Football Finals Re-Air Christmas Eve, Day

December 16, 2015

By John Johnson
MHSAA communications director

Eight presents await high school football fans on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, as FOX Sports Detroit will re-air the championship games from the 2015 MHSAA 11-Player Football Playoffs – presented by the Michigan Army National Guard.

The action begins at 4 p.m. each day, with the odd-numbered divisions being shown on Christmas Eve and the even-numbered title games on Christmas Day in the order they were played at Ford Field in Detroit.

Here’s the complete schedule:

Dec. 24

4 p.m. – Division 8 – Muskegon Catholic Central 7, Waterford Our Lady 0 – In a matchup dominated by defense, Muskegon Catholic’s Christian Martinez scored on a 45-yard run early in the fourth quarter for the game’s only points.

Watch on MHSAA.TVBuy Video DVDListen on MHSAANetwork.comBuy Audio CD

6 p.m. – Division 2 – Detroit Martin Luther King 40, Lowell 38 – No one will ever forget King’s 95-yard drive in the last 37 seconds, and Armani Posey’s 40-yard TD pass to Donnie Corley on the game’s final play.

Watch on MHSAA.TVBuy Video DVDListen on MHSAANetwork.comBuy Audio CD

8 p.m. – Division 6 – Ithaca 27, Clinton 20 – Yellowjackets quarterback Jake Smith ran for 126 yards and three touchdowns, and passed for another 180 yards and a fourth score to lead his team to the win.

Watch on MHSAA.TVBuy Video DVDListen on MHSAANetwork.comBuy Audio CD

10 p.m. – Division 4 - Zeeland West 40, Flint Powers Catholic 14 – These Dux were indeed mighty on this day, as quarterback Casey Brinks directed West for the second time in three seasons to a title.

Watch on MHSAA.TVBuy Video DVDListen on MHSAANetwork.comBuy Audio CD

Dec. 25

4 p.m. – Division 7 – Ishpeming 22, Pewamo-Westphalia 16 – Ozzy Corp does it all in this one, scoring all three of his team’s touchdowns and batting away a last-minute pass into the end zone to give the Hematites their third crown in four years.

Watch on MHSAA.TVBuy Video DVDListen on MHSAANetwork.comBuy Audio CD

6 p.m. – Division 1 – Romeo 41, Detroit Cass Tech 27 – Bradley Tanner rushed for 103 yards and three touchdowns, and Paul Hurley threw for 203 yards and one score to lead the Bulldogs.

Watch on MHSAA.TVBuy Video DVDListen on MHSAANetwork.comBuy Audio CD

8 p.m. – Division 5 – Grand Rapids West Catholic 40, River Rouge 34 – Gaetano Vallone and David Fox shared the quarterback duties and combined for 288 yards rushing and 106 passing to lead the Falcons to a third straight championship.

Watch on MHSAA.TVBuy Video DVDListen on MHSAANetwork.comBuy Audio CD

10 p.m. – Division 3 – Orchard Lake St. Mary’s 40, Chelsea 12 – The Eaglets got two scoring passes from the combination of Brendan Tabone to K.J. Hamler, and pounded the rock for 293 yards rushing to win their second straight championship.

Watch on MHSAA.TVBuy Video DVDListen on MHSAANetwork.comBuy Audio CD

Things are winding down for the holidays on MHSAA.tv with School Broadcast Program members heading into a break.

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 that School Broadcast Program members plan to stream the rest of the month for broadcast at MHSAA.tv. On-Demand listings may be available as soon as one hour following an event’s completion.  (List as of Dec. 15):

Wednesday – Dec. 16

Thursday – Dec. 17

Friday – Dec. 18

Saturday – Dec. 19

Monday – Dec. 21

Tuesday – Dec. 22

Monday – Jan. 4, 2016

Tuesday – Jan. 5

Schools interested in becoming a part of the School Broadcast Program should contact John Johnson at the MHSAA Office.

This week's SBP highlights package includes clips from the Portage Northern/Plainwell girls basketball and Cheboygan/Alpena ice hockey games, plus buzzer-beating shots from around the state. 

Pixellot Productions On Rise

September 19, 2018

By John Johnson
MHSAA Director of Broadcast Properties

A year ago, Pixellot – the automated production solution for schools wishing to stream live video of their athletic events on the NFHS Network and MHSAA.tv – was in use at six schools across Michigan.

With the new school year underway, nearly two dozen schools are actively streaming events using Pixellot, with half of those schools streaming indoor and outdoor events. Several schools have more than two Pixellot units in place.

“Schools are finding that Pixellot provides a great opportunity to get a lot of their games out to their fans in a way they could never achieve,” said Mark Uyl, executive director of the MHSAA.  “We have some schools which are using a mix of their traditional, student-staffed, School Broadcast Program efforts along with Pixellot to be able to add subvarsity coverage; and schools going exclusively with Pixellot with installations at multiple venues.”

Pixellot units use from two to four High Definition cameras that cover the length of the playing surface and then focus on the ball and player movement to deliver the action. The unit communicates with the scoreboard to insert a time and score graphic on the screen. Ambient audio is picked up by the device, but the commentary of the public address announcer or the radio style play-by-play of an in-person announcing team also can be patched in.

All that has to be done from a school’s perspective is type in the event schedule and promote the fact that the games are available on MHSAA.tv. Pixellot does the rest. The unit also can be set up to isolate a camera on a fixed location, which allows for activities like cheer and wrestling to be streamed.

Schools actively engaged in Pixellot productions now include: Ann Arbor Greenhills, Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood, Brighton, Calumet, Dollar Bay, Frankenmuth, Freeland, Fremont, Grand Blanc, Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian, Harrison, Howell, Kalamazoo Christian, Macomb Lutheran North, Manchester, Norway, Novi, Otisville-LakeVille, Ovid-Elsie, Plainwell, Saginaw Heritage, Saline, Stevensville Lakeshore, Warren DeLaSalle and Williamston. Schools using indoor and outdoor units include Cranbrook Kingswood, Frankenmuth, Freeland, Grand Blanc, Howell, Manchester, Norway, Novi, Ovid-Elsie, Plainwell, Saginaw Heritage, Saline and Stevensville Lakeshore. Additional schools will have their Pixellot units coming online soon.

More than 70 percent of the programming taking place this week on MHSAA.tv will be Pixellot productions, featuring a football game Friday evening with two of the top-ranked Division 1 teams facing off for the top spot in the Saginaw Valley League’s Red division. Grand Blanc hosts Davison at 7 p.m. Both teams are 4-0 overall and 2-0 in league play, tied with Lapeer for first place.

Here’s this week’s MHSAA.tv schedule of video streams being produced by School Broadcast Program members and the NFHS Network:

Tuesday - Sept. 18

Wednesday - Sept. 19 

Thursday - Sept. 20

Friday - Sept. 21

Saturday - Sept. 22

Monday - Sept. 24

Tuesday - Sept. 25

All sporting events – live or delayed - 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.

NFHS Network subscriptions begin at $9.95 a month. Subscribers will have access to all live video and streaming statistics across the country. All content becomes available for free, on-demand viewing 72 hours after being shown live. School Broadcast Program participants also will be selling Season and Annual Passes at a discounted rate. A portion of every subscription sold by a school goes to benefit its program. 

Highlights of games broadcast during the past week by MHSAA School Broadcast Program contributors feature a pair of close football contests – Marquette’s 36-35 overtime win over Escanaba and Howell topping Novi, 21-17 – and a volleyball match with Lake Orion defeating Oxford, 3-0.

Highlights can be found each week on the MHSAA.tv website, the home page of the MHSAA Website, and the MHSAASports Channel on YouTube.

A complete list of participating schools can be found on the School Broadcast Program page of the MHSAA website.