NEWS 25 Sports To Host NCAA Tournament Preview Show

The NCAA Basketball Tournament is the greatest three weeks in sports.  To help you get ready for the madness, the NEWS 25 Sports team will host an hour long webcast dedicated to the 65 team tournament.

Join myself and Randall Parmley as we host Tournament Talk from 7-8pm Wednesday exclusively online at www.news25.us. 

Randall and I will break down the field and give predictions and analysis.  We will also answer your questions live on the webcast.

Here is the link:  http://www.news25.us/global/Story.asp?s=12150960

The show will be driven by your interaction.   The page will be setup so you can watch the entire webcast and type in comments and questions for instant response.  The webcast will pop up on the page just a couple minutes before 7pm on Wednesday.

Grab your brackets and pull up to a computer Wednesday at 7pm for Tournament Talk.



Princeton Edges Washington in First RTV25 Basketball Broadcast

What a fantastic night Friday in Princeton.  Everything came together perfectly making our first ever high school basketball broadcast on RTV25 a great success.  Two great teams, a two point game, major DI coaches in attendance, a rocking atmosphere, and some great hospitality made for a wonderful evening.

I was pretty stressed last week getting ready for the game.  I had not done basketball play by play since 2000.  Basketball is so drastically different from football.  I wanted to make sure I didn’t call the game like it was on radio, but at the same time I didn’t want to have too many times with dead air.  I studied pretty hard all week on both teams.

I also really emphasized to myself to slow down.  My brain gets going so fast with thoughts and my mouth can’t ever catch up.  I then end up trying to say too much and overloading the senses.

The setup at Princeton’s gym was really great.  Our camera angles were spot on.  Our production switcher and crew were in a room behind the bleachers and connected to the concession stand.  They really did a nice job.  Our director was Dale Williams.  He did not do the football games so this was his first time to direct.  For those of you that aren’t familiar with TV, the director is the person in charge of the whole broadcast.  He calls out all of the shots, sets all of the camera angles, and makes sure to capture the atmosphere of the game.  I really liked all of the crowd, bench, and coach cutaways. 

The game was really a nice piece of old-fashioned Hoosier Hysteria.  The class system has really erased many atmospheres like the one we had on Friday night.  There were fans trying to get into the gym at 3:30pm when I got there!  No joke.  There was a police officer trying to keep fans from rushing in the doors!  They didn’t even sell tickets to the game.  It was a sellout, and there really was no way to walk up and get inside, so I hope in that sense our broadcast helped. 

Randall and I were right smack dab in the bleachers with the fans.  It made it cramped and warm, but I liked it because it gave us a great feel for the game.  We were directly behind Princeton coach Tom Weeks and we could hear everything he was telling his guys.

The play was great at times, and sloppy at others.  Selfishly, I wish Cody Zeller wasn’t in foul trouble.  I really enjoyed watching him play.  I did think two of his fouls were pretty weak.  The loose ball foul, and the blocking foul.  However, that is a part of the game, and you have to credit Princeton for being aggressive.  Overall the refs did a nice job, and I hope the one who got hurt is OK.

Jalen Packer was extremely impressive.  He has a great size in his upper body for being just a junior.  It was fun watching Purdue’s Matt Painter in the corner after Packer made a nice play.  We were told that recruiters from Purdue, Notre Dame, Wake Forest, North Carolina, Butler, and Evansville were there.

I was glad Dontray Chavis got into the game.  He was a real sparkplug off the bench.  He was aggressive on both ends of the court.

On the TV side, I was pretty happy the way things went.  I think the only snafu was Randall’s headset went out in the second quarter.  Our replays were fantastic.  Kyle Peach brought over an awesome computer DVR machine from Wabash Valley College that really made the broadcast better.

We have gotten amazing feedback from the community on the broadcast.  I have forwarded all of your emails to my bosses.  Those emails are great ammunition for me to talk them into doing more games so keep them coming!

Finally, a big thank you to Princeton’s Andy Elkins, Tom Weeks, and Washington’s Gene Miiller…and really for that matter to a whole lot of people that I met Friday night.  The hospitality was overwhelming.  Everyone went the extra mile to make sure we had everything we need.  Thanks to everyone on our crew too.  The camera work by our four camera operators was fantastic.  The engineers made it all go without a hitch. 

Congrats to the Tigers on a 2 point win.  I hope we can do it all again very soon!

RTV25 to Broadcast Washington at Princeton

NEWS 25 Sports will broadcast live the Big 8 showdown between Washington at Princeton on Friday January 22nd on RTV25.  It is the first high school basketball game ever broadcasted on RTV25.  The game will also be streamed live on news25.us.

Princeton is the defending state champs.  Last season the Tigers went 29-0 in capturing the 3A title.  Washington is currently 10-0 and ranked number one in the state in 3A.  Princeton is 7-5 on the season.

NEWS 25 Sports Director Lance Wilkerson will have the play by play call and Randall Parmley will provide color.  There will be four total cameras covering the game, as well as a live on-screen scoreboard and instant replay.

The telecast will also feature an extended post-game show that will run until 9:30pm.



Watch Highlights and Post-Game from UK's Win Over Miami

It took a jumper from John Wall in the final second for Kentucky to thwart Miami's upset bid over UK.  Photographer Aaron Hancock shot some awesome highlights, and Randall Parmley has a wrapup from Rupp Arena.

Enjoy Cat Fans!

A Great Night for Reitz and the HTF/NEWS 25 Staff!

Every Friday in the fall is exciting for me.  My entire week builds towards Home Team Friday night.  However, yesterday was amped up a 100 times more than usual.  I woke up a couple of hours earlier than normal, and I was fired up.  Finally, I was going to get to do play by play for a television football broadcast.

Not just any football game, two 11-0 tradition rich teams with great fan bases: Reitz and Jasper. 

The night before during Countdown, my voice was giving out because of a nagging cough.  I didn’t feel sick, but I could not shake the cough.  So over the night and on Friday morning I drank 3 big hot teas with honey trying to take care of my voice.  Props to the pharmacist at CVS who recommended a great cough syrup that worked to perfection!  My voice held up all night.

When I got to the TV station, everyone was in a good mood and genuinely excited.  The engineers worked around the clock all week to prepare the Reitz Bowl for a television broadcast.  I saw two of the engineers outside of the station when I pulled in, and they were both confident we were going to be good to go.

You have to keep in mind that our station hasn’t done a live broadcast of a football game since the mid 1980s, so there was a lot of nervous energy of pulling this together.  There were so many cables to have connected to all of the cameras, and into the press box, up to the truck, then into the portable TV control room inside a loading dock in the back of Reitz High School.   All of the camera angles had to be tested, audio checked, hook up the replay machines, and get a clean signal from Reitz back to NEWS 25.

On my way to the Bowl, I stopped at a Subway and saw Memorial receiver Jon Wandling.  I asked him to give us some highlights in the first half when our photographer Aaron Hancock would be there.  Wandling laughed, and said no problem.  The Tigers looked great in winning the 3A sectional 42-20 over Washington.

I arrived at the Bowl at 3:30pm.  I knew I needed a quick escape to get back to the station after the game to host HTF, so I parked my car right near the exit.  It was a long walk up, but it was worth it having a premium parking spot.

Even at 3:30pm there were already Reitz and Jasper fans lining up to get in.  I love the Bowl.  It is such an amazing venue.  I walked the perimeter just to take it all in before going to meet up with our crew. 

I had to do two reports for our 5pm and 6pm newscasts.  Thousands of fans started pouring into the stands devouring the best seats, many of which were already marked with blankets from Reitz families that have gone to games for decades. 

I hung out with so many Panther fans.  All of them were so nice about us broadcasting the game.  The fans I talked with were so nervous and excited about the game.  I was so impressed with the knowledge by the Reitz fans. 

Finally it is gametime.  I had to open the broadcast in the stands, throw it to a commercial then race up to the press box and to my headset next to Randall Parmley.  That was our only technical snafu of the night.  I am not sure what happened, in that opening segment, but it looked like some wrong buttons were being pushed. 

My only real troubles were trying to see the numbers on Jasper’s uniforms on kick returns.  The Cats had 3 guys deep, and it took me awhile to make sure who had the ball. 

Other than that, I felt pretty comfortable doing the game.  My only play by play experience in football is on the radio.  So I think my delivery last night was more radio-like than TV.  I was setting up formations and trying to paint a picture of what was going on, but in TV you don’t have to do that as much. 

After watching it on my DVR, you can tell that my brain was working 3 times faster than my mouth.  I was trying to say too much at a time.  I thought I stayed neutral, and I made sure to wait for a referee signal before calling a play.

The game itself was so one-sided.  Like I said on the broadcast, I researched Jasper a lot during the week.  The Cats are a great team.  However, the Panthers are on another level.  A lot has been made of the advantage of the turf, but that is just a small part of the story.  Cory Brunson’s offense is so dynamic.  It is more complex than many college schemes.  By going 5-wide, an opposing defense has to spread out to cover everyone, and then the Panthers have the ultimate run/pass dual threat with Matt McIntosh at quarterback.  That is a lethal offense that has proven nearly impossible to even slow down.

Coach Lewis told us that he accepted the ball after winning the coin toss, something he normally defers.  Lewis said he wanted to score and put the pressure of Jasper.  The plan worked to perfection.  3 plays, 56 yards, 7-0…and really the game was over. 

The Cats are clock controlling grind out run game offense, and they just could not come from behind. 

The play of the night was the double reverse halfback pass from Jeff Hudson to Matt McIntosh.  All 11 Panther players on the field executed the play perfectly turning a third and 15 into a 28-6 lead.

I really love the play of Hamilton Carr and Cuda Dimmett.  They really compliment Hudson well in the receiving corps.  Dimmett is so difficult to take down, and Carr is like a kangaroo with great hands.  The kid just leaps up and snags any ball near him, including that great interception to end the first half.

The Panthers defense is just remarkable.  It was an entire team effort to completely shutdown Jasper.  I would start listing names of Panther defenders who had a great game, but I would run out of space!  Tip of the hat to the Reitz defense.

After the game, the Panthers celebrated their 12th sectional championship, and the NEWS 25 crew celebrated a successful broadcast.  Randall and I worked well together.  Director Stan Newman pulled it all together.  Photographers Aaron, Mike, and Derek did a great job and didn’t get faked out too many times.   Mark Glover saved the day with a TV timeout in the 3rd quarter.  Ryan Jenkins was in the booth next to me spotting and feeding and Randall stats and scores.

I made the long walk to my car, and my plan worked out well.  I avoided the traffic and I was on my way to the station to prepare for Home Team Friday.  This was the first time in my career that I wasn’t hands on during the highlight process.  Aaron Hancock, Blaine, Erica, Jason, and David Heckard were in charge of having the entire show together.   There was a lot to get done. 

It was pretty hectic.  I wanted extended highlights to showcase all of the sectional championship games.  We had almost every touchdown of every game.  Our guys did an excellent job of not only shooting a lot of highlights, but editing them to tell the story of what happened in each game. 

I am so happy for Mater Dei.  The Cats had a tough stretch to end the regular season, but they really put it all together to win the 2A sectional.  Cody Hess was a highlight machine.  He is the human blur.

I think every Memorial offensive highlight was a screen pass.  Grant Gribbins does a nice job of selling the screen, and then the blockers and receivers do the rest.  That play to end the first half was beautiful to Steven Sheu.  Ryan Hatler had another nice game at tailback.

Cody Schmitt played well for Heritage Hills.  The Patriots eliminated previously unbeaten Indian Creek.  The Pats have won ever sectional this decade except one.  Bob Clayton’s defense pitches another shutout.  That set up the showdown between Heritage Hills against Memorial at Enlow Field.

Castle’s great season comes to a close.  I was surprised to see the Knights lose.  Four turnovers will doom any team.  The loss spoiled a great performance by Logan Hayford who had 210 yards rushing.

Props to Clay Clevenger and Henderson County.   The Colonels won their opening playoff game.  They did it without injured quarterback Kolby O’Daniel.  Owensboro beat Grayson County 42-21, but the Devils will have to go to Bowling Green.

Home Team Friday went very smooth.  My voice started to go out in the final segment, but it made it through.  I can’t say enough about everyone on the HTF staff for pulling it all together.  It was a challenging night to do a live two and a half hour football broadcast, and produce a 30 minute highlight football show, but they did it. 

Thanks to everyone who watched last night, and thanks for reading this, I hope everyone enjoyed it!