U.P. Swim & Dive Finals on MHSAA.tv
February 17, 2015
By John Johnson
MHSAA Communications Director
The Winter Championship Season on MHSAA.tv begins this weekend with two days of live coverage of the Upper Peninsula Swimming & Diving Finals at Marquette High School.
The Diving Finals take place Friday (Feb. 20), beginning at 2:30 p.m., followed by the Swimming Finals on Saturday (Feb. 21), starting at 10 a.m. The events are available on a subscription basis: $9.95 for a Day Pass and $14.95 for a Month Pass.
The purchase of a Month Pass during the U.P. Swimming & Diving Finals, for example, would allow viewing through the Girls Basketball Semifinals on March 18-19 and also allow access to the Team and Individual Wrestling Finals, the Girls Competitive Cheer Finals, the Ice Hockey Semifinals and Finals, the Girls Gymnastics Finals, the Lower Peninsula Boys Swimming & Diving Finals.
Basketball contests dominate the content this week for School Broadcast Program members, which will again have cameras at over 40 sporting events.
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. The following events will have live streaming video unless otherwise indicated:
Tuesday, February 17
Boys Basketball – L’Anse at Calumet, 7 p.m.
Ice Hockey – Houghton at Calumet, 7 p.m.
Boys Basketball – Grand Rapids Covenant Christian at Comstock Park, 7 p.m.
Girls Basketball – Ann Arbor Huron at Haslett, 7 p.m. (HD)
Boys Basketball – Mio at Rogers City, 7 p.m. (Video On Demand following event)
Girls Basketball – Lansing Everett at East Lansing, 7 p.m. (VOD)
Boys Basketball – Posen at AuGres-Sims, 7:15 p.m.
Girls Basketball – Coloma at Plainwell, 7:15 p.m.
Wednesday, February 18
Boys Basketball – Fife Lake Forest Area at Onaway, 6 p.m.
Boys Basketball – Central Lake at Mancelona, 7 p.m.
Thursday, February 19
Ice Hockey – Negaunee at Calumet, 7 p.m.
Girls Basketball – Hillman at Rogers City, 7 p.m. (VOD)
Girls Basketball – Akron-Fairgrove at Pinconning, 7 p.m.
Friday, February 20
Swimming & Diving – Upper Peninsula Diving Finals at Marquette, 2:30 p.m.
Girls Basketball – Flint Beecher at Montrose, 5:30 p.m.
Boys Basketball – Allendale at Comstock Park, 6 p.m.
Boys Basketball – Rogers City at Hillman, 7 p.m.
Boys Basketball – Flint Beecher at Montrose, 7 p.m.
Boys Basketball – Fairview at Posen, 7 p.m.
Ice Hockey – Birmingham Brother Rice at Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood, 7:15 p.m.
Boys Basketball – Sturgis at Plainwell, 7:15 p.m.
Girls Basketball – Allendale at Comstock Park, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, February 21
Swimming & Diving – Upper Peninsula Swimming Finals at Marquette, 10 a.m.
Ice Hockey – Warren DeLaSalle at Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood, 5:20 p.m.
Monday, February 23
Girls Basketball – Fairview at Hillman, 7 p.m.
Girls Basketball – Hale at Rogers City, 7 p.m. (VOD)
Tuesday, February 24
Girls Basketball – Saginaw Arts & Sciences at Montrose, 5:30 p.m.
Boys Basketball – Painesdale-Jeffers at Calumet, 7 p.m.
Boys Basketball – Posen at Rogers City, 7 p.m. (VOD)
Boys Basketball – Oscoda at AuGres-Sims, 7 p.m.
Boys Basketball – Saginaw Arts & Sciences at Montrose, 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 the 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 51-47 win in the girls game and a 55-48 decision in the boys game over Haslett to deadlock the two schools at the top of the Red Division in both genders.
Schools interested in becoming a part of the School Broadcast Program should contact John Johnson at the MHSAA Office.
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.