Commentary: Students score big as VPS Game Time crew members

Maeli McLain, a sophomore at Skyview, operates one of the cameras at Kiggins Bowl for the Skyview-Camas football game last week. Students from Vancouver Public Schools do most of the work for VPS Game Time broadcasts. Photo by Mike Schultz

Vancouver Public Schools has a student-led broadcast team, making Friday Night Lights even more special for athletes and fans

You are looking live at historic Kiggins Bowl in Vancouver, Washington, USA.

Or maybe you are simply watching on cable TV or over the internet.

Thanks to students from Vancouver Public Schools, you have the option to watch a quality production of high school sports.

Once or twice a year, including this past Friday night, I get to help out with the broadcast. The line in the industry is that the on-air personalities are the “talent.” That has to be a joke, though. The talent is operating the cameras. The talent is in the control room, directing. The talent is in making the graphics.

For Game Time, that talent is mostly run by students.

Sam Howard, a sophomore from Skyview, can operate a camera or work in the control booth for VPS Game Time. He says he works whatever assignment is needed for any broadcast. Photo by Mike Schultz

Oh sure, old guys like me and Tony Liberatore, an associate principal at Fort Vancouver High School, called the game. Liberatore handled the play-by-play and I offered some analysis. And we talked about football for two-and-a-half hours.

Trust me, I’d prefer talking about football over just about anything else in the world.

But on this night, there were nine students behind the scenes, making the product look good, making us announcers sound like we know what we are doing in the booth.

To be fair, there are plenty of times when VPS Game Time does get professional broadcasters in the booth. Tony and I have other jobs, but our passion for the game rings true. So that works, too.

But I was amazed at how every time I needed help in identifying a player, there would be a replay in a nano-second. Or the director would ask for a zoom-in on a player after making a tackle. (For Friday’s game, it was tough to read some of the Camas numbers on the jerseys from so far away from the action.)

Anyway, while Tony and I received messages from viewers and friends, thanking us for our effort, I wanted to make sure that the student-led production got most of the credit.

It turns out, this student-led production is getting plenty of love. Nick Voll, the television supervisor for VPS, said that members of his crew will be the official broadcast team of the Class 3A and 2A state championship games in Puyallup in December.

Paul Valencia, left, and Tony Liberatore were the announcers last week for the Skyview-Camas football game, which was broadcast by VPS Game Time. Liberatore is an associate principal at Fort Vancouver High School. Valencia is a reporter for Clark County Today. They both say the students behind the scenes make the broadcast so special. Photo by Mike Schultz

Mick Hoffman, the executive director of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association showed up Friday to see the crew in action.

Clearly, he was impressed.

This was not a first impression, though.

The WIAA also had VPS Game Time produce the state championship basketball games for the Class 4A and 3A tournaments in Tacoma this past winter.

On Friday, the nine students were all from Skyview High School. But that was just a coincidence. Voll said he has students who work the broadcasts from every high school in the school district.

Sam Howard, a sophomore at Skyview, already has plenty of experience with sports broadcasting. A teacher asked him to give it a try last year.

“I started, and I didn’t stop,” Howard said.

He has worked cameras, he has been a director, and he has worked the replay machine. He also helped out as the crew trained a new director.

“I go wherever they tell me,” Howard said.

He said the control room can be stressful in pre-game, and right as the broadcast begins. It is all about timing the graphics with the camera work and the intros for the announcers. From zero stress to a bunch of stress, in a matter of seconds.

As soon as the game starts, though, it all comes naturally to the crew.

“We’re rolling, we know what we’re doing, we know what we want,” Howard said. “It gets more smooth as the game goes on.”

Howard said he loves talking to people so being on a crew like this is great for him because he gets to meet new people. He also wants to continue with broadcasting as a career.

Maeli McLain, a sophomore at Skyview, was working just her second football game on Friday.

“It sounded cool, so I signed up,” she said.

“I like meeting new people. That’s why I do things like this that I’ve never done before, to meet new people.”

One does not have to be a football expert to work in football broadcasting.

“I understand enough of it to enjoy a game, but I don’t really watch it in my free time,” said McLain, who operated a camera in her first game. “That makes filming it hard. I learned more about football filming my last game than I ever have going to the games as a student. That was also a perk.”

Students direct the broadcast as well, relying on all the technology from the control room at Kiggins Bowl to make the best decisions for the broadcast. Photo by Mike Schultz

The students also put pressure on themselves to do the best they can because they know people are watching these games. The students want to make it look like a professional broadcast.

“It was a little nerve wracking,” McLain said of her first game. “The crowd is really loud and the headsets are not super loud so it’s hard to hear instructions. Sometimes it’s a really fast pace. If you lose track of the ball, that makes it complicated. Once you get the hang of it, it’s smooth sailing. But it’s kind of hard to get the hang of it.”

Still, McLain was back for a second attempt at improving her skill.

Sophomore Leila McGlaghery was working her third event for VPS Game Time on Friday. On that night, she was training to become a director.

She said she enjoys working cameras but jumped at the opportunity to learn the work from the control booth.

The students, as well as the old-timers in the announcer’s booth, were treated to one of the more memorable games of the season. Camas rallied from 19 points down in the fourth quarter to win with a touchdown with 7.6 seconds left in the game to beat Skyview.

VPS Game Time was all over it with great camerawork, direction, graphics, and replay, with students leading the way to victory.