Catch Live Lax Finals Broadcasts Online
June 5, 2017
By John Johnson
MHSAA Communications Director
Live streaming audio and video coverage of Saturday’s (June 10) 2017 MHSAA Boys & Girls Lacrosse Finals will be available on the MHSAA Network and MHSAA.tv.
Here’s the complete schedule with direct links to the live video streams on MHSAA.tv:
Girls Finals At Brighton High School
- 2 p.m. – Division 2 – Farmington Hills Mercy/East Grand Rapids Semifinal winner vs. Okemos/Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood Semifinal winner
- 4:30 p.m. – Division 1 – Northville/Rockford Semifinal winner vs. Hartland/Birmingham Seaholm Semifinal winner
Boys Finals At Parker Middle School, Howell
- 2 p.m. – Division 1 – Birmingham Brother Rice/Rockford Semifinal winner v. Detroit Catholic Central/Hartland Semifinal winner
- 4:30 p.m. – Division 2 – East Grand Rapids/Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood Semifinal winner v. Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central/Detroit Country Day Semifinal winner
The NFHS Network is offering a 30-day subscription for just $9.95, a pass which will provide access to more than 100 hours of live programming of Spring Finals. Next weekend, MHSAA Finals in Lower Peninsula Girls Soccer (June 16-17) and Semifinals and Finals in Baseball and Softball (June 15-17) will be streamed live. All events will be archived for free on-demand viewing, beginning three days after their completion. Subscriptions must be cancelled before the 30-day period is over to avoid recurring charges.
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.
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.)