Top Students to Broadcast Finals
March 26, 2015
By John Johnson
MHSAA communications director
Saturday’s MHSAA Boys Basketball Finals will have live streaming audio at MHSAANetwork.com from student broadcasters who took top honors in the 2014-15 Michigan Student Broadcast Awards Sports Play-By-Play category sponsored by the Michigan Association of Broadcasters Foundation.
Kyle Marino and Riley Holder from Lake Orion took first place in the television play-by-play category and will announce the Class C and B title tilts. Dylan Wittenberg and Foster Stubbs will represent Bloomfield Hills High School in calling the Class A championship game. The duo were part of crews that took the top two places in the play-by-play radio category.
There also will be two student-produced public service announcements airing this weekend. A radio message on parental sportsmanship, produced by Kent Davis of Bloomfield Hills High School and a television message on sportsmanship by Caleb Gulledge and Trace Clinton of Davison High School will air in their respective mediums Saturday.
In addition, approximately 50 aspiring student broadcasters from MHSAA members participating in the School Broadcast Program will participate in a Breslin Center field trip program Friday, listening to industry professionals and peer student broadcasters in a morning workshop, before afternoon tours of broadcast facilities at the Breslin Center, WKAR-TV at Michigan State University and the FOX Sports Detroit remote unit covering the Finals. The students also will engage in their own coverage of the games. The field trip is conducted in cooperation with the Student Broadcast Foundation and Herff Jones.
Wounded Warrior Project: DeWitt vs Portland
December 16, 2011
DEWITT -- The meeting of two state-ranked teams always will ratchet up a typical football night. Both communities, naturally, want to see which is better on the field.
But during the hour before the opening kickoff Oct. 14 of DeWitt’s game against Portland, those teams and their supporters together recognized a grander cause. The night was dedicated to the Wounded Warrior Project, which aids U.S. soldiers (and their families) who have suffered service-related injuries and illnesses.
Rain washed out some planned attractions, but the evening certainly was memorable. Both teams wore camouflage jerseys and each sent its captains to the pre-game coin toss with an honorary captain representing the military. A number of other service personnel were involved – including a local color guard that presented a 30-foot flag for the national anthem.
It’s understandable if people’s visions of wars and our military are focused an ocean away. But connections hit close to home. DeWitt’s honorary captain, Lansing’s U.S. Army Spc. Jacob Shumway, recently returned from a deployment and has been in the service for two and a half years. He’s a 2003 Lansing Everett graduate, and his mother Susan Land is the principal at Lansing Eastern. His cousins Ethan and Collin Rennaker start for DeWitt, and he walked alongside them for the pregame flip. Shumway plans to attend Lansing Community College and study digital graphic design.
Both teams are considered contenders for their respective state titles next month; DeWitt is ranked No. 7 in Division 3, while Portland is No. 4 in Division 5. And they played like it – Portland prevailed 22-20 in overtime.
A great game, no question. But similarly significant was a preliminary figure of more than $11,000 raised for the WWP.
For more about the Wounded Warrior Project visit http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org.