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SARASOTA — ESPN may be the worldwide leader in sports, but at Cardinal Mooney High, the Cougar Network is the campus-wide king.
Someday, these young editors, producers, on-air gabbers, and behind-the-scenes contributors may decide to make television their career. But right now, they are students, boys and girls, in Ryan Krause’s TV production and sports broadcasting classes.
A math teacher by degree, Krause participated in a TV production class in high school in New Jersey. Last year he approached Mooney principal Ben Hopper with the idea of starting a similar class at the school.
Reaching for gold: How Cardinal Mooney girls basketball finally won a state title on fifth try
“We talked about it through the year and made it happen,” Krause said. By the end of last school year, he had 60 students enrolled in his two classes. A self-admitted tech geek, Krause began to see more of his time occupied by his television classes. It hasn’t changed.
“This has become my main gig at this point,” he said. Next year Krause expects to have 140 students in his program, with different levels of classes based on experience. And the one commonality among all his students? “There’s a lot of stuff behind the scenes that I don’t think the kids necessarily realized went into it,” Krause said.
Only in its second year, the Cougar Network, which broadcasts online, focuses on live events, specifically, games involving Mooney’s sports teams. It covered about 10 Cougar football games, more than 20 basketball games, a handful of volleyball matches, and Mooney’s baseball team in the postseason. “We’re really covering every sport,” Krause said.
Leader of the pack: Cardinal Mooney quarterback Devin Mignery steering Cougars toward another state championship
“Covering” an event can carry different interpretations, but the Cougar Network does it with more than a touch of professionalism. Nearly 15 students were assigned this season to cover a Mooney football game. Four cameras were used: one on the 50-yard-line, two on the 30, and a mobile sideline cameraman and reporter, the latter who would talk to Mooney players and head coach Jared Clark at halftime. Calling the games were student pay-by-play announcers and color commentators with the capability of showing replays. Overseeing everything was a director in the Cougar Network’s control room, accompanied by graphics and audio operators.
“And I’m just there making sure that everyone stays sane,” Krause said. Other schools have in-house networks which broadcast its games, but it’s unlikely any has approached the level of professionalism of the Cougar Network. “I really feel I’ve gone up a notch from what a majority of the schools do,” Krause said. Indeed, many schools feature only one camera, simply panning left and right, with no capability of replay, or inputting game stats for real-time on-air graphics.
“I’ve really taken it and turned it into a production,” he said. “You can go to college and say I’ve been a tech director. I know how to work a video switcher. I know the difference between giving color versus calling play-by-play, and I have experience with both.”
Starting the program didn’t come without a cost for cameras, editing, audio, visual, and replay equipment, and everything else required to broadcast events live over the internet. “The school saw the value in it happening and made it happen,” he said. But it wouldn’t have happened without the vision of the New Jersey-born Krause, or without a fair share of personal elbow grease.
Taking an unused room on campus with old cabinets and a linoleum floor, Krause transformed it into a control room with a definite “wow” factor. “He went in there and had a vision,” said Caroline Melby, Mooney’s marketing and communications manager. “Everything Ryan Krause does is executed to perfection. He is so detail-oriented. He went in there and stripped the room down and did a beautiful studio. He’s put so much blood, sweat and tears into this program. This is a passion of his.”
“Mr Krause is just a really cool guy,” said Kai Marten, who served as the color commentator with play-by-play announcer Emmitt del Valle for the Cougar postseason baseball game. “He’s the hardest working guy I’ve ever seen.” And that hard work involves stringing 800 feet of fiber optic cable, necessary for broadcasting over the internet, before each event, from the control room to the field. Luckily for the Cougar Network, the cable is scheduled to be buried.
As for the two Cougar baseball announcers, while the 15-year-old Marten said he wanted to give the class “a shot” after seeing it become available, the 15-year-old del Valle said he may look into sports broadcasting as a college major.
“I got a quick start on it and I’ll have an advantage over other people who didn’t start as early as I did,” he said. “The night before a game, I go over the basic stuff I’m going to say, like the intro. After the first couple of times, it usually just starts to flow naturally. It’s almost like a conversation (with Marten). You’ve got to keep it as natural as you can for it to sound the best.”
And while Krause gave his students the choice of jobs, many of them, he said, prefer working behind the scenes, in the studio. “A baseball game can be 2 ½ hours and you have to come up with stuff to talk about,” he said. For Mooney’s football game against Bishop Verot, play-by-play announcer Joey Antonucci spent two weeks in preparation. “He was looking up stats and talking to people at Verot,” Krause said. For girls basketball, the broadcast team of CJ Benson and Wyatt Liatt started slowly.
“First game, not good,” Benson said. “Eventually, every week, we got better and better. We would grab pizza at halftime at the concession line and we’d hear people say, ‘We have family watching from home; they love you guys, we love you guys.’ I really like doing this announcing stuff and people keep telling me, ‘You’re really good at this announcing stuff.’ ’’
And the number of viewers has increased. While the network might attract 20-30 people for a Mooney lacrosse match, more than 1,200 tuned in for the Cougars’ football game with Cocoa. “That was our biggest stream of the year,” Krause said.
As with any student-operated endeavor, mistakes are made. “We are definitely always having learning moments,” Krause said. “Like, we struggled to get a replay going, and by the time we got to it, it was a little late and we missed the beginning of the next play. There were a couple of times we missed a TD; luckily, we had replay to back it up.”
But those cover-your-face moments are dwarfed when Krause sees the benefits. “You walk into the control room, and these kids who knew nothing about football, at the end of the game they were so excited that they were working a football game. It gives them a new way to be able to contribute to the sport,” he said. “I’ve had multiple students who are actually looking into studying communications with a concentration on sports because of this program.”
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Cardinal Mooney's Cougar Network broadcasts school's sports games online
Continue reading...
Someday, these young editors, producers, on-air gabbers, and behind-the-scenes contributors may decide to make television their career. But right now, they are students, boys and girls, in Ryan Krause’s TV production and sports broadcasting classes.
A math teacher by degree, Krause participated in a TV production class in high school in New Jersey. Last year he approached Mooney principal Ben Hopper with the idea of starting a similar class at the school.
Reaching for gold: How Cardinal Mooney girls basketball finally won a state title on fifth try
“We talked about it through the year and made it happen,” Krause said. By the end of last school year, he had 60 students enrolled in his two classes. A self-admitted tech geek, Krause began to see more of his time occupied by his television classes. It hasn’t changed.
“This has become my main gig at this point,” he said. Next year Krause expects to have 140 students in his program, with different levels of classes based on experience. And the one commonality among all his students? “There’s a lot of stuff behind the scenes that I don’t think the kids necessarily realized went into it,” Krause said.
Only in its second year, the Cougar Network, which broadcasts online, focuses on live events, specifically, games involving Mooney’s sports teams. It covered about 10 Cougar football games, more than 20 basketball games, a handful of volleyball matches, and Mooney’s baseball team in the postseason. “We’re really covering every sport,” Krause said.
You must be registered for see images
Leader of the pack: Cardinal Mooney quarterback Devin Mignery steering Cougars toward another state championship
“Covering” an event can carry different interpretations, but the Cougar Network does it with more than a touch of professionalism. Nearly 15 students were assigned this season to cover a Mooney football game. Four cameras were used: one on the 50-yard-line, two on the 30, and a mobile sideline cameraman and reporter, the latter who would talk to Mooney players and head coach Jared Clark at halftime. Calling the games were student pay-by-play announcers and color commentators with the capability of showing replays. Overseeing everything was a director in the Cougar Network’s control room, accompanied by graphics and audio operators.
You must be registered for see images
“And I’m just there making sure that everyone stays sane,” Krause said. Other schools have in-house networks which broadcast its games, but it’s unlikely any has approached the level of professionalism of the Cougar Network. “I really feel I’ve gone up a notch from what a majority of the schools do,” Krause said. Indeed, many schools feature only one camera, simply panning left and right, with no capability of replay, or inputting game stats for real-time on-air graphics.
“I’ve really taken it and turned it into a production,” he said. “You can go to college and say I’ve been a tech director. I know how to work a video switcher. I know the difference between giving color versus calling play-by-play, and I have experience with both.”
Starting the program didn’t come without a cost for cameras, editing, audio, visual, and replay equipment, and everything else required to broadcast events live over the internet. “The school saw the value in it happening and made it happen,” he said. But it wouldn’t have happened without the vision of the New Jersey-born Krause, or without a fair share of personal elbow grease.
You must be registered for see images
Taking an unused room on campus with old cabinets and a linoleum floor, Krause transformed it into a control room with a definite “wow” factor. “He went in there and had a vision,” said Caroline Melby, Mooney’s marketing and communications manager. “Everything Ryan Krause does is executed to perfection. He is so detail-oriented. He went in there and stripped the room down and did a beautiful studio. He’s put so much blood, sweat and tears into this program. This is a passion of his.”
“Mr Krause is just a really cool guy,” said Kai Marten, who served as the color commentator with play-by-play announcer Emmitt del Valle for the Cougar postseason baseball game. “He’s the hardest working guy I’ve ever seen.” And that hard work involves stringing 800 feet of fiber optic cable, necessary for broadcasting over the internet, before each event, from the control room to the field. Luckily for the Cougar Network, the cable is scheduled to be buried.
As for the two Cougar baseball announcers, while the 15-year-old Marten said he wanted to give the class “a shot” after seeing it become available, the 15-year-old del Valle said he may look into sports broadcasting as a college major.
“I got a quick start on it and I’ll have an advantage over other people who didn’t start as early as I did,” he said. “The night before a game, I go over the basic stuff I’m going to say, like the intro. After the first couple of times, it usually just starts to flow naturally. It’s almost like a conversation (with Marten). You’ve got to keep it as natural as you can for it to sound the best.”
You must be registered for see images
And while Krause gave his students the choice of jobs, many of them, he said, prefer working behind the scenes, in the studio. “A baseball game can be 2 ½ hours and you have to come up with stuff to talk about,” he said. For Mooney’s football game against Bishop Verot, play-by-play announcer Joey Antonucci spent two weeks in preparation. “He was looking up stats and talking to people at Verot,” Krause said. For girls basketball, the broadcast team of CJ Benson and Wyatt Liatt started slowly.
“First game, not good,” Benson said. “Eventually, every week, we got better and better. We would grab pizza at halftime at the concession line and we’d hear people say, ‘We have family watching from home; they love you guys, we love you guys.’ I really like doing this announcing stuff and people keep telling me, ‘You’re really good at this announcing stuff.’ ’’
And the number of viewers has increased. While the network might attract 20-30 people for a Mooney lacrosse match, more than 1,200 tuned in for the Cougars’ football game with Cocoa. “That was our biggest stream of the year,” Krause said.
As with any student-operated endeavor, mistakes are made. “We are definitely always having learning moments,” Krause said. “Like, we struggled to get a replay going, and by the time we got to it, it was a little late and we missed the beginning of the next play. There were a couple of times we missed a TD; luckily, we had replay to back it up.”
But those cover-your-face moments are dwarfed when Krause sees the benefits. “You walk into the control room, and these kids who knew nothing about football, at the end of the game they were so excited that they were working a football game. It gives them a new way to be able to contribute to the sport,” he said. “I’ve had multiple students who are actually looking into studying communications with a concentration on sports because of this program.”
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Cardinal Mooney's Cougar Network broadcasts school's sports games online
Continue reading...
