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.)
Montrose Earns SBP Awards 5-Peat
By
John Johnson
MHSAA Communications Director emeritus
May 11, 2018
Make it five in row for Montrose High School, which again claimed the top spot as the “Program of the Year” in the MHSAA’s School Broadcast Program Excellence Awards for 2017-18.
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 every category: Best Highlight, Best Multicamera Production, Best Student Play-by-Play, Best Produced Commercial/Feature, Best Single Camera Production with PlayOn! Sports Graphics and Best Use of PlayOn! Sports Graphics. It also placed a second entry in five of the six categories.
Montrose continued to demonstrate good blend of productions in a variety of sports covered and an overall command of the PlayOn! Sports software used for graphics and inserting commercials/features during the course of productions.
Other criteria used in selecting the top program awards were sporting events produced and live page views for those events. The events category was dominated by schools using Pixellot, the NFHS Network’s automated coverage solution, but still topped by a traditional SBP member. Comstock Park has produced 89 events to date this year, followed by three Pixellot schools – Freeland (76), Plainwell (76) and Macomb Lutheran North (71).
For live page views, the top four schools were Dollar Bay, Lake Orion, Norway and Calumet. Dollar Bay and Norway are dedicated Pixellot schools, while Calumet produces games with traditional crews and Pixellot.
Here is the complete list by categories of the schools and students being honored in this year’s SBP Excellence Awards:
Best Highlight
First Place – Montrose - Eric Vandefifer, David Sackrider, Peyton Hobson, Tanner Sims – Football game v. Birch Run.
Second Place – Negaunee - Thomas Bagley, Chaz Bluse, Alec Johnson – Gymnastics meet v. Super Seven co-op.
Third Place – Montrose - Danny Sackrider, Steven Folsom, Taylor Burke Pennington, Randall Smith – Boys Basketball game v. Genesee Christian.
Best Multicamera Production
First Place – Montrose – Eric Vandefifer, John Blackford, Kenzie Bishop – MHSAA District Wrestling Finals.
Second Place – Lake Orion – WDBC Staff – Boys Basketball game v. Oxford.
Third Place – Lake Orion – WDBC Staff – Boys Basketball game v. Rochester.
Best Student Play-By-Play
First Place – Montrose – Eric Vandefifer and David Sackrider – Football game v. Birch Run.
Second Place – Montrose – Eric Vandefifer and David Sackrider – JV Boys Basketball game v. Genesee Christian.
Third Place – Lake Orion – Ben Wellman and Ted Hirschfield – Boys Basketball game v. Rochester.
Best Produced Commercial/Feature
First Place – Montrose – Jared Adams, Maddie Pyrc, John Blackford – Conlee Oil Company Commercial.
Second Place – Montrose – Jared Adams, Molly Dunton, David Sackrider – Hamilton’s RV Commercial.
Best Single Camera Production with PlayOn! Graphics
First Place - Montrose – David Sackrider, Eric Vandefifer, Tanner Sims, Peyton Hobson, Taylor Burke-Pennington – Football game v. Birch Run.
Second Place – Negaunee – Colton Yesney, Carter Richardson, Robby Williams, Peyton Anderson – Girls Volleyball match v. Gwinn.
Third Place – Montrose - David Sackrider, Eric Vandefifer, Tanner Sims, Peyton Hobson, Taylor Burke-Pennington - JV Boys Basketball game v. Genesee Christian.
Best Use of PlayOn! Graphics/Software
First Place - Montrose – David Sackrider, Eric Vandefifer, Tanner Sims, Peyton Hobson, Taylor Burke-Pennington – Football Game v. Birch Run.
Second Place – Lake Orion - Ben Wellman, Isabella Larsen, Micah Williams, Samuel Jenkins – Boys Basketball game v. Clarkston.
Third Place – Montrose - David Sackrider, Eric Vandefifer, Tanner Sims, Peyton Hobson,Taylor Burke-Pennington - JV Boys Basketball game v. Genesee Christian.
Montrose also was honored this spring by the NFHS Network with the Best Live Sports Broadcast of the 2017-18 school year. Its production of a regular-season football game with Birch Run, won by Montrose in overtime, took top honors.
In its ninth 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.
A complete list of participating schools can be found on the School Broadcast Program page of the MHSAA website.
PHOTOS: (Top) Montrose’s Eric Vandefifer interviews three of his school’s wrestlers who qualified for the MHSAA Individual Finals, during a basketball telecast in March. (Middle) Montrose SBP students take in Tigers Student Media Day this spring.