HIGH SCHOOLS MUST TURN TO STREAMING
Said one fan: ‘Being able to see our grandson on TV has put a real light on the darkness’
Huddled inside each of their cars as night fell over the Dublin High parking lot on one Saturday earlier this month, dozens of eager parents watched on their phones and tablets as, mere steps away, their children scrimmaged on an obscured football field in preparation for the fastapproaching season.
Barred from entering the stadium under COVID-19 health restrictions, they listened intently as Caede McMahon, a Dublin High senior, called play-byplay, and they saw graphics produced by his classmates. On the sideline, two more students operated cameras. Another pair of pupils acted as sideline reporters, even interviewing coaches.
In a normal year, the parents in the parking lot would have certainly made their way inside. But amid the COVID-19 pandemic, this shortened season has been anything but normal. Attendance is limited to the luckiest of family members, and at many schools, none permitted at all.
At Dublin High, they were made for this moment, with a former ESPN producer in charge of a video program that has grown from two small classes to more than 200 students at three different levels.
Elsewhere, schools have been forced to get creative.
Across the Bay Area and the country, the NFHS Network (of the National Federation of State High School Associations) has inked deals with school districts to install camera equipment and provide the ability to broadcast events remotely. With an automated camera and no commentary
necessary, more schools are able to provide streaming access with no personnel required. Schools also get a piece of the network’s revenue, which comes from the subscription fee required to access the streams.
However, while the NFHS
Network has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the bullrush to virtual access amid the COVID-19 pandemic, critics said its streams do not have the production quality of local broadcasts, including the one put on by stu
dents at Dublin. The company said it more than doubled its viewership this past fall from the year before, to 2.3 million total views during the first four months of the school year.
More bespoke streamers, like NorCalSportsTV and the students at Dublin High, have reported their largest viewership totals ever this season, and that does not account for multiple people in front of a single screen.
Thousands of miles west of Dublin, on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, Larry Gonzalez and his wife, Anntonette Capre, have a pair of comfy chairs set up in front of their television, which they usually use to watch professional sports. Now, it serves an even more enjoyable purpose, Gonzalez said: a big screen for their grandson’s games.
On Saturday night, they tuned in to the same broadcast as the parents outside Dublin High, hoping to catch a glimpse of their grandson, sophomore Josh Lijesen.
When McMahon gave a shout-out to the broadcast’s most distant viewers, it was enough for Anntonette to jump out of her seat with excitement, Larry said.
“We maybe expected some photographs and (videos) on my phone, but getting it live is just a real thrill,” he said. “Being able to see our grandson on TV has put a real light on the darkness that we seem to always be under with quarantine and the pandemic in general.”
Anyone watching from afar can send in a message to be read on-air, said Michael D’Ambrosio, who is in his seventh year running the program at Dublin and is providing color commentary on this season’s broadcasts. D’Ambrosio left his job in ESPN’s production
studio to join the football coaching staff at Dublin, where he helped launch the video program. Through two varsity broadcasts, they’ve already heard from players’ relatives around California and beyond.
The broadcasts have not only provided otherwise impossible access during the pandemic but also a creative outlet and some sense of normalcy for the students behind the camera.
For McMahon, it was also his only option to see the end of the high-school career of one of his best friends, senior linebacker Ethan Cooper.
“It’s helped me get back to feeling like a real senior and escape the computer,” McMahon said. “Going into it, I didn’t think we were gonna get a whole lot of viewers. But we called our first game, and during the game I was just getting text after text after text. … That’s when I knew this was real.”
While each of Dublin’s broadcasts has fetched over 3,000 views each, at NorCalSportsTV, its two marquee football matchups
have each pulled in more than 4,000 views, double the average broadcast last season, said Chris Babcock, who provides play-by-play.
Babcock narrated the season opener between Monte Vista High and Acalanes. As a longtime coach at Monte Vista, he said he’d love to be its exclusive streamer. But Babcock and NorCalSportsTV only had the rights to broadcast the season opener because it was a non-league game, he said. The San Ramon Valley School District signed on with NFHS Network, meaning the national company will provide the streams for all its league contests, Babcock said.
“We want to provide these games, do a good job and make them available to the public without having to buy a subscription,” Babcock said. “We think it’s important for students, relatives, extended family to be able to watch these games, and we wish we could do more.”
NorCalSportsTV relies on advertising, and the students at Dublin High advertise on their broad
cast, as well. Babcock also said NorCalSportsTV offers multiple camera angles, instant replay and on-demand streaming of past games.
“Those are features that you normally don’t see from streaming companies,” he said. “I think it’s made us stand out.”
Although he lost out on Monte Vista’s games, there’s been no shortage of interest in NorCalSportsTV’s services, Babcock said. Three football games were on the docket this weekend, capped off by Babcock’s call of Acalanes against Las Lomas.
At Dublin, McMahon will don his headset again Saturday evening alongside D’Ambrosio for the Gaels’ first league contest. Across the Pacific, they’re guaranteed at least two viewers.
Gonzalez tells his neighbors about how he watches his grandson, “and they go, wow, is that local? I say, no, no, no, not local. It’s in California.
“It’s brought a great deal of hope and light into this otherwise dark time, and we’re finding our way through.”