Saturday Games Join Playoff Coverage
November 8, 2017
By John Johnson
MHSAA Director of Broadcast Properties
A pair of games Saturday (Nov. 11) have been added to the online live video coverage of the MHSAA Football Playoffs – powered by the Michigan Army National Guard – and produced by participants in the association’s School Broadcast Program.
A Division 5 Regional Final pitting Algonac at Frankenmuth will be produced by the SBP at Montrose High School, and a Division 6 matchup with Ithaca at Montague will be covered by Cedar Springs High School. Both games will be live on MHSAA.tv at 1 p.m.
A month’s subscription to watch live on MHSAA.tv is $9.95, which allows access to the full schedule of MHSAA Tournaments during the month of November:
- Nov. 16-17 – Girls Volleyball Semifinals & Finals
- Nov. 18 – Lower Peninsula Girls Swimming & Diving Finals
- Nov. 18 – Football Playoff Semifinals (12 games)
Those games will join the third week of games on the PrepZone on FoxSportsDetroit.com and FOX Sports GO! on Friday (Nov. 11) at 7 p.m.:
- West Bloomfield at Utica Eisenhower (Div. 1)
- Traverse City Central at Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central (Div. 2)
- Riverview at Dearborn Divine Child (Div. 3)
- Grand Rapids West Catholic at Portland (Div. 5)
The Riverview at Dearborn Divine Child game will receive bonus coverage, streaming live on the Fox Sports Detroit Facebook page.
All PrepZone games will be archived on MHSAA.tv.
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. Pixellot is used by schools wishing to stream games but which lack the ability to staff the events. The SBP 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 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 highlights package on MHSAA.tv comes from last weekend’s Boys Soccer Finals.
Highlights of playoff games this weekend will be featured on the State Champs! High School Sports Show on FOX Sports Detroit at 9 a.m. Sunday - with multiple replays on FOX Sports Detroit and Comcast Channel 900 throughout the week. The weekly program is also archived on the State Champs YouTube Channel. Consult your local listings for additional playback times.
Here are some of the playoff games to be featured this week on the State Champs! High School Sports Show:
- Traverse City Central at Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central
- Riverview at Dearborn Divine Child
- Grand Rapids West Catholic at Portland
- Detroit Catholic Central at Canton
- Ithaca at Montague
- Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central at Madison Heights Madison
- West Bloomfield at Utica Eisenhower
- Williamston at Escanaba
- Algonac at Frankenmuth
- Jackson Lumen Christi at Watervliet
The MHSAA also has content on the State Champs Scoreboard! High School Radio Show on Friday nights during the football and basketball seasons, originating on WXYT-FM (97.1) in Detroit and carried on more than 10 radio stations across the state. This Week In High School Sports and Be The Referee are weekly features on the program.
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.)