Answers to your Reitz/Jasper TV Questions and a Preview

With the first TV broadcast of a high school football game in the Home Team Friday era, there are a lot of questions.  These past two days I have spent a lot of time organizing this telecast with all of the great people at the station.

So let me update you on some items, and then I’ll answer some of your questions.

First off, many have asked exactly where to find our digital channel RTV 25.  If you are a cable subscriber, you have to have the digital package to be able to see the channel.  Here is a list of what channel RTV 25 is on every cable provider:

Over the Air: NEWS 25-2

Insight: Channel 189

WOW!: Channel 111

Time Warner: Channels 184 and 311

Avenue Broadband: Channel 135

More good news, we will stream the television broadcast online at www.news25.us .  A link will be on our home page, and on our sports page that will launch you into the webcast.  That means fans from anywhere in the world can watch the game.  Alumni of both teams anywhere can tune in.  I hope the stream looks good.  I know our computer tech people are working hard to get things setup for Friday.

The kickoff will be at 7:05pm, and our broadcast will go on at 7:00pm.  Reitz Athletic Director Beth Hagan and EVSC Athletic Director Paul Neidig have been great in helping out with this telecast.  The hardest part was figuring out where to put the two upper cameras.  Reitz is having a lift brought in from Doug Waterman at VANDCO on the right of the press box.  That will give us an angle up and over the fans and near midfield. Thanks so much to Doug and VANDCO for their help on that.  The only hiccup is that our two cameramen up in the lift will be right next to the PA speakers.  So to avoid any hearing damage, we have picked up two professional headphones from a gun range for the guys to wear.  Hopefully that will work.

Keep in mind since this is our first football broadcast we are trying to keep things simple so things will go smoothly.  It is my belief that we will get to do more and more games if the demand is there.  That is when we can expand some of the production quality and spruce things up, but for now, it is all about mainstreaming things and making sure you the viewer get what you need.

We will have instant replay.  We are bringing in deck to record the game and cue up replays.  My buddy from Wabash Valley Junior College in Mt. Carmel Kyle Peach will run the replay machine. The angle of the replay will be the exact same as what just aired, but at least it will be a replay. 

We will also have an on screen scoreboard up the entire time. There will not be a clock on the scoreboard, so I will try to say the time on air as much as possible so everyone knows.  I am sure we will also have a camera shoot the scoreboard in between plays from time to time.

I talked with both head coaches the last two days.  Both Tony Lewis and Tony Ahrens were really nice and complimentary about the broadcast.  They are also both excited about being a part of such an enormous game.  Ahrens told me that Jasper has played in the rain and mud 9 out of its 11 games.  He said he is looking forward to playing in good weather and on the turf.  Coach Lewis is focused on the running game of Jasper.  He said that the Cats have been pointing to this year for awhile as a special season. 

The one thing that should not get lost in this entire night is how special it is for everyone involved.  I was talking with Matt McIntosh, and I asked him how he would describe this kind of game to some random high school football player in say New Hampshire.  Matt told me he doesn’t ever take the support and atmosphere for granted.  He said he gets chills every time he runs out onto the Reitz Bowl.  He went on and on how great the Reitz fans are, and how lucky the team is to have the support.

I also talked to Panthers safety Erik Bryant about Jasper quarterback Austin Ahrens.  Even though Ahrens and McIntosh are not identical players, they have a lot in common.  They are dual threats that make great decisions.  Bryant talked about how good Ahrens is, and how difficult it is to defend him. 

I appreciated how much that both Jasper and Reitz respected each other.  There were absolutely no derogatory remarks by either team.  That is refreshing.

I joked with Coach Lewis that I wasn’t rooting for either team, but I would like it to go to overtime with one of the teams going for 2 and the win.  He laughed and said that just may happen.

I want to emphasize that I really like and respect both teams.  I will do my very best to do the broadcast as neutral as possible.  It is very difficult.  I remember when I did the KWC/USI basketball game in 2000; I had eight emails from KWC fans claiming I was biased for USI, and six emails from USI fans claiming I was biased towards KWC.  It was kind of funny.  I will keep the broadcast positive, and try to paint the best picture as possible of what is going on.  I will also make sure to wait for a referee’s signal on a play!  I will never live down that Reitz/Cathedral ending!!

I will say though, whoever wins…I will be rooting for that team to win State.  That goes for all of our teams left in the Tri-State!!  I love it when our teams win State Championships.  There is nothing better than that!

Ok, let me answer your questions:

Somehow can you get this on the internet also, through the stations internet site or maybe through ustream.com or another site...tons of Reitz alum in Indianapolis that would love to watch it

-Scott

That would be great if they could somehow stream the game online for people outside of the area!

-Panther Man 98

Yep!  Go to www.news25.us and go to the sports page on Friday

Ill be at the game and still would like to record it at home for later playback. I get the over-the-air signal and can't record onto my dvd recorder. What are my options for getting this game recorded?

-Griffco76

My best advice for that is to go Old School and hook up a VHS VCR to your over the air box and record it on tape.  I know that is not the greatest of answers, but I am not sure what the other options are.  Hopefully a Reitz or Jasper fan will be able to capture the webcast and upload it for the fans to download and save it to their computer.  I will look into the possibility of being able to save the webcast here at the station for online for downloading purposes.

How many camera's are you going to use at the game? Would be nice if it was broadcast on the web also. How many people will actually have access with the game being on the digital channel? It is great what you do to help promote high school football. Hopefully this turns out well and you can do more games in the future!!!

-Kevin

We are going to have 4 cameras at the game.  Like I said earlier, we are keeping things simple on our first telecast.  Anyone with a digital antennae can get the broadcast free over the air, but on cable you do have to purchase the digital package.  I do think if things go well, we will do a lot more of these for not only football, but for other sports.  (crossing my fingers)

That's great! I hope your ratings are really good might help for future broadcast......

-Pings59

Just as important as ratings and sponsorships is feedback!  Emails and calls to the station on how much you enjoy the broadcast go a long way!!  Just the feedback we have gotten in two days has not gone unnoticed by my bosses.

Lance, thanks for all the wonderful coverage you do for HS football, and especially all you did for our 07 team.

Is there a way to get this broadcast if I'm on DirectTV?

-PDaddy

Unfortunately no.  DirecTV does not carry the digital channel.  Hopefully that will change, but I am sure it will take awhile.  You can watch it online, or better yet, go to a buddy’s house that has RTV25 bring a pizza and have a great night!

If you have any other questions, let me know.  Also thanks for all of the other kind posts that didn’t have questions, but just thanks us for doing the game.  That is very much appreciated. 

Three days till kickoff!  I can’t wait.  We have a lot of interviews from both teams that we will be running preview stories all week in my sportscasts on NEWS 25.

Best wishes to both Reitz and Jasper!

 

Week 10 Home Team Friday Recap

I have had a pretty hectic week, so my apologies for getting this out later than normal.  Since it is already Thursday, I will make this both a recap, and a preview of tomorrow.

We set another record on Home Team Friday.  We had 17 games of highlights.  It was a lot of fun to see if we were up to the challenge of being able to pull it off.  It wasn’t easy! We went right up to the final seconds.  Overall, I thought it was a great show.

There were very few intriguing matchups in Week 10.  Nothing at all jumped off the page.  The favorite won every game, but one.  In 2A, North Posey avenged a regular season loss to Southridge.  The Vikings Cameron Calvert has really lifted his team.  He has been a huge spark on offense.  Quarterback Colton Motz continues to make the highlights.  For the second straight year North Posey is trying to get to the Sectional Championship.  That should happen. The Vikes have Tell City at home.  North Posey handled the Marksmen pretty well on the road just a few weeks ago.

The other 2A semifinal features Mater Dei at South Spencer.  This is a game I am really looking forward to.  I wish I was able to cover it.  Randall will have that honor in our Showdown game.  Wayne Hart says we will have heavy rain tomorrow night.  So does that favor the Rebels or the Cats?  Normally, I would say it would help South Spencer.  However, the Rebels passing game is pretty strong.  The Rebels only two losses came in sloppy muddy conditions against Boonville and Heritage Hills.  However, Mater Dei has played the majority of its games on the turf.  So it is hard to say what kind of advantage Mother Nature will play for either team. 

MD had its best win in throttling Forest Park.  I thought that game would be much closer.  Cats head coach Mike Goebel told us they caught the Rangers without their best player, and FP was battling the flu.  Goebel gave a lot of credit to Terry Wagner and Forest Park.

South Spencer advanced last week with a win at Sullivan.  We had some pretty good highlights from that game from our friends at WTHI.  That game was close all the way to the end when the Rebels pulled it out 30-20.  I am sure Mater Dei scouted that game Friday, and South Spencer scouted MD on Saturday.  Should be a great one in Reo tomorrow night!

Let’s move over to 4A.  Aaron Hancock covered the game for us at the Bowl.  Reitz hosted Seymour.  It was an early 6pm start time, and Aaron called me before I was going on the air for my 6pm sportscast.  He said, “I don’t know what Seymour was thinking.  The Owls stomped on the R in pre-game, and then Reitz promptly scored a touchdown in just 57 seconds!”  Just a few minutes later I got these texts on my phone:  “14-0 Reitz”  “21-0 Reitz, the beating is on”.  Ironically, Reitz only scored in the first and fourth quarters. 

The Panthers now have an interesting matchup with Central tomorrow night.  I say that because of how the first game between these two teams played out.  Reitz just blasted the Bears 55-7.  Obviously, Central is much better than that.  The Bears just had one of those nights.  You know Coach Andy Owen will have his team remembering that loss, and I can imagine the Bears have had some pretty lively practices all week getting ready for Reitz.  On the Panthers point of view, even though this is a playoff game, I am sure it is hard not to overlook the Bears a bit for the possible matchup with Jasper. 

Even though this has the markings of a letdown game for Reitz, I don’t think that will happen.  Coach Tony Lewis’ demeanor will really help in this game.  He and his team never get too high, or too low.  That even keel will keep the Panthers focused at the task at hand.  We were out at practice yesterday, and Lewis told us that exact thing.  The only thing Reitz is worried about this week is Central.  However, I cannot help but get a bit excited about the possibility of Reitz versus Jasper next week.

Speaking of Jasper, wow what a statement the Cats made in the opener!  Jasper had to play on the road at Northview (north of Terre Haute), and the Knights were 8-1.  Now if you read my recap last week, I predicted at least a 28 point win.  As a matter of fact I told photographer Blaine Jasper would win by 50.  Well, that is exactly what Tony Ahrens team did.  The Cats turned in a 50-0 shutout on the road.  Both Jasper and Reitz are just obliterating teams.  How can you not look ahead if you are a fan?  Tomorrow night Jasper hosts Boonville.  I am not slighting the Pioneers at all.  Boonville has had one of its best seasons in school history.  The Pioneers will have an uphill battle tomorrow night in Dubois County.

I was really happy for Doug Hurt and Castle.  They have the hardest draw of any of the 5A teams in that sectional.  I knew it would be tough to win at Jeffersonville.  Our old HTF photographer Greg now works at WHAS in Louisville.  Greg was nice enough to shoot some great highlights of both Castle at Jeff, and North at New Albany.  Knights’ tailback and HTF MVP Logan Hayford had some spectacular runs.  That game was close the entire way, but Castle pulled it out 21-14.  I think the Knights loss to Memorial the week before in the muddy slop helped Castle in this game.  Jeffersonville’s field was pretty beat up too, and the Knights seemed prepared.

Castle now hosts BNL in a mud bowl tomorrow night.  I was pretty confident the Knights would win, but with the prediction of heavy rains, it is hard to be confident in any pick.  I think for any teams playing in horribly muddy conditions, scoring first will be huge.  It will be much easier to play with the lead in a low scoring slop game.

No surprises in 3A.  Memorial is the clear favorite in Sectional 24, and Heritage Hills will win Sectional 23.  I thought Mt. Vernon would be able to score on the Tigers, but I did not see how they could stop Memorial’s offense.  That was pretty much the case.  Memorial won 44-21.  The Tigers offense is absolutely peaking right now.  During the Tigers 6-game winning streak, they are averaging 37 points a game.  I think the Memorial/Bosse game will be similar for the Tigers.  Bosse won’t be able to stop the Tigers, but I do think the Dogs will be able to put up some points.  I give the Bulldogs a puncher’s chance with that dynamic offense.  Weather could be a factor with quarterback Grant Gribbins passing game even on the turf if it is windy.

Bosse won at Pike Central.  The Dogs had a 31-7 lead, but the Chargers made a furious comeback.  I got an email from a viewer and a Pike Central Parent named Jennifer.  She said PC should have won.  Here is what she wrote me:

Just to let you know, Pike Central scored a touchdown in last few seconds of Bosse game and should have won.  Even the radio announcers said it was plain as day.  For some reason the refs refused to call it.  Game film clearly shows they were in with time to spare. If the refs would have called touchdown correctly we would have won and should be advancing to next round.  The team is absolutely devastated!  I have never seen anything like this and wow I'm still in shock.  It will be protested by Pike but what good will that do.  We should all be celebrating, instead there is pain and shock.  Our boys played the best game of the season and did in fact beat Bosse.  Please give Pike Central the credit they deserve and make it aware we had a clear victory taken away.  How awful for these boys.  Those refs should never be allowed to officiate another game, ever!

I don’t know anymore to that story than her email.  If anyone else can shed some light on this, please make a comment below.   

Gibson Southern is at Washington in the other 3A semifinal.  I will give the edge to the Hatchets in this one.

It is hard to write much about Heritage Hills.  The Patriots play in such a weak sectional.  Bob Clayton’s club has won every sectional this decade except one.  The Pats have Salem in The Jungle tomorrow night.  I’m going with a 35-0 prediction.

The best 1A game in the entire state will be in Leopold.  Perry Central hosts North Daviess.  Both teams have had great seasons.  It is another game that could be affected by the weather.  I picked the Cougars to win the Sectional, so I will stay with that.  However, I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see PC pull it out.

There is still one week left in the regular season in Kentucky.  Henderson County is at Owensboro tomorrow night.  Before the season, I think most of us would have expected the Devils to win in a blowout.  Not now!  The Colonels are playing so well.  Henderson has won six straight, and the Colonels have won the district.  The Devils have struggled scoring.  In their last four games Owensboro has posted scores of 10, 16, 16, and 16.  I still think Owensboro is the favorite, but not by much.

Henderson had a thrilling win at home against Apollo.  The Colonels erased a late six point deficit by scoring twice and rallying for a 27-20 win.  I talked to one Colonels fan this week that said it was one of the most thrilling games he had seen in years.  Randall talked with head coach Clay Clevenger this afternoon.  The staff was scouting their playoff opponent tonight.

Union County wins the district.  The Braves used another great defensive performance to win 19-2.  Union County is down at Hopkins Central this week.

Illinois playoffs start Saturday.  Mt. Carmel throttled Robinson last week.  Quarterback Alex Hale rushed for 285 yards in the win.  The Golden Aces have a tough opponent at the Snake Pit in the first round.  Mahomet will be the favorite.

As for the HTF show, it was more insane than I would like.  I was at Enlow Field for the Bosse/Harrison game.  Fewest fans I have ever seen there.  I got back and edited my game, plus the Reitz and Memorial games.  We had three different feeds.  2 games from WTHI in Terre Haute, 2 from WHAS in Louisville, and Ryan Jenkins shot some games and fed out of Newschannel 15 in Mt. Carmel.  It was a lot to organize.  We had all kinds of troubles getting our 2 games from WHAS.  We literally were able to pull them off the satellite about 5 minutes before the show.

We have a very short amount of time after the 10pm newscast ends and HTF begins.  My first mic didn’t work, so I tried a second, and it didn’t work!  That never happens.  So I had to use Brad Byrd’s mic.  So literally after Brad signed off, he ran over to me to give me his wireless mic.

The HTF open is playing, and I am try to run the mic under my shirt, by pants are undone, belt out(it was quite the site I’m sure!)  So I am tucking everything in, making sure that production is receiving good audio levels.  I am still getting together when BAM I’m on camera.  I needed just 10 extra seconds to take a breath and get my composure. 

However, time does not stand still.  I knew I had 17 straight games of highlights to get through, and I am thinking in the back of my mind, “God I hope I zipped my zipper!”  I wasn’t even sure what the first game was, and I looked at my scripts and saw Reitz.  That is why I said, “Let’s just get to the highlights as we start off with Reitz.”  After I got going, all was well, and as I said before, I thought it was a pretty good show.

Editor Erica had 27 pieces of video to keep straight with those three different feeds, and she made deadline for every single one of them.

Now that we are losing teams, our shows won’t be so jam packed.  I will miss that.  However, we will now go longer with our highlights as we go deeper into the playoffs.  We have 13 games tomorrow night on the schedule.

Thanks as always for reading.  It means a lot to me that you take the time.  If you ever want me to touch on anything else, let me know.  I will see everyone tomorrow night at 10:35 for NEWS 25 Home Team Friday Live!