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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.

UP Swim Finals Live on MHSAA TV

February 15, 2017

By John Johnson
MHSAA Communications Director

The first of six straight weekends of live coverage of MHSAA winter sports championships begins this week on MHSAA.tv at the Upper Peninsula Swimming & Diving Finals at Marquette High School.

The Finals in diving will take place beginning at 2 p.m. Friday. On Saturday, coverage of the swimming events begins at 10 a.m.

Here’s the week-by-week NFHS Network coverage schedule of MHSAA winter Championships:

  • Feb. 17-18 – Upper Peninsula Swimming & Diving Finals
  • Feb. 24-25 – Team Dual Wrestling Quarterfinals-Semifinals-Finals
  • March 2-4 – Individual Wrestling Finals
  • March 3-4 – Girls Competitive Cheer Finals
  • March 9-11 – Ice Hockey Semifinals-Finals
  • March 11 – Lower Peninsula Boys Swimming & Diving Finals
  • March 14 – Girls Basketball Quarterfinals
  • March 16-17 – Girls Basketball Semifinals
  • March 21 – Boys Basketball Quarterfinals
  • March 23-24 – Boys Basketball Semifinals

A $9.95 subscription on the NFHS Network is good for 30 days of viewing live coverage of MHSAA.tv and a variety of high school championships across the country.  All events are available for free, on-demand viewing three days after they have been played.

New to the schedule this year are plans to live stream all 32 Girls and Boys Basketball Quarterfinals in March, many of which will be produced by members of the MHSAA’s School Broadcast Program.   

“The idea of streaming 16 games in a single day has been well-received the past few years during the Football Semifinals, and we think a lot of fans who follow high school basketball in general, but who would not be able to travel to a tournament center, will take advantage of this opportunity,” said John Johnson, MHSAA Communications Director.

With the winter regular season winding down, there’s plenty of School Broadcast Program-generated content coming in over the next seven days on MHSAA.tv including a number of events impacting conference races.

Hillman girls basketball can clinch an outright title in the North Star League Big Dipper division with a win at Rogers City on Thursday, and Birmingham Brother Rice can do the game with a win over Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood in the Michigan Interscholastic Hockey League’s North division when those two teams meet on Friday.

Here’s this week’s MHSAA.tv schedule of live video streams available and being produced by SBP members (all times Eastern Standard):

Tuesday, Feb. 14

Wednesday, Feb. 15

Thursday, Feb. 16

Friday, Feb. 17

Saturday, Feb. 18

Tuesday, Feb. 21

Be sure to check the Upcoming Events page at MHSAA.tv for schedule additions every day.

In its eighth 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 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 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.

Fans also can access scores of games in-progress on the NFHS Network website via ScoreStream. Click on the Scores button in the upper right corner.

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 includes matches from a Division 3 Individual Wrestling District at Montrose, a boys basketball game with Farmington Hills Harrison at Center Line and a girls basketball game pitting Kingsford at Marquette.

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