Montrose Wins Top MHSAA/SBP Award
May 11, 2016
By John Johnson
MHSAA Communications Director
Make it three in row for Montrose High School, which was selected as the “Program of the Year” in the third annual MHSAA School Broadcast Program Excellence Awards for 2015-16.
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 Best Student Play-By-Play and the top two spots for Best Produced Commercial/Feature. The program also took a second place for Best Use of PlayOn! Sports Graphics.
Montrose also demonstrated during the year a good blend of productions in a variety of sports covered, the ability to cover home and away events and an overall command of the PlayOn! Sports software used for graphics and inserting commercials/features during the course of productions.
Other category winners were: Cedar Springs High School for Best Multicamera Production and Best Single Camera Production with PlayOn! Graphics and Haslett High School for Best Use of PlayOn! Graphics.
Here is the complete list by categories of the schools and students being honored in this year’s SBP Excellence Awards:
Best Multicamera Production
First Place – Cedar Springs – Ethan Lewis, John Grigsby, Leah Carter, Kelly Salmon – Football game v. Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern.
Second Place – Haslett – Conor Clifford, Torsten Holland, Alex Riley, Dylan Wolschleger, Brennan Simzak, Altair Boonraksa, Jacob Johnston, Nathan Glaza, Thomas Ashley – Girls Basketball game v. Mason.
Third Place – Montrose – Eric Vandefifer, Conner Pyrc, Jared Adams, Mandy Ramsey, John Blackford – Boys Basketball game v. Saginaw Arts & Sciences Academy.
Best Play-By-Play
First Place – Montrose – Eric Vandefifer and Conner Pyrc – Boys Basketball game v. Goodrich.
Second Place – Haslett – Conor Clifford and Torsten Holland – Girls Basketball game v. Mason.
Third Place – Cedar Springs - Jonathan Wolfarth and Jalen Jackson – Football game v. Wyoming.
Best Produced Commercial/Feature
First Place – Montrose – Eric Vandefifer, Conner Pyrc, Jared Adams, Mandy Rasmey, John Blackford – Ford Field Trip Feature.
Second Place – Montrose – Amanda Ramsey, Jared Adams, Alyssa Bernard, – RAINN Sexual Assault PSA.
Best Single Camera Production with PlayOn! Graphics
First Place – Cedar Springs - Alex Tanis, Alex Robinson, Jonathan Wolfarth, Ethan Lewis – MHSAA Football Playoff – Muskegon at Muskegon Mona Shores.
Second Place – Haslett – Tyler Goldberg and Jonah Brown – MHSAA Football Playoff – Romeo v. Grand Ledge.
Third Place – Cedar Springs – Alex Tanis, Alex Robinson, Jonathan Wolfarth, Ethan Lewis – MHSAA Football Playoff – Lansing Catholic v. Grand Rapids West Catholic.
Best Use of PlayOn! Graphics/Software
First Place – Haslett – Dylan Wolschleger, Brennan Simzak, Jacob Johnston, Conor Clifford, Reece Huberts, Henrik Holland, David Weston – Girls Basketball game v. St. Johns.
Second Place – Montrose – Eric Vadnefifer, Conner Pyrc, Jared Adams, Mandy Ramsey, John Blackford – Boys Basketball game v. Saginaw Arts & Sciences Academy.
Third Place – Montrose - Peyton Hobson, John Blackford, Conner Pyrc – Boys Basketball game v. Corunna.
Michigan schools were represented recently when the NFHS Network announced its SBP awards for the 2015-16 school year on April 28. Jamie Kitts of Montrose High School was one of three finalists for the Best Teacher honor, and Rockford High School had a finalist for Highlight of the Year, a 65-yard touchdown run by quarterback Tyler Bradfield against Grandville.
The School Broadcast Program, powered by PlayOn! Sports, is a platform which schools can utilize to reach members of their communities about activities taking place in their buildings, providing recognition for students while at the same time giving them hands-on opportunities to gain broadcasting experience and providing schools an opportunity to realize additional revenues for their programs. Schools interested in becoming a part of the School Broadcast Program should contact John Johnson at the MHSAA Office.
MHSAA TV Kickoff Returns Highlights
August 22, 2017
By John Johnson
MHSAA Director of Broadcast Properties
Weekly statewide football highlights return to cable viewers across Michigan in 2017, with the Michigan High School Athletic Association and the State Champs! Sports Network teaming up to launch “MHSAA Extra Point” beginning this week.
The half hour program will feature highlights from more than a dozen games each week, including clips from games produced by MHSAA School Broadcast Program members. Lorne Plant and Daniella Bruce from the State Champs! Sports Network will host the show, which will air multiple times each weekend on FOX Sports Detroit and Comcast Channel 900 and be archived on the State Champs YouTube Channel. Consult your local listings for additional playback times.
Here is the projected list of games to be featured on this week’s first edition of MHSAA Extra Point:
- Belleville vs. Brighton at Ann Arbor
- DeWitt at Grand Rapids Christian
- Walled Lake Western vs. West Bloomfield at Detroit
- Davison vs. Southfield A&T at Detroit
- Rockford vs. Saline at Ann Arbor
- Rapid River vs. Powers North Central
- Lowell vs. Warren De La Salle at Detroit
- Detroit U-D Jesuit at Birmingham Brother Rice
- Ishpeming vs. Iron Mountain
- Byron at Montrose
- Lake Orion at Clinton Township Chippewa Valley
- Bay City Western at Traverse City Central
- Bay City John Glenn at Freeland
The MHSAA also will have a presence on State Champs! Network programming throughout each weekend with the “MHSAA Minute” making its debut on this Sunday’s (Aug. 26) edition of the weekly State Champs! High School Sports Show on FOX Sports Detroit at 9 a.m., with multiple replays on FOX Sports Detroit and Comcast Channel 900 throughout the week. The program also will be archived on the State Champs YouTube Channel. Consult your local listings for additional playback times.
This week’s MHSAA Minute is the first of a three-part series on football rules changes for 2017; the first edition talks about blind side blocks. The MHSAA also will have 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 being carried on more than 10 radio stations across the state.
The MHSAA.tv Website starts the 2017 football season in a big way this week, with the NFHS Network streaming 14 games over three days from the Vehicle City Gridiron Classic at Flint’s Atwood Stadium on Thursday (Aug. 24), the West Michigan Sports Commission Gridiron Classic at Grand Valley State University on Saturday (Aug. 26), and all three days of the Prep Kickoff Classic at Wayne State University, running Thursday through Saturday. The first two days of coverage at the PKC will be produced by the NFHS Network; Saturday’s games will be a live stream produced by Comcast to air on a delayed basis on Channel 900.
Topping off the weekend’s streaming activity will be a number of games produced by MHSAA School Broadcast Program members – including the first gridiron and volleyball events in Michigan to be streamed with a new product from the NFHS Network.
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 number of new schools are joining the program using an automated production solution – Pixellot – which was first installed in Michigan earlier this year at Otisville Lakeville. Most Pixellot schools will install their first unit in the gymnasium, but several schools – Novi, Freeland, Plainwell, Norway and Ovid-Elsie – also are installing a second unit at multi-purpose fields to cover sports like football, soccer and lacrosse. The Pixellot system requires only that a schedule be entered online to cover an event, making things like a basketball double or tripleheader easy to stream without staffing worries.
Freeland will use Pixellot to live stream a volleyball match with Bay City Western on Thursday at 1 p.m., followed by a football game against Bay City John Glenn at 7 p.m. Other Pixellot schools are Calumet, Fremont, Harrison, Rochester Hills Lutheran Northwest and Otisville Lakeville.
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 this week’s MHSAA.tv schedule of video streams being produced by SBP members:
Tuesday, Aug. 22
- Boys Soccer - Haslett at East Lansing – 6:30 p.m. (On-Demand)
Wednesday Aug. 23
- Freshman Football – Grand Rapids Northview at Comstock Park – 4:30 p.m.
- Junior Varsity Football – Grand Rapids Northview at Comstock Park – 6 p.m.
Thursday, Aug. 24
- Football – Vehicle City Gridiron Classic – Flint
- Goodrich vs. Burton Bendle – 1 p.m.
- Flushing vs Linden – 4 p.m.
- Flint Carman-Ainsworth vs. Grand Blanc – 7 p.m.
- Prep Kickoff Classic – Detroit
- Walled Lake Western vs. West Bloomfield – 4 p.m.
- Davison vs. Southfield – 7 p.m.
- Girls Volleyball – Bay City Western at Freeland – 1 p.m. - Pixellot
- Football – Byron at Montrose – 7 p.m.
- Football – Lake Orion at Clinton Township Chippewa Valley – 7 p.m.
- Football – Bay City John Glenn at Freeland – 7 p.m. – Pixellot
- Football – Bay City Western at Traverse City Central – 7 p.m.
- Football – Haslett at Fowlerville - 7 p.m.
Friday, Aug. 25
- Prep Kickoff Classic – Detroit
- Almont vs. Grosse Ile – 4 p.m.
- Lowell vs. Warren DeLaSalle – 7 p.m.
Saturday, Aug. 26
- West Michigan Sports Commission Gridiron Classic – Allendale
- Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian vs. Spring Lake – 10:30 a.m.
- East Kentwood vs. Macomb L'Anse Creuse North – 1:30 p.m.
- Kent City vs. Ravenna – 4:30 p.m.
- Greenville vs. North Farmington – 7:30 p.m.
- Prep Kickoff Classic – Detroit
- River Rouge vs. East English Village Prep – 12 p.m.
- Oak Park vs. Utica Eisenhower – 3 p.m.
- Detroit Martin Luther King vs. Indianapolis Cathedral – 6 p.m.
Tuesday, Aug. 29
- Boys Soccer - Grand Rapids West Catholic at Comstock Park – 6:45 p.m.
Wednesday, Aug. 30
- JV Boys Soccer – Whitehall at Plainwell – 4 p.m.
- Freshman Football – Breckenridge at Freeland – 4:30 p.m. – Pixellot
- Boys Soccer – Whitehall at Plainwell – 5:45 p.m.
- Junior Varsity Football – Chesaning at Freeland – 6 p.m. - Pixellot
NFHS Network subscriptions begin at $9.95 per 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 will also 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.