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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.

4 Sports Streamed This Week on MHSAA TV

March 8, 2016

By John Johnson
MHSAA Communications Director

There’s lot of MHSAA Tournament action with live streaming video on the MHSAA.tv website this week, including Finals in Girls Gymnastics, Ice Hockey and Lower Peninsula Boys Swimming & Diving.

The streams will include a number of Basketball Tournament games from Boys District and Girls Regional play produced by participants in the MHSAA’s School Broadcast Program.

The championship live streaming begins Thursday at 5 p.m. with the first of two Division 2 Semifinal games in the Ice Hockey Tournament.  Division 3 and 1 Semifinals follow on Friday (March 11), with the Finals on Saturday (March 12).

Here’s the complete Ice Hockey coverage schedule:

• Thursday – Division 2 Semifinals
Utica Eisenhower/Detroit U-D Jesuit Quarterfinal winner v. Saginaw Swan Valley/Detroit Catholic Central winner – 5 p.m.
East Kentwood/Brighton Quarterfinal winner v. Rockford/Grandville winner – 7:30 p.m.

• Friday – Division 3 Semifinals
Detroit Country Day/Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood Quarterfinal winner v. Hancock/Sault Ste. Marie winner – 11 a.m.
Grand Rapids Catholic Central/Saginaw Heritage Quarterfinal winner v. Gibraltar Carlson/Chelsea winner – 1:30 p.m.

• Friday – Division 1 Semifinals
Hartland/Birmingham Brother Rice Quarterfinal winner v. Livonia Stevenson/Trenton winner – 5 p.m.
Marquette/Ada Forest Hills Eastern Quarterfinal winner v. Romeo/New Baltimore Anchor Bay winner – 7:30 p.m.

• Saturday – Finals
10 a.m. – Division 2
2 p.m. – Division 3
6 p.m. – Division 1

Girls Gymnastics coverage begins at 2 p.m. Friday with Team Finals competition at Rockford High School and will be followed Saturday with the Individual Finals at Noon. This event will be produced by the School Broadcast Program at Rockford High School. There will be a dedicated camera on each apparatus (Bars, Balance Beam, Floor Exercise, Vault), with an announcer providing information on each channel regarding who is competing in each event at a given time. 

Lower Peninsula Boys Swimming and Diving coverage begins at noon Saturday at three locations, with the consolation and championship heat in each swimming event, plus the final round of the diving. 

The continued Gymnastics, Hockey and Swimming coverage is part of six straight weekends of live MHSAA Championship coverage on MHSAA.tv, and online viewers can catch every weekend of action for one low cost of $14.95. 

A Month Pass on MHSAA.tv for $14.95 will give a viewer access to events over a 30-day period from the time it is purchased.  Over the next two weeks of live winter championship coverage, the following events will be featured: 

  • Boys Basketball Regionals – March 14-16
  • Girls Basketball Quarterfinals – March 15
  • Girls Basketball Semifinals – March 17-18
  • Boys Basketball Quarterfinals – March 22
  • Boys Basketball Semifinals – March 24-25

A Day Pass is available for $9.95. All events will be available for free on-demand viewing by Wednesday the week following their initial live airing. 

The MHSAA Championship Radio Network begins three straight weekends of winter tournament coverage this weekend at the Ice Hockey Semifinals and Finals. The audio stream is available at MHSAANetwork.com. Over the following two weekends, the MHSAA Championship Radio Network also will carry the Semifinals and Finals of the Girls and Boys Basketball Tournaments for distribution on an over-the-air network of radio stations, and on the internet.

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.

This week’s coverage of MHSAA Basketball includes a Class A Boys Basketball District featuring the No. 3 team – East Lansing High School, a Class A Girls Basketball Regional at Mason, a Class A Girls Basketball Regional at Hudsonville and a Class C Girls Basketball Regional at Marquette where two 2015 champions – Calumet (No. 3 – 2015 Class C champion) and St. Ignace (No. 6 – 2015 Class D champion), could square off in the Final.

Here’s the schedule of School Broadcast Program members planning to cover varsity competition this week for broadcast on MHSAA.tv  (As of March 7):

March 8

• Class A Girls Basketball Regional Semifinals at Mason
Battle Creek Lakeview v. East Lansing – 6 p.m.
Jackson Northwest v. Kalamazoo Central – 7:30 p.m.

• Class A Girls Basketball Regional Semifinals at Hudsonville
Hudsonville v. Greenville – 6 p.m. – LIVE
Muskegon Mona Shores v. Grand Rapids Christian – 8 p.m. – LIVE

• Class C Girls Basketball Regional Semifinals at Marquette
Negaunee v. Calumet – 6 p.m. – LIVE
Iron Mountain v. St. Ignace – 8 p.m. – LIVE

March 9
• Class A Boys Basketball District Semifinal at East Lansing
Lansing Eastern v. Haslett-Grand Ledge winner – 5 p.m. - LIVE
DeWitt v. East Lansing-Lansing Waverly winner – 7:30 p.m. – LIVE

March 10

  • Class A Girls Basketball Regional Final at Mason
  • Class A Girls Basketball Regional Final at Hudsonville
  • Class C Girls Basketball Regional Final at Marquette

March 11

  • Class A Boys Basketball District Final at East Lansing

March 14

  • Class C Boys Basketball Regional Semifinals at Flint Hamady - 6 & 7:30 p.m.
  • Class D Boys Basketball Regional Semifinals at Negaunee - 6 & 8 p.m.
  • Class D Boys Basketball Regional Semifinals at Mt. Pleasant Sacred Heart - 6 & 7:45 p.m. 

March 15

  • Class A Girls Basketball Quarterfinals at Fenton – 7 p.m.
  • Class A Girls Basketball Quarterfinals at Fowlerville – 7 p.m. 
  • Class D Girls Basketball Quarterfinals at Negaunee – 7 p.m. (Dependent on match-up) 

March 16

  • Class C Boys Basketball Regional Final at Flint Hamady – 7 p.m.
  • Class D Boys Basketball Regional Final at Negaunee – 7 p.m.
  • Class D Boys Basketball Regional Final at Mt. Pleasant Sacred Heart – 7 p.m.

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