MHSAA TV Features Grid Showdowns
September 5, 2018
By John Johnson
MHSAA Director of Broadcast Properties
A trio of football games pitting schools with 2-0 records highlights this week’s schedule on MHSAA.tv.
In the Upper Peninsula’s West-PAC Large Division, Calumet hosts Ishpeming Westwood on Friday. The two teams are tied atop the league standings with Hancock.
The other games are league openers. Saginaw Swan Valley will travel to Freeland on Friday in a Tri-Valley Conference Central match, and in the Capital Area Activities Conference Red, Williamston is at Fowlerville.
Here’s this week’s MHSAA.tv schedule of video streams being produced by School Broadcast Program members and the NFHS Network:
Tuesday, Sept. 4
- JV Boys Soccer - Ann Arbor Skyline at Saline - 5:30 p.m.
- Girls Volleyball - Iron Mountain at Norway - 6 p.m.
- Boys Soccer - Ann Arbor Skyline at Saline - 7 p.m.
Wednesday - Sept. 5
- Girls Volleyball – Marlette at Freeland - 5 p.m.
- Freshman Girls Volleyball – Madison Heights Bishop Foley at Macomb Lutheran North - 5:30 p.m.
- JV Girls Volleyball - Durand at Ovid-Elsie - 5:30 p.m.
- Freshman Girls Volleyball - Durand at Ovid-Elsie - 5:30 p.m.
- JV Girls Volleyball – Marine Cardinal Mooney at Ann Arbor Greenhills - 5:30 p.m.
- Girls Volleyball - Durand at Ovid-Elsie - 6:30 p.m.
- Girls Volleyball – Marine City Cardinal Mooney at Ann Arbor Greenhills - 6:30 p.m.
Thursday - Sept. 6
- Freshman Girls Volleyball – Grand Rapids Catholic Central at Comstock Park - 4 p.m.
- Freshman Football - Croswell-Lexington at Frankenmuth - 4:30 p.m.
- Freshman Football - Ypsilanti at Saline - 4:30 p.m.
- Girls Volleyball – Brooklyn Columbia Central at Manchester - 5 p.m.
- JV Girls Volleyball – Grand Rapids Catholic Central at Comstock Park - 5 p.m.
- Freshman Girls Volleyball - Clarkston at Grand Blanc - 5:30 p.m.
- JV Girls Volleyball - Clarkston at Grand Blanc - 5:30 p.m.
- Girls Volleyball – Grand Rapids Catholic Central at Comstock Park - 6 p.m.
- JV Football - Bridgeport at Frankenmuth - 6 p.m.
- JV Football - Ypsilanti at Saline - 6:30 p.m.
- JV Football - Ishpeming at Norway - 6:30 p.m.
- JV Football - Chesaning at Montrose - 6:30 p.m.
- Girls Volleyball - Clarkston at Grand Blanc - 7 p.m.
Friday - Sept. 7
- Football - Williamston at Fowlerville - 7 p.m.
- Freshman Boys Soccer - Salem at Saline - 4 p.m.
- Football - Lake Orion at Rochester Adams - 7 p.m.
- Football – Saginaw Swan Valley at Freeland - 7 p.m.
- Football - Sault Ste. Marie at Marquette - 7 p.m.
- Football - Flint at Grand Blanc - 7 p.m.
- Football - Salem at Novi - 7 p.m.
- Football - Saint Thomas Aquinas at Warren DeLaSalle - 7 p.m.
- Football – Ishpeming Westwood at Calumet - 7 p.m.
- Football – Otisville Lakeville at Ovid-Elsie - 7 p.m.
Saturday - Sept. 8
- JV Girls Volleyball – Mustang Invitational at Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian - 8:30 a.m.
Monday - Sept. 10
- Field Hockey – Bloomfield Hills Marian at Novi - 3:30 p.m.
- JV Field Hockey – Bloomfield Hills Marian at Novi - 5 p.m.
- Boys Soccer - Howell at Fowlerville - 5:30 p.m.
Tuesday - Sept. 11
- Freshman Girls Volleyball - Schoolcraft at Kalamazoo Christian - 4:15 p.m.
- JV Girls Volleyball - Schoolcraft at Kalamazoo Christian - 5:30 p.m.
- Girls Volleyball - Schoolcraft at Kalamazoo Christian - 7 p.m.
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 during the past week by the MHSAA School Broadcast Program feature Saline’s 17-7 football win over two-time reigning Division 4 champion Grand Rapids Catholic Central, Allen Park Cabrini’s 3-0 volleyball win over Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood and East Lansing’s 2-1 boys soccer win over Williamston.
Highlights can be found each week on the MHSAA.tv website, the home page of the MHSAA Website, and the MHSAASports Channel on YouTube.
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.)