Contact:  John Johnson
517.332.5046 or [email protected]

EAST LANSING, Mich. – May 15 – Montrose High School captured first place in two of five individual categories in the inaugural MHSAA School Broadcast Program Excellence Awards, and with it the “Program of the Year” honor.

The SBP Excellence Awards are underwritten by Herff Jones, which will award certificates and plaques to the ten schools which took individual honors.  Presentations will be scheduled in the coming weeks to the recipient schools.

Montrose took first place in two categories:  Best Multicamera Production for a basketball game against Saginaw Michigan Lutheran Seminary; and Best Produced Commercial/Feature for a public service announcement about texting while driving.  The program also demonstrated during the year a good blend of productions in a variety of sports covered and an overall command of the PlayOn! Sports software used for graphics and inserting commercials during the course of productions.

Other category winners were:  St. Ignace High School for Best Use of PlayOn! graphics in a football game against Hillman; Rogers City High School for the Best Overall Single Camera Production of a Game Using PlayOn! Graphics in a football game against Mio; and Haslett High School for Best Student Play-by-Play in a girls basketball game against DeWitt.

Here is the complete list by categories of the school being honored in this year’s SBP Excellence Awards:

•  Best Single Camera Production with PlayOn! Graphics:
                First Place – Rogers City Sarah Meredith, Amber Nowicki – Football game v. Mio
                Second Place – Petoskey – Stuart Green, Nick Snider, Josh Kuhlman, Joe LeBlanc – Girls Volleyball match with Ogemaw Heights
                Third Place – St. Ignace – Alysse Bentley, Jenny Campbell, Dillian Denman – Football game v. Hillman

•  Best Multicamera Production:
                First Place – Montrose – Tyler J. Anderson, Eric Vandefifer, Cabresha Nard, Ashley Abair, Sidney Trantham – Boys Basketball game v. Saginaw Michigan Lutheran Seminary
                Second Place – Johannesburg-Lewiston – Girls Basketball game v. Gaylord St. Mary
                Third Place – Cedar Springs – Ian Murphy, Alex Tanis, Alex Hughes, Kody Hall, Liz Moore, Alec Lachniet, Jake Detloff – Boys District Basketball game, Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern v. Grand Rapids Northview

• Best use of PlayOn! Graphics/Software:
                First Place - St. Ignace – Alysse Bentley, Jenny Campbell, Dillian Denman – Football game v. Hillman
                Second Place – Haslett – Delany McFate – Girls basketball game v. DeWitt
                Third Place – Petoskey - Stuart Green, Nick Snider, Josh Kuhlman, Joe LeBlanc – Girls Volleyball match with Ogemaw Heights

•  Best Produced Commercial/Feature:
                First Place - Montrose – Cabresha Nard, Tyler J. Anderson, Haley Ruiz – Texting/Driving PSA
                Second Place – Charlevoix – Ben Boss,  Benny Patkai – Classroom electives offerings promo
                Third Place – Rogers City –   Morgan Hall, Sarah Meredith – Rogers City Softball Preview

•  Best Student Play-by-Play Commentary:
                First Place – Haslett – Andy Stamm, Tyler Mehigh – Girls basketball game v. DeWitt
                Second Place – Rockford – Riley O’Keefe, Kevin DeLaFuente, Lucas Henry – Football game v. East Kentwood
                Third Place – Escanaba – Jon Perrault, Todd Rose – Boys basketball game v. Gladstone               

The School Broadcast Program, powered by PlayOn! Sports, is a platform which schools can utilize to reach members of their community about activities taking place in their buildings, providing recognition for students while at the same time giving them hands-on opportunities to gain broadcasting experience and providing schools an opportunity to realize additional revenues for their programs.  Schools interested in becoming a part of the School Broadcast Program should contact John Johnson at the MHSAA Office.

The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by more than 1,500 public and private senior high schools and junior high/middle schools which exists to develop common rules for athletic eligibility and competition. No government funds or tax dollars support the MHSAA, which was the first such association nationally to not accept membership dues or tournament entry fees from schools. Member schools which enforce these rules are permitted to participate in MHSAA tournaments, which attract more than 1.4 million spectators each year.

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