The Students Behind the Broadcast

Nathan Graham operating the camera at a Dean Football game. Photo Courtesy: Matthew Harkey

Dean College’s sports broadcasting and communications programs offer students the opportunity to gain experience in many different facets of these career paths. From the moment a student steps on campus, they can broadcast sports games live, learn how to direct an event, record news segments, and much more. This past weekend, Dean Football opened their home campaign with a match against Mass Maritime Academy. With over 500 fans attending the game at Dale Lippert Field, these Saturday game days have become a highly sought out event for communications students looking to gain hands on experience in their field.

Students can take certain classes while here at Dean that will allow them to sign up to broadcast or record these sporting events. These classes are Dean TV and the Sports Broadcast Team.

In Dean TV, students have to record a certain number of games or events throughout the semester to satisfy the requirements of the course. Each student will attend games, learn how to set up the camera equipment, and operate it throughout the game with directions from the directors of the class. A director is a student that has shown leadership qualities and has exceeded expectations with what they have been doing in the class prior to being

appointed as a director. On top of learning these mechanical skills, students also get to build up their leadership skills before they graduate.

Dean football faces off against Mass Maritime Academy. Photo Courtesy: Matthew Harkey

Sophomore, Matthew Harkey, is a first-time director this semester and has been learning his role in these early weeks. He mentioned that he is the training director and the fly pack director this semester. He said, “The fly pack is what we use to actually direct and make our two camera or three camera shoots go well. It allows us to see the view of all the cameras.”

For training director, he accompanies new students to games or events to help them set up and get the right shots. When training these new students, Matthew said, “It’s basically showing them how to set up the camera and different techniques on how to do it. There are many different ways and preferences on how to do it, but also certain things that you have to do. It’s making sure that everything is hooked up properly, you have the BoxCast hooked in and all the cameras. Most importantly, we have to make sure that we are actually streaming live or on the radio.”

Similar to Dean TV, the Sports Broadcast Team course requires students to sign up for four sporting events a month to earn their grade. There are five different positions available for students to choose from: public address announcer, sideline reporter, boomer report (pregame, halftime, and postgame reports), producer, and broadcaster (play by play or color analyst). This gives students the unique opportunity to broadcast live on air in their first semester of college if they enroll in this course.

Sam Smith, senior broadcasting student, has been a director of sports broadcasting for 2 years and has had experience in all broadcasting positions, but also with leading the class and being a role model for the younger students. When broadcasting, everyone has different ways to prepare.

Left to Right: Zach Weigold, Josh Barbara, and Grant Flood prepare to broadcast a Dean Football game. Photo Courtesy: Matthew Harke

“Most of the time, it starts 48 hours before. I look at both team’s rosters, put together a basic sheet and look at information such as jersey number, name, hometown, their year, major, and any fun facts about them,” Sam commented.

Sam mentioned that it is also different with each sport. Football, for example, has a lot more players than any other sport, so it takes more time to learn the rosters of both teams. Planning as a group is important too, so people can share information and make sure everyone is on the same page when they are broadcasting live.

Sam and the other directors meet another time outside of the once-a-week class to go over plans for when everyone is together. They also are in charge of making sure the game schedule is ready to be filled in by the rest of the students.

“As a director, you are leading the course. You’re trying to lead and help out the younger kids in the class,” Sam replied. “You want to be a mentor and someone to go to for advice. This year, I’m trying to be helpful towards the freshmen because I’m not going to be here next year. I want to make sure the next generation after me is in good hands.”

All Dean athletic event broadcasts can be seen and heard on deanbulldogs.com and on Power 88, Dean College’s radio station.