SBP Excellence Awards Announced

May 16, 2014

Montrose High School captured first place in two of five individual categories in the inaugural MHSAA School Broadcast Program Excellence Awards, and with it the “Program of the Year” honor.

The SBP Excellence Awards are underwritten by Herff Jones, which will award certificates and plaques to the ten schools which took individual honors.  Presentations will be scheduled in the coming weeks to the recipient schools.

Montrose took first place in two categories:  Best Multicamera Production for a basketball game against Saginaw Michigan Lutheran Seminary; and Best Produced Commercial/Feature for a public service announcement about texting while driving.  The program also demonstrated during the year a good blend of productions in a variety of sports covered and an overall command of the PlayOn! Sports software used for graphics and inserting commercials during the course of productions.

Other category winners were:  St. Ignace High School for Best Use of PlayOn! graphics in a football game against Hillman; Rogers City High School for the Best Overall Single Camera Production of a Game Using PlayOn! Graphics in a football game against Mio; and Haslett High School for Best Student Play-by-Play in a girls basketball game against DeWitt.

Here is the complete list by categories of the school being honored in this year’s SBP Excellence Awards:

Best Single Camera Production with PlayOn! Graphics

First Place – Rogers City Sarah Meredith, Amber Nowicki – Football game v. Mio

Second Place – Petoskey – Stuart Green, Nick Snider, Josh Kuhlman, Joe LeBlanc – Girls Volleyball match with Ogemaw Heights

Third Place – St. Ignace – Alysse Bentley, Jenny Campbell, Dillian Denman – Football game v. Hillman

Best Multicamera Production

First Place – Montrose – Tyler J. Anderson, Eric Vandefifer, Cabresha Nard, Ashley Abair, Sidney Trantham – Boys Basketball game v. Saginaw Michigan Lutheran Seminary

Second Place – Johannesburg-Lewiston – Girls Basketball game v. Gaylord St. Mary

Third Place – Cedar Springs – Ian Murphy, Alex Tanis, Alex Hughes, Kody Hall, Liz Moore, Alec Lachniet, Jake Detloff – Boys District Basketball game, Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern v. Grand Rapids Northview

Best use of PlayOn! Graphics/Software

First Place – St. Ignace – Alysse Bentley, Jenny Campbell, Dillian Denman – Football game v. Hillman

Second Place – Haslett – Delany McFate – Girls basketball game v. DeWitt

hird Place – Petoskey - Stuart Green, Nick Snider, Josh Kuhlman, Joe LeBlanc – Girls Volleyball match with Ogemaw Heights

Best Produced Commercial/Feature

First Place – Montrose – Cabresha Nard, Tyler J. Anderson, Haley Ruiz – Texting/Driving PSA

Second Place – Charlevoix – Ben Boss,  Benny Patkai – Classroom electives offerings promo

Third Place – Rogers City – Morgan Hall, Sarah Meredith – Rogers City Softball Preview

Best Student Play-by-Play Commentary

First Place – Haslett – Andy Stamm, Tyler Mehigh – Girls basketball game v. DeWitt

Second Place – Rockford – Riley O’Keefe, Kevin DeLaFuente, Lucas Henry – Football game v. East Kentwood

Third Place – Escanaba – Jon Perrault, Todd Rose – Boys basketball game v. Gladstone      

The School Broadcast Program, powered by PlayOn! Sports, is a platform which schools can utilize to reach members of their community 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's Roberts Elected to NFHS Board

July 12, 2016

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

MHSAA Executive Director John E. “Jack” Roberts has been elected to serve a four-year term on the Board of Directors for the National Federation of State High School Associations, the national governing body for high school athletics and activities.

Roberts has served as executive director since 1986 and is the longest-tenured active state association executive director among NFHS members. The MHSAA is one of the nation’s largest state associations with more than 1,400 high schools and junior high/middle schools. The NFHS, in its press release on new officers and board members, called Roberts "one of the nation’s most articulate advocates for education-based activity programs."

After graduating from P. J. Jacobs High School in Stevens Point, Wis., and Dartmouth College and attending graduate school at the University of Wisconsin, Roberts taught English and coached football at high schools in Milwaukee and Denver until 1973, when he joined the staff of the NFHS, which at that time was located in Elgin, Illinois.

From 1973 to 1980, Roberts developed the NFHS’ volleyball, swimming & diving and ice hockey rules programs, and re-codified the Soccer Rules Book. Later, as assistant director, he was in charge of public, legislative and judicial affairs for the NFHS.

Roberts joined the staff of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) in 1981 and was named executive vice president of the FCA in 1984. He served in that capacity until 1986, when he was named executive director of the MHSAA.

Roberts served a previous term on the NFHS Board of Directors from 1996 to 2000 and has been chairman of the NFHS Network Board of Directors since 2013. He also has served on two previous NFHS Strategic Planning Committees and is past chair of the board of directors of the Michigan Society of Association Executives.

PHOTO: MHSAA Executive Director Jack Roberts congratulates an MHSAA/Farm Bureau Scholar-Athlete Award winner at the Breslin Center.