Contact:  John Johnson
517.332.5046 or [email protected]

EAST LANSING, Mich. – April 15 – Capturing first place in three of five individual categories, Montrose High School repeated as the “Program of the Year” in the second annual MHSAA School Broadcast Program Excellence Awards for 2014-15.

The SBP Excellence Awards are underwritten by Herff Jones, which will award certificates and plaques to the schools which took individual honors, with the presentation dates and times to be announced.

Montrose took first place in Best Play-By-Play, Best Single Camera Production with PlayOn! Sports graphics, and the top two spots for Best Use of PlayOn! Sports Graphics.  The program also took a second place for Best Produced Commercial/Feature and a third for Best Multicamera Production. 

Montrose 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/features during the course of productions.

Other category winners were:  Cedar Springs High School for Best Multicamera Production; and Rogers City High School for Best Produced Commercial/Features.

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

•  Best Multicamera Production:
                First Place – Cedar Springs – Sam Owen, Sydney Dryer, Bryan Taylor, Alec Lachniet, Kaci Clark – Football game v. Grand Rapids Northview.
                Second Place – Cedar Springs – Rider Swanson, Sam Owens, Darrick Liggett, Kaci Clark, Cody Hoogerheide, Krystyn Messersmith – Football game v. Grand Rapids Forest Hills Eastern.
                Third Place – Montrose – Trey Schmitz, Andrew Morley, Amanda Ramsey, Nathan Brown, Eric Vandefifer, Brandon Smith – Genesee Area Conference Girls Competitive Cheer Finals.

•  Best Play-By-Play:
                First Place – Montrose – Eric Vandefifer, Trey Schmitz  – Boys Basketball game v. Lake Fenton.
                Second Place – Rogers City – Casey Szatkowski – Girls Basketball game v. Whittemore-Prescott.

•  Best Produced Commercial/Feature:
                First Place – Rogers City – Megan Brege, Heather Hentkowski, Ally Streich – Huron Halloween of Horror Feature.
                Second Place – Montrose – Alyssa Bernard, Amanda Ramsey, Alicia Town, Allia Town – Sexual Assault PSA.
                Third Place – Rogers City – Megan Brege, Heather Hentkowski, Ally Streich – Rogers City Girls Basketball Season Preview.

•  Best Single Camera Production with PlayOn! Graphics:
                First Place – Montrose - Trey Schmitz, Andrew Morley, Eric Vandefifer – Girls Soccer match v. Hemlock.
                Second Place – Rogers City – Brendan Koss, Sarah Meredith – Football game v. Rudyard.
                Third Place – Rogers City – Chandler Beland, Josh Foster – Girls Volleyball match v. Posen.

•  Best Use of PlayOn! Graphics/Software:
                First Place - Montrose – Eric Vandefifer, Trey Schmitz, Andrew Morley, Griffin Powell, Bradley Payne – Boys Basketball game v. Goodrich.
                Second Place – Montrose – Eric Vandefifer, Trey Schmitz, Andrew Morley – Girls Basketball game v. Lake Fenton.
                Third Place – Rogers City - Victoria Bullock, Zachary Myers – Football game v. Hillman.               

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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