The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Live streaming of games takes off in pandemic
Demand increases with limited in-person crowds
It seems like nowadays, everyone has a streaming service. Once it was popularized with Netflix, it seemed to boom from there. Now you see services like Hulu and YouTube TV offering services that include live news and television series that are still airing on television.
It was only a matter of time for live sports to be available for streaming, and when ESPN+ debuted in 2018, subscribers could watch live sports that weren’t aired on television. But while ESPN popularized the concept, the idea of live streaming sporting events have been a long time thing for high school sports.
While athletes and coaches have been using software like HUDL for game film to help break down plays from games, there are many other options out there for fans to live stream games from home as some schools use platforms
like YouTube and Facebook to bring games to fans. Perry High School has gone back as far as 2006 with presenting games to the public.
“We have always shown our games to the public as far back as 2006. We would record them and then air them on our public access channel,” said Coleen Moskowitz, Perry’s media production teacher. “Then around 2014, we found a free service that would allow us to stream live. Because no other schools were doing it yet, we had to get permission from OHSAA and find out exactly what the rules were for live broadcasts.”
While schools such as Perry and Mayfield have done live streaming of games in the past, other schools, including Mentor and Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin have jumped on the streaming bandwagon during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Mentor athletic director Jeff Cassella said the pandemic was the point that pushed them to finally start live streaming their sporting events.
“We knew with the limitations on spectators that there would be a need,” said Cassella. “In fact it was something that we had been discussing for a while as several alumni and out of town family members have requested it. The pandemic pushed us to get it done.”
While things like WiFi connection and buffering are issues that a lot of streams come across, that is something that is able to be figured out the more schools do it. Some things, however, are out of the stream’s control. One aspect of that is what is said during the live streams, as NDCL’s Paulette Welch points out.
“We have gone back and forth with sound,” said Welch. “People want the sound, but with so few fans, the microphone picks up everything and some things it picks up are not a good reflection of what we are trying to promote.”
Before the current pandemic, many schools didn’t include live streams of games. But since then, many have taken a more hands-on approach to live streaming. One of those schools is Mayfield as digital media productions teacher Michael Bokovitz says that the community has gotten behind the school and the students helping with the production gain valuable skills.
“I would say that the community gets behind the school. So that would be one reason,” said Bolovitz. “Also, I think the experience for the students where they know people are counting on them and they have to make decisions and problem solve in real-time is invaluable.”
Mayfield and Perry have students run the entire production of the stream. Both Bokovitz and Moskowitz want to give the students as much experience as possible, and having them learn while broadcasting games is one of the best possible ways for them to do just that.
“I believe in giving the students as much power and experience as possible,” said Bokovitz. “They run this by themselves and learn on the fly. They know people are watching which forces them to keep their quality up.”
Moskowitz adds: “They learn the broadcast basics in my classes at the high school and then we train them to run the broadcasts totally themselves. You can’t get much more authentic than that.”
Students have echoed their teachers thoughts when it comes to live streaming games. They have learned valuable lessons and skills that will be helpful for them when they move on to other parts of life.
“Leading the live stream crew has given me confidence in many different types of social situations now and I have learned skills that I can take with me into the future if I decide to major in media at college, said Perry senior James Romero. “I also now have experiences and skills that I can put to use on a college live stream crew. Most students won’t enter college with those skills already.”