Can't go? Check Striv

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Can’t make it to a home game at your local high school? Check Striv. How about a concert or a play performance? Check Striv.

Striv.tv is an online streaming service that currently serves 115 schools across Nebraska including Seward, Milford, Centennial and Malcolm.

Each school uses the service a little differently. One of the challenges for everyone broadcasting live streams is keeping what’s going over the airwaves PG. When a microphone is left on, it picks up the crowd noise, and sometimes, the crowd’s choice of vocabulary is not PG.

Seward High on Striv

Seward has its own play-by-play man – JJ Metschke. He’d like to pursue announcing as a career, so this is right up his alley.

Metschke, a junior this year, did play by play starting with basketball last year and picked up football and volleyball this fall. He said Seward doesn’t stream softball because there’s not reliable wireless at the softball diamond.

He said Seward will stream every home basketball game after Christmas.

“It’s gotten more popular,” he said.

For football, for example, Metschke said Seward had 500 to 600 viewers for its games.

Mahri Vega, a sophomore, works more behind the scenes making graphics for the broadcasts. She started out writing for the yearbook but discovered a love for creating graphics. She’s one of the students posting game announcements the day before.

Vega likes filming the student section and the band during games. She enjoys running the camera and said she’d like to try editing at some point.

She hopes to continue with graphic design as a potential career.

The Striv team is working on commercials for area businesses to be played during timeouts and halftimes.

Jeremy Fries, Seward’s Striv adviser, helped get Crete’s Striv program off the ground. Seward joined in January, so he said he’s excited for another opportunity to help build a program.

When it comes to play by play, Metschke does his homework. A couple days ahead of the game, he starts collecting relevant stats for Seward and its opponent. He creates an overview of the team Seward is playing, focusing on key players. He said he has a program to help keep track of that information.

He also generates his three keys to the game, something he started for the last five football games. He develops 10 to 15 talking points for use during down moments and said he tries to keep the listener entertained.

One of the challenges, Metschke said, is keeping a balance in his commentary. Because he’s broadcasting for Seward, a little bias creeps in.

“I don’t want to offend anyone,” he said.

He said calling football was tough at first because there’s so much action. Volleyball was also hard because he didn’t know the terminology.

Metschke listens to professional announcers to get ideas and tips. He uses “got it” on made three pointers like Kent Pavelka, Nebraska’s men’s basketball announcer, does. He said he also likes John Baylor, who calls Nebraska volleyball, and Brian Anderson, who calls Tampa Bay baseball.

Seward has two cameras for its Striv broadcasts, allowing the team to switch between views. A sound board and two microphones are also part of the team’s equipment.

For its earliest broadcasts, the Seward team sat behind the scorer’s table. Now, they have a perch across the gym.

Malcolm High on Striv

Malcolm live streams its varsity games, as well, as do Centennial, Seward and Milford. A live stream means a person can watch an event on a computer or mobile device in real time.

One of the challenges for everyone broadcasting live streams is keeping what’s going over the airwaves PG. When a microphone is left on, it picks up the crowd noise, and sometimes, the crowd’s choice of vocabulary is not PG.

Jackson Eurek of Malcolm said he’s had to remind people that the microphone is there.

Eurek and Blake Sherwood, both seniors, have worked on Striv since they were freshmen.

“To start off its difficult, but once you learn it’s easy,” Eurek said.

“It’s more student driven,” adviser Andy Klepper said.

Senior spotlights will be played during timeouts. Klepper said the media production class creates the graphics and overlays and hopes to expand to highlights and game footage.

Malcolm’s equipment includes a computer and cameras. They set up the camera high enough in the gym that viewers can see the whole court. Eurek said the work is time consuming, but it provides plenty of volunteer hours.

Sherwood said he’s interested in experimenting with play by play.

“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do,” he said, adding that he watches professional sports to get an idea of how to call a game.

“It takes the right person,” Klepper said. “You have to find ones who know the sport and aren’t in it.”

He said the Clippers’ play-by-play announcers will be able to practice during junior high games.

Sherwood said he plans to talk to opposing coaches ahead of each game and collect stats from the coaches and Hudl, a sports statistics company based in Lincoln.

Centennial High on Striv

At Centennial, Carson Richters and Will Saunders work on Striv for the Broncos. Both play basketball, however, which makes play-by-play more of a challenge, Richters said.

He’s been interested in trying play by play, but for now the Broncos are just using their live feed.

Centennial live streams every event and organization, he said.

“I think we use it consistently,” he said.

Richters is accustomed to filming sports, since he’s done that for football. The idea of a live stream is the same. He said they were able to stream all the home football games, as well as the playoff game at Doniphan.

Softball isn’t usually streamed because the softball fields don’t have wifi.

“We tried to do play by play at the volleyball tournament,” he said.

He’d like to see the Broncos add play by play for basketball, too. If that doesn’t happen, viewers will hear the crowd noise.

The Southern Nebraska Conference basketball tournament will be streamed, Richters said, but staff from Striv will come to man the cameras and the microphones.

Richters said the sports marketing class that’s also working with the scoreboards is setting up the broadcasts. Commercials will be available and connected through the video boards, he said.

Milford High on Striv

Milford broadcasts every home varsity sporting event and other activities like its field day and concerts, team member and senior Owen Eickhoff said. He’s been part of the Striv team for six years.

Milford has been part of Striv’s network for six years, so it’s more advanced than some schools. Its primary team – Eickhoff, his brother Nolan, a freshman, Dawson Havens, a junior, and Madaux DeLong, a sophomore – create graphics and videos for use during timeouts and halftime.

Owen Eickhoff does most of the play by play for the Eagles. He said broadcasts are generally unscripted. He does some work ahead of time to make sure he’s pronouncing names correctly.

“We all have different personalities and different ways of calling,” Eickhoff said.

DeLong, who also does some play by play, said he listens to professionals call different sports to learn the terms and ways to make a game sound more exciting.

“Because it’s a small world, you know the bigger names,” DeLong said. “If I can’t say a name, I just say the number.”

“There’s at least one in every sport,” Eickhoff added.

Basketball is their favorite sport to call. Nolan Eickhoff said it’s a toss-up between basketball and volleyball. DeLong said football is OK to call, but sometimes the games get long.

“Basketball is always going,” he said.

DeLong said volleyball is the hardest sport.

“We’re two boys, and we don’t know the terms,” he said.

They don’t know wrestling as well, either, so Brandon Mowinkel and Cameron Soester, principal and assistant principal, respectively, step to the mic. Both are former wrestlers.

For basketball, the team works in groups of two. DeLong and Matt Roth usually call the girls’ game, while Owen and Jackson Lautzenhiser call the boys’ contest.

“It can be tricky,” DeLong said. “It’s hard to be the play by play guy.”

Nolan said he’s usually there first to get the computers set up for the game. The team sits in the mezzanine at Milford High up behind the crowd. It takes 15 to 20 minutes to make sure everything is ready to go.

Nick Restau, team supervisor, said they have a cart already set up with all the equipment.

The team is working on highlight videos featuring the Milford seniors to play during halftimes. At timeouts, they play short videos or graphics of upcoming events.

The team operates three cameras – one at halfcourt to see the full court and one at each end. The broadcast can then use different camera angles throughout the game.

“It takes a good amount of getting used to,” Nolan said.

They would also like to be more involved in a game. Rather than just sitting up above the crowd and announcing the action, they’d like to be courtside or in the crowd talking to people.

DeLong said he’s considering broadcasting as a career because he’s enjoyed doing the games on Striv.

Havens said he’s doing Striv for fun and doesn’t see broadcasting in his future. Nolan said he’s more interested in the technical side of things, and Owen said he’s be willing to come back after graduation and help if needed.

“They are a good crew,” Restau said. “We’re trying to make the experience as awesome as possible.”