Men's Volleyball Helps Local Community

It’s really interesting to me to see how athletes can transcend sports, and go outside of being just student athletes to help a greater cause.  The Ball State Men’s volleyball team is one of the many BSU sports that makes public appearances and tries to become an active member in the community. On Thursday the team traveled all the way to Delta Middle school to play in front of a loud crowd of students. The community outreach allows the kids to learn about volleyball and to learn about men playing volleyball. In fact the success of the cardinals has helped push youth programs in Muncie.

Talking with Volleyball Head Coach Joel Walton he says that his favorite part of the convocation is the question and answer period. “You never know what question is going to come next; it really gives the kids a chance to learn about the sport and our team”. It was really cool to see how excited the kids got when the team was there and how many came up asking for autographs and simply to talk with the players. Hopefully outreach programs like the one at Delta can boost attendance for the BSU men’s Volleyball team this upcoming season.

This week has been another busy week after finishing two remotes last week, we are preparing for two days of swimming and diving which start tonight. Last weekend the Basketball game was by far our best broadcast of the year. I hope that will transition to tonight and we keep improving with the last shows that we have this season.

It has been a really exciting year so far and as a group we have come a along way.

 This week we had to finish a story on swimming about a tri-athlete which we shot on Tuesday and it was due by Wednesday. The story turned out pretty well and Sarah Kehe is an amazing person and athlete. One Wednesday me and half of sportslink traveled to Central Michigan to watch the Football team continue their quest for the perfect season. Than when we returned yesterday we began final prep work for our TV show Sports Link which airs on WIPB, and will air during our swimming and diving broadcast this evening.

Speaking of swimming and diving we are broadcasting the fifth annual Doug Coers invitational tonight and tomorrow, both day I am a part of the broadcast team and I am really looking forward to the opportunity to try play-by-play. This past week I have spent time researching swimming and diving trying to learn as much as possible in order to announce. I feel pretty confident in the way in which I will announce tonight. Not only do we have two remotes this weekend but also we have a remote pre-game show on Tuesday night before the Football game. It will air live on WIPB, as well as online it will be exciting to see all of our football packages and interviews come together before the biggest football game of the regular season. Then after the game I will head home for thanksgiving to see my family. I am really looking forward to seeing everyone that I love so much. Then we have two studio shows left and one remote and the semester has come to an end for Ball State Sports Link.

Transfers

For my package this week I am working on a volleyball story about the transfers on team and how they are finding a home at Ball State. The interviews went pretty well and I am currently collecting b-roll for my package. The one thing that was annoying about this week’s package was my partner was not able to come to the interview because he had to work. I completely understand but he told me that he would help setup, and he called me in the morning forty-five minutes before our interview when I was just getting into the show to tell me he overslept and could not come setup. 

Josh Clark and I hustled to get to the room and get the equipment then we hustled to the gym to get our interviews. I am a little unhappy with the background because during our interview the men’s volleyball team was practicing but because of lighting and availability of the players we were not able to go somewhere else. The girls did a nice job and made me work a little bit to get good sound bites I had to rephrase several questions in order to get a good answer. 

First time on EVS

We had our third remote yesterday at the soccer game. It went really well. By far the best overall remote we have done all semester. I think the reason that we are improving so much is because now we finally understand what is expected by each position during the remote. For the remote I ran EVS or known by its simpler name as instant replay. I went through a crash course in the beginning of the semester on EVS, and I received more training before the game thanks to Josh Clark.  I learned how to build a play list and edit highlights while as putting up replays during the game. It is a lot of multi-tasking in the back of truck.

The best way to describe the atmosphere behind the scenes is controlled chaos, a lot is always going on but we worked together and it all worked out. For the first time we were able to run the pregame show and then run breaks and then replay the recorded open before we started the show.  It was cool to see all our planning pay off and that the EVS is able to record the pregame show and then play it back live as our intro during the starting lineups, and national anthem.  I really had a good time running EVS and I wish I have another opportunity to run it again this semester. It was exciting when a replay would get used and when my highlight list played. Sometimes I cut the replay to short because to the animation for the replay but it was exciting to use replays during the game. 

Learing more each week

Last week I conducted all of the interviews for my package. This week we were able to get a house tour on Wednesday after recording our half hour show. The show went pretty well and now that we have three shows under our belt they seem to be getting progressively better. I ran camera for the show and then my partner and I had to hustle over to the soccer house for a house tour. The tour went pretty well, and the house that the seniors live in is really nice. They soccer players were extremely nice and opened up the entire house for a house tour. Then when we started editing it was a tough choice do we show it as a house tour or do we focus on the story of athletes living together and playing together. We choose the house tour for the package because it is something completely different and will add something to halftime of the soccer game. For my online story I focused on the connection they have off the field and how it helps them when they play.

Also this week I had to work on my production book, for Volleyball the Match is November 5^th I worked on it Thursday night and got most of it done but I want my director to look over it before I turn it in to Bill Bryant. I hope to get the production book done before noon today. 

Athletes Living Together

There are seven seniors on women’s soccer team and five of them live together. They share a special bond, and out on the field the chemistry that they developed is a result of the close relationship they have together.

Six girls live in the house together soccer players Emily Rein, Annie Aiello, Bailey Decker, Katelyn Alexander and Sarah Shumacker; and one field hockey player Jodi Mann. They support one and other and when they have time they go to Jodi’s games and she goes to the soccer games dressed as her favorite roommate number 2 Aiello.

Aside from supporting each other they have family dinners together on Wednesday nights and in the rare occasion they have some down time they like to play Cranium. Mann and Decker play Wii and get very competitive although Decker thinks she is the better player.

The house seems to be fun and games, and the girls constantly play practical jokes on one and other.  One included Jodi Mann’s room “we put post-its all over her room and I wrote on this one and put it really high on the wall and it said can you reach it, and she had to get a step ladder to get it down” Alexander said.

It is October and according to Jodi Mann it is scare month…she has 31 days to scare Annie Aiello. This includes hiding in closets jumping out behind doors and hiding under Aiello’s bed. Even during the house tour two of Aiello’s roommates hid in one of the rooms and surprised her.

Six athletes live together and the bond is one deeper than friendship it is one of love.

Behind the Beak

The name of my package this week is behind the beak. It’s an inside look at what it takes to be Charlie 

Cardinal and being the mascot at ball state. I thought the interview went really well. We used anomys lighting and it looks really cool. We put a kicker light on the Cardinal had to give the interview a little more than just blacking out the face. The interview went very well and it I am hoping I can do the story justice. Charlie had a lot to say, and was one of the best interviewers this semester. I am looking forward to the package and telling the true story of what it is like to be behind the beak.

This week is a slower week. We have a show that will air on Friday that we are preparing for and will shot on Wednesday. It is nice to have a slower week after having two remotes and a studio show in less than the six days. This week has allowed the group to review each of the remote games that we covered, and to critique and review them about how we can improve future remotes. This week has allowed the group to focus on packages and plan ahead to the busy schedule in November where we have multiple remotes, and multiple shows.  I am preparing my production book for the volleyball game. I am producing the first sports link volleyball remote this year, but I was able to ask Bill Bryant for advice because he has produced multiple volleyball games, and he gave me advice on how to step up the cameras, and create an overall vision for the broadcast.  Ken and I working together to create a great broadcast for the volleyball game. I am learning that there is never too much planning that can go into a remote shot, the more planning and scheming about the “what if scenario’s” the better the production.

Field Hockey Play-By-Play

On Friday we broadcast the soccer game against buffalo. The broadcast had a few bumps but it went really well. Two days later we were on our second remote at the Ball State Field Hockey Turf. This time I was broadcasting the color commentary instead of running camera. It was challenging to know where to interject color during the broadcast because field hockey is a sport with constant action and no down time in between plays. I wish I would have more time to work with Steve Albritton the play-by-play announcer so we would have had better chemistry during the game. After providing the color I have the opportunity to announce field hockey for radio this Sunday on WCRD. I am really excited for this opportunity, to announce a second game now that I understand it more and know the ball state players. I will be announcing play-by-play for the radio which is a little easier then color in my opinion. During the TV broadcast it was hard to know where to interject facts.

Steve and I were paired up again for the studio show three days later on Wednesday. The studio show went pretty well, we had a few glitches and the ending was rough. But for coming into the show we were two minutes short an hour or so before we start recording. Everything turned out well Steve and I had good chemistry together. The show airs tonight, and I am excited to see how the show turned out.

Football Continues to Roll

The Ball State Football team is 6-0, for the first time since 1965. On Sunday the team broke into the AP top 25 for the first time in the programs 84 year history. As a result our show was focused around the football team and I for my package I focused on star running back Miqual Lewis. While the story turned out well, the production of the piece was not very good. We had issues with the wind and it ruined the audio for the package. Taking  away from the story of Miqual Lewis who has already overcome three injuries in four years of playing football in high school and college. It is very discouraging when something takes away from the story that is production based, but through immersion the group has been able to make mistakes and learn from the mistakes that we have made. The interviews went very well and after asking about the ranking, most players and even head coach Brady Hoke down played its significance.  The team is staying motivated because of Dante Love one of the seniors on this year’s team who went down with a season ending spinal injury against Indiana. 

Sports Link Round 1

The first remote went well. Overall we came together as a team and created content and a show. I was on the sideline reporter for the show and my role was to interview the color analyst for BSSN (Ball State Sports Network), and the football beat reporter from the daily news. I prepared question and I was ready to go on air for my role in the shot. The crew or rather the twelve immersion students arrived hours before the show to setup camera’s, graphic’s and audio. There are so many things that go into a live broadcast. So many things that have to be planned out and because it was our first broadcast we forgot quite a few things that we need, to make our show look over the top.  

I said earlier we did a good job, for the first show. It was not great but we got through it and each member of Sports Link learned how to improve it for the next show. After reviewing the show and each package that aired I felt that as a group our next show a studio show that will air tonight at 6pm would be tenfold better.

I was disappointed. The packages improved dramatically, and everyone even wrote the in and outs of their packages into the rundown but the show was still filled with mistakes, most of the mistakes were a result of poor planning. The biggest problem I see with Sports Link is that we are spreading ourselves to thin, and each show is a completely new crew.

I understand that it is good to have a knowledge of each position in the remote truck or in the studio. But we signed up for positions we were interested in. In order for the quality to improve we have to limit the amount of rotation of position so that we can truly master the switcher if you are the TD or learn exactly how to call out commends from a run down if you are the director. I like the opportunity but if we really want to create a quality product we must master certain positions.

I feel that we need to reevaluate the direction we are going before it is two late. Sports link is one month in and honestly I have gotten a ton out of the experience but I feel it could be more successful if we change our approach.

We need to create presidents and standards for graphics, and next time Sports Link comes around it needs to have one student who is a graphic design student and each week they create graphics for the show and for each remote, this will benefit them and it will allfiat the stress of stretching producers to thin, or limiting their vision because they are not a graphics design expert.

Standards need to be created for sot’s how much pad in front, how much pad in back and the pad should not have audio on it so the director can take it down late and the video will not freeze.  With packages we need a standered front graphic with time, names of producers, slug and date. The time should not include the pad but rather the actual length of the package.

Finally, the biggest and most shocking change that I would like to purpose, when I envisioned sports link I assumed each reporter would be assigned a beat, like a newspaper, or NewsLink Indiana. This way each of us could be come experts on a particular team, and find the truly amazing stories that we have not even begun to scratch the surface of. If each “news option” was assigned a beat we could write blogs about the sport, make highlights for the sport, because we would attend all of the teams games.

This would make us very knowledgeable about the team and perfect candidates to broadcast the game as a play by play announcer or color announcer. We can have different host every week of the studio show. But remotes if you want high quality should  be called by someone who is embed with the team.

It seems strange to me that we have a soccer announcer for radio in sports link and he is only broadcasting one of the soccer games.

I understand learning everything, but this profession is so competitive, it makes more sense to have a general understanding of everything but honesty. Most athletes that make it to the pro’s only played one sport in college. The reason for this is simple the harness their skills so that they can compete at the next level.

If we really want to create a quality product we should work on improving our skills, and learning about one or two things rather than 12 positions on a broadcast.

Overall the experience has been great, but I feel we should evaluate our progress before we get stuck ramble shambling mediocre shows, for the rest of the time we have in sports immersion. I know as a group we want a good product, so lets get to know our teams,  and create packages on one team, it’s not who has football or who has golf. This is a learning experience, and every athlete has a story, every person for that matter has a story you just have to figure it out.