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Montrose To Receive Excellence Awards

By John Johnson
MHSAA Communications Director emeritus

September 16, 2015

Montrose High School, the MHSAA School Broadcast Program of the Year for the 2014-15 school year, will be honored at halftime of the Durand at Montrose football game on Friday. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.

Montrose has won the Program of the Year honor in each of the first two years the MHSAA, in partnership with Herff Jones, has sponsored the School Broadcast Program Excellence Awards. In addition to repeating as the top school in the program, Montrose captured first place honors in three of the five individual categories.

Montrose took first place in Best Play-By-Play (Eric Vandefifer, Trey Schmitz  – Boys Basketball game vs. Lake Fenton), Best Single Camera Production with PlayOn! Sports graphics (Trey Schmitz, Andrew Morley, Eric Vandefifer – Girls Soccer match vs. Hemlock), and the top two spots for Best Use of PlayOn! Sports Graphics (Eric Vandefifer, Trey Schmitz, Andrew Morley, Griffin Powell, Bradley Payne – Boys Basketball game vs. Goodrich; and Eric Vandefifer, Trey Schmitz, Andrew Morley – Girls Basketball game vs. Lake Fenton). The program also took a second place for Best Produced Commercial/Feature (Alyssa Bernard, Amanda Ramsey, Alicia Town, Allia Town – Sexual Assault PSA) and a third for Best Multicamera Production (Trey Schmitz, Andrew Morley, Amanda Ramsey, Nathan Brown, Eric Vandefifer, Brandon Smith – Genesee Area Conference Girls Competitive Cheer Finals). 

The presentation will be shown live on MHSAA.tv as one of a number of live events being streamed online this year by School Broadcast Program members.

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 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.

Here’s the schedule of School Broadcast Program members planning to stream competition this week for broadcast at MHSAA.tv  (As of Sept. 14):

The SBP programming schedule is expected to expand now that school is in session across the state. A complete list of participating schools can be found on the School Broadcast Program page of the MHSAA website.

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

This week's MHSAA.tv highlights package includes clips from the South Haven/Plainwell and Lake Fenton/Montrose football games and Chassell/Calumet volleyball match.

Hoops on Film: 1973 Class C Boys Final

June 22, 2015

By John Johnson
MHSAA communications director

Straight out of the dusty tin canisters where they’ve sat for a long time, some of the classic basketball championship games of years past will be featured for 10 weeks this summer on MHSAA.tv’s Hoops On Film Series.

From the late 1940’s to the mid 1970’s the Michigan High School Athletic Association shot portions of the action at its basketball finals on 16mm film. The films were loaned out, primarily to the participating schools, to help them relive the moments of playing in a championship game.

While many of the old films have wandered astray over time, about 60 games still exist in the MHSAA archives. Anyone in possession of such a film is encouraged to contact John Johnson at the MHSAA Office ([email protected]) to discuss having the film converted to a digital format.

Some of the films only have portions of the second half and the postgame awards; some have most of the action. None of the films have sound. They range in length from 10 minutes to about an hour. A new film will be posted online each Monday beginning June 22, through the week of August 17.

Click below for the first installment of the Hoops On Film series and to check out the game recap courtesy of MHSAA Historian Ron Pesch of Muskegon.

Detroit East Catholic 50, Saginaw St. Stephen 49 – 1973 Class C Boys Final - With four ticks remaining on the clock, Larry Merchant's 18-foot jumper from left of the key gave underdog Detroit East Catholic a 50-49 win over top-ranked Saginaw St. Stephen in Class C. Merchant, who scored 10 of his 14 points in the first half, gave the Chargers a 48-47 lead with just over a minute to play, but a pair of free throws by Elijah Coates pushed St. Stephen out front 49-48 with 45 seconds left.