stadium, the school’s Performing Arts Center also is connected by fiber to the control room.
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.
Here’s the schedule of School Broadcast Program members planning to cover varsity competition over the next week for broadcast at MHSAA.tv (as of Feb. 2). The following events will have live streaming video unless otherwise indicated:
Wednesday, February 4
Boys Basketball – Gaylord St. Mary’s at Indian River Inland Lakes, 7 p.m. (VOD)
Boys Basketball – Alba at Mackinaw City, 7 p.m.
Thursday, February 5
Girls Basketball – Mt. Morris at Montrose, 5:30 p.m.
Boys Swimming & Diving – Grand Ledge at East Lansing, 6 p.m. (VOD)
Girls Basketball – Whittemore-Prescott at Hillman, 7 p.m.
Girls Basketball – Bellaire at Indian River Inland Lakes, 7 p.m. (VOD)
Girls Basketball – Alanson Littlefield at Mackinaw City, 7 p.m.
Girls Basketball – Mancelona at Onaway, 7 p.m. (VOD)
Girls Basketball – Hillman at Posen, 7 p.m.
Girls Basketball – Oscoda at Rogers City, 7 p.m. (VOD)
Boys Basketball – Mt. Morris at Montrose, 7 p.m.
Girls Basketball – Fairview at AuGres-Sims, 7:15 p.m.
Friday, February 6
Wrestling - O-K Conference Blue Tournament at Comstock Park, 5 p.m. (Comstock Park, Allendale, Belding, Coopersville, Sparta, Grand Rapids West Catholic)
Wrestling – Quad at Pinconning, 5:30 p.m. (Pinconning, Standish-Sterling, Bay City John Glenn, Tawas)
Boys Basketball – Johannesburg-Lewiston at Indian River Inland Lakes, 7 p.m. (VOD)
Boys Basketball – Boyne Falls at Mackinaw City, 7 p.m.
Boys Basketball – Bellaire at Mancelona, 7 p.m.
Boys Basketball – Paw Paw at Dowagiac, 7 p.m.
Ice Hockey – Port Huron Northern at Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood, 7:15 p.m.
Saturday, February 7
Girls Competitive Cheer – Montrose Invitational, 8 a.m.
Ice Hockey – Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood at Detroit U-D Jesuit, 5 p.m.
Monday, February 9
Girls Basketball – Pickford at Newberry, 6 p.m.
Tuesday, February 10
Boys Basketball – Pickford at Newberry, 6 p.m.
Boys Basketball – Chassell at Calumet, 7 p.m.
Boys Basketball – Saginaw Nouvel at Haslett, 7 p.m.
Boys Basketball – Mio at Hillman, 7 p.m.
Girls Basketball – Goodrich at Montrose, 7 p.m.
Girls Basketball – Central Lake at Onaway, 7 p.m. (VOD)
Boys Basketball – Lincoln Alcona at Rogers City, 7 p.m. (VOD)
Boys Basketball – Hale at AuGres-Sims, 7:15 p.m.
Girls Basketball – Hopkins at Plainwell, 7:15 p.m.
Live stats of select basketball games also are available on MHSAA.tv. Check out the MHSAA.tv website on game night to see which schools are streaming live stats, or stop by to view stats following games on an On-Demand basis. A Day Pass to view live stats is $1.95.
All sporting events – live or delayed – are available on MHSAA.tv on a subscription basis for their first 72 hours online. A portion of each subscription is returned to school originating the broadcast. Video subscriptions run $9.95 for a Day Pass and $14.95 for a Month Pass. Some schools also are offering Annual Passes at a discounted rate. All sporting events become available for free On-Demand viewing three days after they have been posted.
To view all of the recent School Broadcast Program productions, go to MHSAA.tv, click On-Demand on the nav bar of the left side of the page, and on the Filters tab at the top of next page, click on All States and then select Michigan.
Also available below is an SBP highlights package from the past week, including a 55-50 victory by East Lansing over St. Johns in a boys basketball contest plus a 37-36 overtime win for Fairview at Lincoln Alcona in girls basketball.
Schools interested in becoming a part of the School Broadcast Program should contact John Johnson at the MHSAA Office.