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Montrose SBP

Ford Field Trip Gives Students Taste of Football Finals Broadcasting

By Jon Ross
MHSAA Director of Broadcast Properties

December 7, 2021

DETROIT – An hour before kickoff of the first game of 11-Player Football Finals weekend – the Division 8 championship decider between Hudson and Beal City – Bally Sports Detroit announcers Evan Stockton and Rob Rubick were busy preparing to call the action from the television booth on the third level of Ford Field.

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.

Mount Pleasant SBP“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.)

More Championships Come to MHSAA TV

October 31, 2017

By John Johnson
MHSAA Director of Broadcast Properties 

Championship action in two sports plus the second week of PrepZone gridiron coverage will provide fans of MHSAA action lots to choose from this weekend.

Coverage begins with four District Final games in the MHSAA Football Playoffs – powered by the Michigan Army National Guard – on the PrepZone on FoxSportsDetroit.com and FOX Sports GO! on Friday (Nov. 3) at 7 p.m.:

  • Canton at Belleville (Div. 1)
  • Grand Rapids Catholic Central at Wyoming Kelloggsville (Div. 4)
  • River Rouge at Chelsea  (Div. 4 – Also available on FOX Sports Detroit Facebook page)
  • Pewamo-Westphalia at New Lothrop (Div. 7) 

On Saturday (Nov. 4), the four championship games of the Lower Peninsula Boys Soccer Tournament will have live streaming video on MHSAA.tv and live streaming audio on MHSAANetwork.com, and the Finish Line Cam at Michigan International Speedway returns at the L.P. Cross Country Finals on MHSAA.tv.

All four PrepZone games feature clashes of highly-ranked teams in the final Associated Press polls for 2017. Belleville was ranked second and Canton ninth in the final Division 1 poll; Grand Rapids Catholic Central and Wyoming Kelloggsville were 1-2 in Division 4; River Rouge and Chelsea were 7-8 in the final Division 3 poll; and New Lothrop finished the season atop the Division 7 rankings with Pewamo-Westphalia in third.

The River Rouge at Chelsea game will receive bonus coverage, streaming live on the Fox Sports Detroit Facebook page. That game drew 49 percent of the votes in a Twitter poll conducted Monday.

All PrepZone games will be archived on MHSAA.tv.

Saturday’s Boys Soccer Finals will be live on MHSAA.tv with games at Noon and 3 p.m. The games will be played at Rochester Hills Stoney Creek and Comstock Park High Schools, with divisions at each site to be announced after the Semifinals on Wednesday (Nov. 1). All of the games will also have live streaming audio at MHSAANetwork.com.

One Soccer Semifinal game will be Live on MHSAA.tv on Wednesday – a Division 3 matchup at Cedar Springs between Ludington and Grand Rapids South Christian, at 6 p.m.

MHSAA.tv will also offer a free live video stream on Saturday of the finish line at the Lower Peninsula Cross Country Finals at Michigan International Speedway. The stream will include audio commentary from announcers around the course throughout each race.  The morning session with the boys and girls races in Division 3 and 4 begins at 9:30 a.m., and the afternoon session with races in Divisions 1 and 2 starts at 1:30 p.m. Live timing of each race will also be available on the Cross Country page of the MHSAA Website.

A month’s subscription to watch live on MHSAA.tv is $9.95 and allows access to the full schedule of MHSAA Tournaments during the month of November:

  • Nov. 4 – Boys Soccer Finals
  • Nov. 11 – Selected Football Playoff Regional Finals
  • Nov. 16-17 – Girls Volleyball Semifinals & Finals
  • Nov. 18 – Lower Peninsula Girls Swimming & Diving Finals
  • Nov. 18 – Football Playoff Semifinals (12 games) 

Live coverage of Football District Finals and Girls Volleyball District games also takes place this week on MHSAA.tv, being produced by SBP schools:

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. Pixellot is used by schools wishing to stream games but which lack the ability to staff the events. The SBP 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.

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

A weekly staple on the MHSAA.tv website and the MHSAASports Channel on YouTube is back for another year with highlights of selected games last week produced by members of the Association’s School Broadcast Program. 

This week’s highlights package consists of clips from Pre-District football games Parma Western at Haslett and Oscoda at Breckenridge, and a boys soccer Regional Final match with Petoskey at East Lansing.

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

More than 15 football games are featured each week on the State Champs! Sports Network Extra Point – powered by the Michigan High School Athletic Association – Saturday at 10 a.m. on FOX Sports Detroit.

The half-hour program features highlights from more than a dozen games each week, including clips from games produced by MHSAA School Broadcast Program members. The program airs multiple times each weekend on FOX Sports Detroit and on Comcast Channel 900, and will be archived on the State Champs YouTube Channel. Consult your local listings for additional playback times.

Here are some of the games to be featured this week on State Champs! Extra Point:

  • Canton at Belleville
  • Macomb Dakota at Clinton Township Chippewa Valley
  • Warren DeLaSalle at Port Huron Northern
  • Grand Rapids Catholic Central at Wyoming Kelloggsville
  • River Rouge at Chelsea
  • Grant at Muskegon Oakridge
  • Kent City at Montague
  • Laingsburg at Ithaca
  • Pewamo-Westphalia at Ithaca
  • Petersburg-Summerfield at Ottawa Lake-Whiteford
  • Morrice at Deckerville

PLUS - Additional coverage from Grand Rapids, Lansing, Flint, Upper Peninsula and School Broadcast Program games.

The MHSAA also has a presence on other State Champs! Network programs throughout each weekend. The MHSAA Minute is a weekly part of the State Champs! High School Sports Show on FOX Sports Detroit at 9 a.m. every Sunday – with multiple replays on FOX Sports Detroit and Comcast Channel 900 throughout the week. That program also is archived on the State Champs YouTube Channel. Consult your local listings for additional playback times.

This week’s MHSAA Minute on State Champs talks about The Scholar-Athlete Award.

The MHSAA also has content on the State Champs Scoreboard! High School Football Radio Show on Friday nights during the football and basketball seasons, originating on WXYT-FM (97.1) in Detroit and carried on more than 10 radio stations across the state. This Week In High School Sports and Be the Referee are weekly features on the program.