Don't Miss This MHSAA Playoff Coverage

October 21, 2015

By John Johnson
MHSAA communications director 

There’s plenty of high school football coverage coming up with the final week of the regular season and the announcement of the qualifiers for the 41st annual MHSAA Football Playoffs on Sunday.

More than 15 football games this weekend – most of them live – will be streamed by students involved in the School Broadcast Program. The weekend concludes with the Selection Sunday Show on FOX Sports Detroit at 7 p.m. on Sunday (Oct. 25).

Among the live football games are several with league title and/or playoff qualifying implications:

  • Mio (3-5) at Lincoln Alcona (5-3)
  • Lapeer (8-0) at Davison (5-3)
  • Ortonville Brandon (5-3) at Holly (5-3)
  • New Lothrop (8-0) at Montrose (5-3)
  • Pickford (5-3) at Onaway (5-3)
  • Hudsonville (6-2) at Rockford (5-3) – Winner also gets a share of the O-K Red title
  • Pontiac Notre Dame Prep (7-1) vs. Detroit Loyola (6-2) – CHSL Prep Bowl Championship
  • Waterford Our Lady (8-0) vs. Riverview Gabriel Richard (6-2) – CHSL CD Championship
  • Orchard Lake St. Mary’s (6-1) vs. Warren DeLaSalle (6-2) – CHSL AB Championship

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 events School Broadcast Program members plan to stream 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. 20):

Tuesday – Oct. 20

Wednesday – Oct. 21

Thursday – Oct. 22

Friday – Oct. 23

Saturday – Oct. 24

Tuesday – Oct. 27

The Selection Sunday Show expands its coverage beyond FOX Sports Detroit’s cable footprint this year, being streamed for the first time on the FoxSportsDetroit.com website, and available to watch on mobile devices on the FOX Sports GO! app.

Justin White, Matt Shepard and Rob Rubick will provide the announcement of the pairings and analysis, and some live “look-ins” will take place at selected team watch gatherings.

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 and 8:30 a.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. on Sunday on FOX Sports Detroit. 

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

  • Detroit Collegiate Prep vs. Detroit Central at Ford Field
  • Detroit Cass Tech vs. Detroit Martin Luther King at Ford Field
  • Utica Ford at Warren Mott
  • Marine City at Warren Cousino
  • Linden at Fenton
  • Ortonville-Brandon at Holly
  • PLUS – SBP Coverage of New Lothrop at Montrose and Hudsonville at Rockford.

This week's MHSAA.tv highlights package includes clips from the East Grand Rapids/Lowell and Marquette/Negaunee football games and a Detroit Catholic League boys soccer tournament final between Birmingham Brother Rice and Detroit Catholic Central.

Montrose Wins Top MHSAA/SBP Award

May 11, 2016

By John Johnson
MHSAA Communications Director

Make it three in row for Montrose High School, which was selected as the “Program of the Year” in the third annual MHSAA School Broadcast Program Excellence Awards for 2015-16.

The SBP Excellence Awards will award certificates and plaques to the schools which took individual honors, with the presentation dates and times to be announced.

Montrose took first place in Best Student Play-By-Play and the top two spots for Best Produced Commercial/Feature. The program also took a second place for Best Use of PlayOn! Sports Graphics.

Montrose also demonstrated during the year a good blend of productions in a variety of sports covered, the ability to cover home and away events and an overall command of the PlayOn! Sports software used for graphics and inserting commercials/features during the course of productions.

Other category winners were:  Cedar Springs High School for Best Multicamera Production and Best Single Camera Production with PlayOn! Graphics and Haslett High School for Best Use of PlayOn! Graphics. 

Here is the complete list by categories of the schools and students being honored in this year’s SBP Excellence Awards:

Best Multicamera Production

First Place – Cedar Springs – Ethan Lewis, John Grigsby, Leah Carter, Kelly Salmon – Football game v. Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern.

Second Place – Haslett – Conor Clifford, Torsten Holland, Alex Riley, Dylan Wolschleger, Brennan Simzak, Altair Boonraksa, Jacob Johnston, Nathan Glaza, Thomas Ashley – Girls Basketball game v. Mason.

Third Place – Montrose – Eric Vandefifer, Conner Pyrc, Jared Adams, Mandy Ramsey, John Blackford – Boys Basketball game v. Saginaw Arts & Sciences Academy.

Best Play-By-Play

First Place – Montrose – Eric Vandefifer and Conner Pyrc – Boys Basketball game v. Goodrich.

Second Place – Haslett – Conor Clifford and Torsten Holland – Girls Basketball game v. Mason.

Third Place – Cedar Springs - Jonathan Wolfarth and Jalen Jackson – Football game v. Wyoming.

Best Produced Commercial/Feature

First Place – Montrose – Eric Vandefifer, Conner Pyrc, Jared Adams, Mandy Rasmey, John Blackford – Ford Field Trip Feature.

Second Place – Montrose – Amanda Ramsey, Jared Adams, Alyssa Bernard, –  RAINN Sexual Assault PSA.

Best Single Camera Production with PlayOn! Graphics

First Place – Cedar Springs - Alex Tanis, Alex Robinson, Jonathan Wolfarth, Ethan Lewis – MHSAA Football Playoff – Muskegon at Muskegon Mona Shores.

Second Place – Haslett – Tyler Goldberg and Jonah Brown – MHSAA Football Playoff – Romeo v. Grand Ledge.

Third Place – Cedar Springs – Alex Tanis, Alex Robinson, Jonathan Wolfarth, Ethan Lewis – MHSAA Football Playoff – Lansing Catholic v. Grand Rapids West Catholic.

Best Use of PlayOn! Graphics/Software

First Place – Haslett – Dylan Wolschleger, Brennan Simzak, Jacob Johnston, Conor Clifford, Reece Huberts, Henrik Holland, David Weston – Girls Basketball game v. St. Johns.

Second Place – Montrose – Eric Vadnefifer, Conner Pyrc, Jared Adams, Mandy Ramsey, John Blackford – Boys Basketball game v. Saginaw Arts & Sciences Academy.

Third Place – Montrose - Peyton Hobson, John Blackford, Conner Pyrc – Boys Basketball game v. Corunna.

Michigan schools were represented recently when the NFHS Network announced its SBP awards for the 2015-16 school year on April 28. Jamie Kitts of Montrose High School was one of three finalists for the Best Teacher honor, and Rockford High School had a finalist for Highlight of the Year, a 65-yard touchdown run by quarterback Tyler Bradfield against Grandville.

The School Broadcast Program, powered by PlayOn! Sports, is a platform which schools can utilize to reach members of their communities about activities taking place in their buildings, providing recognition for students while at the same time giving them hands-on opportunities to gain broadcasting experience and providing schools an opportunity to realize additional revenues for their programs. Schools interested in becoming a part of the School Broadcast Program should contact John Johnson at the MHSAA Office.