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MHSAA TV Celebrates 10th Anniversary

August 29, 2018

By John Johnson
MHSAA Director of Broadcast Properties

It was 10 years ago today that the MHSAA began its current television network efforts by broadcasting a season-opening football game pitting local rivals in small-town setting.

Sand Creek High School was hosting Blissfield in what had become a traditional season-opening game at the time, the two schools less than 15 miles apart. The Aggies were celebrating a community effort by debuting new grandstands on the home side of the field salvaged from nearby Michigan International Speedway. Townsfolk gathered across the street in the high school for a fund-raising taco dinner, and the MHSAA Network was there.

In the 10 years since that kickoff game, won by Blissfield 14-6, the MHSAA’s video production efforts have gone from games on cable television to an exclusively online effort powered by the NFHS Network – which produces more than 135 events and 400 hours of MHSAA Championships – and feature a growing School Broadcast Program, which will produce upwards of 2,000 hours of regular-season games at more 80 participating schools in 2018-19.

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

Wednesday, Aug. 29

Thursday, Aug. 30

Friday, Aug. 31

Tuesday, Sept. 4

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. 

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

Highlights of games broadcast by MHSAA School Broadcast Program members and the NFHS Network make their 2018-19 debut this week. Featured games are in football with Trenton’s 27-21 win over Allen Park; Zeeland East topping East Grand Rapids, 36-27; and Flint Beecher defeating Flint Southwestern, 24-0.

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

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.)