Student Broadcasting Award

The Michigan High School Athletic Association recognizes that the lessons taught in school sports extend to all students involved, whether they are players, trainers, managers, statisticians and those given the opportunity to help recognize their achievements through audio and video.

The Sports Public Service Announcement category of the Michigan Association of Broadcasters Foundation Student Broadcasting Awards is a way to help tell the story of educational athletics.  Some of the topics that you can address in your PSA are:

• The Value of Participation – Learning lifetime skills like hard work, teamwork, integrity, respect, and developing lifetime relationships with teammates and coaches.  Skills which prepare student-athletes for the next level of life.  Students who participate in extra-curricular activities like sports have higher grade point averages and fewer behavior problems than the general student population.
• Sportmanship – Without sportsmanship, high school sports have no reason to exist.  This is the most important thing about these games.  Focus on the need for good sportsmanship on the part of coaches, student-athletes, students in general, and community members.
• Perspective Issues – School sports are after school activities – after school during the school day, and after school work in terms of what’s important.  These are games kids still play to have fun.  Less than three percent of students who play high school sports go on to play in college; and then only one percent of students who play high school sports actually earn a bona fide athletic college scholarship.  The pressure to win always bears down on student-athletes and coaches.  The pressure to win brings some people to cheat by taking steroids.
• Sports Participation Being A Privilege
• Official Recruitment – You can never have too many referees.  Encourage people to become involved in officiating.  Encourage students to get their start in high school officiating while they’re still in high school through the MHSAA’s Legacy program.
• Supporting Your Local School Athletic Program – Encourage people to attend a high school sporting event.

These topics could help you develop other ideas for messages as well.  The MHSAA Web site can provide a lot of information to help you with the development of your message.  Please do not submit messages regarding anabolic steroid use in high school sports. 

Here are a few things to remember as you develop your message:

• For video PSA’s, 30 second messages will be used more often by stations than 60 second messages.  Radio stations still run a lot of 60 second messages, but 30 second spots will still be used more often.  Since these messages will be run in sports programs, sometimes during breaks in the action, 30 second spots give stations more flexibility.
• Remember that licensing issues for music used in PSA’s is a big deal.  While you may want to use your favorite sports song, remember that some of the outlets wanting to use your PSA may have to decline the opportunity to do so because they cannot afford the music licensing rights.  There is a lot of good music available on a royalty free basis.
• Be sure to leave time at the end for your message to be tagged.  When the winning video PSA is distributed, it will have a full-page graphic at the end indicating that the message is from the MHSAA and the MAB Foundation.  On audio messages, you can tag it with your school station’s tag, or with “A public service message from the Michigan Association of Broadcasters Foundation and the Michigan High School Athletic Association.”  If you’ve already made a reference to the Michigan High School Athletic Association in the spot, you could say “M-H-S-A-A” instead, just be sure to say each letter – don’t say M-H-S-Double A, or try to pronounce the MHSAA acronym as a word.